home / skills / rohanpatriot / vibe-skills / planning-setup

planning-setup skill

safe

This skill sets up planning-with-files infrastructure for complex projects, creating task_plan.md, findings.md, progress.md, CLAUDE.md guidance, and Claude

npx playbooks add skill rohanpatriot/vibe-skills --skill planning-setup

Review the files below or copy the command above to add this skill to your agents.

Files (8)

SKILL.md

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---
name: planning-setup
description: Sets up planning-with-files infrastructure for complex projects. Creates task_plan.md, findings.md, progress.md, updates CLAUDE.md with methodology guidance, and adds .claude/rules enforcement. Use when starting a project that will require >5 tool calls or complex multi-step work.
---

# Planning Setup Skill

I scaffold planning-with-files infrastructure for your project:
- Three planning files (task_plan.md, findings.md, progress.md)
- CLAUDE.md methodology guidance
- .claude/rules enforcement for planning discipline

## When to Use This vs EnterPlanMode

- **Use this skill** when starting a new project that needs persistent planning infrastructure across sessions
- **Use EnterPlanMode** for single-session implementation tasks where built-in task tracking suffices

This skill creates files that persist; EnterPlanMode is for in-session planning that doesn't need to survive restarts.

## Interactive Setup Workflow

I use the `AskUserQuestion` tool to gather your preferences interactively, presenting options with descriptions so you can make informed choices. I'll ask you 6-8 questions to customize the planning infrastructure:

1. **Project name**: What should I call this project?
2. **Goal**: What's the one-sentence goal of this project?
3. **Phases**: What are the major phases? (Or should I suggest phases based on the goal?)
4. **Key questions**: What are the 3-5 key questions this project needs to answer?
5. **Constraints**: What constraints or requirements should I know about?
6. **File location**: Should planning files go in the project root or a subdirectory (like `planning/` or `docs/`)?
7. **CLAUDE.md**: Does CLAUDE.md already exist? Should I create it or append to it?
8. **Hybrid tracking**: Want to use TaskCreate/TaskUpdate for individual tasks within phases?

## What Gets Created

### Planning Files (Customized from Templates)

**task_plan.md** - Phase tracking, decisions, errors
- Goal and current phase
- Phase checklist with status
- Key questions to answer
- Decisions made table
- Errors encountered table

**findings.md** - Research discoveries, visual findings
- Requirements section
- Research findings
- Technical decisions table
- Issues encountered
- Visual/browser findings (with 2-Action Rule reminder)

**progress.md** - Session log, test results
- Session-by-session log format
- Test results table
- Error log
- 5-Question Reboot Check

### CLAUDE.md Updates

Adds planning methodology section:
- High-level overview
- When to use planning-with-files
- Reference to this skill

### .claude/rules/planning-with-files.md

Enforcement rules:
- **Create plan first** - For complex tasks requiring >5 tool calls
- **2-Action Rule** - Save findings after browser/search ops
- **Read before decide** - Refresh goals before major decisions
- **Log all errors** - Track and mutate approach

## Workflow

After gathering your answers, I:

1. Create the planning directory (if requested)
2. Generate customized task_plan.md with your goal, phases, and questions
3. Generate findings.md with initial structure
4. Generate progress.md with session log template
5. Update or create CLAUDE.md with planning guidance
6. Create .claude/rules/planning-with-files.md with enforcement rules
7. Provide a summary of what was created and how to use it

## Integration with TaskCreate/TaskUpdate

The planning-with-files approach works alongside Claude's built-in task tools:
- **task_plan.md** tracks project phases (high-level)
- **TaskCreate/TaskUpdate** manage individual tasks within each phase (granular)

This hybrid approach gives you:
- Big-picture phase tracking in files
- Detailed task management in the task system
- Full context preserved across sessions

## After Setup

Once setup is complete, see [references/usage-guide.md](references/usage-guide.md) for:
- Daily workflow
- When to update each file
- The 5-Question Reboot Test
- Working with the 4 core rules

For the principles behind this system, see [references/manus-principles.md](references/manus-principles.md).

## Templates

All templates are in [templates/](templates/) and are customized during setup.

Overview

This skill sets up a persistent planning-with-files infrastructure for complex projects that require many tool calls or multi-step workflows. It scaffolds three core planning files, updates methodology guidance, and installs enforcement rules so planning discipline persists across sessions. Use it when a project will require sustained coordination or more than five tool calls.

How this skill works

The skill interactively asks 6–8 configuration questions (project name, goal, phases, key questions, constraints, file location, CLAUDE.md handling, hybrid tracking) and then creates a tailored planning folder and files. It generates task_plan.md, findings.md, and progress.md from templates, updates or creates CLAUDE.md with methodology guidance, and adds .claude/rules/planning-with-files.md to enforce core planning rules. It can place files in the project root or a subdirectory as requested.

When to use it

Starting a new project that needs persistent planning across sessions
Projects expected to require >5 tool calls or many small steps
When you want a hybrid: files for phases + task tool for per-task management
When you need enforced planning rules and a reproducible workflow
If you want session logs and research findings preserved between restarts

Best practices

Answer the interactive questions clearly to get useful defaults and phase suggestions
Keep task_plan.md focused on phases and decisions; use TaskCreate/TaskUpdate for individual tasks
Apply the 2-Action Rule: save findings immediately after browser/search actions
Update progress.md at the end of each session with test results and errors
Review CLAUDE.md guidance before major changes to maintain methodology consistency

Example use cases

Launching a new product where research, design, and engineering phases span weeks
Complex data migration requiring many verification and testing steps
Research-heavy feature work that needs preserved findings and visual notes
Cross-team initiative where phase-level visibility must persist across handoffs
Long-running experiments that require session-by-session logs and reboot checks

FAQ

How many questions will the setup ask me?

The interactive setup asks about 6–8 questions to capture project name, goal, phases, constraints, file placement, and tracking preferences.

Will this replace task-based tools?

No. This is a hybrid approach: files capture phase-level planning and preserved findings, while TaskCreate/TaskUpdate remain ideal for granular task tracking and lifecycle updates.