Deep Planning Codex

Codex Deep Planning Orchestrator

> Deprecated for GPT-5.6 Sol. Use native Codex Plan Mode, with focused verification or adversarial review skills when needed. Do not use this package for new work.

Overview

Run a Codex-native deep planning protocol that adapts to software with Git, software without Git, business artifact work, and mixed business-coding projects. Produce durable planning artifacts, proof criteria, and a reviewed execution strategy before implementation.

Core Contract

• Treat the user's invocation text as the planning objective.
• Create or reuse the target project's .deep-planning/ workfolder.
• During planning, do not edit implementation files. Allowed planning writes are .deep-planning/, .ultraplan/plan.md, approved design/plan docs, CONTEXT.md, and accepted ADRs.
• Every phase updates .deep-planning/state.md.
• Every phase ends with exactly one status: READY_FOR_PROCEED, BLOCKED_NEEDS_USER_DECISION, BLOCKED_BY_MISSING_EVIDENCE, or FAILED_VALIDATION.
• Stop at explicit proceed gates. Continue only after the user says PROCEED or gives equivalent explicit approval.
• Use companion skills when available: $repo-map-codex, $verification-plan-codex, $adversarial-plan-review-codex, $grill-with-docs-codex, $grill-me-codex, $handoff-codex, $ultraplan-codex, superpowers:brainstorming, superpowers:systematic-debugging, superpowers:writing-plans, and superpowers:verification-before-completion. If unavailable, perform the same behavior locally.
• Use Codex subagents only when explicitly allowed by the user or current session instructions. Otherwise perform bounded local exploration and review.

Companion Skill Contract

When a companion skill is invoked inside this workflow, require a Deep Planning Delta and merge it into .deep-planning/state.md before any proceed gate:

## Deep Planning Delta
Phase: ...
Status: READY_FOR_PROCEED | BLOCKED_NEEDS_USER_DECISION | BLOCKED_BY_MISSING_EVIDENCE | FAILED_VALIDATION
Updated artifacts:
- ...
Blockers:
- ...
Open assumptions:
- ...
Next action:
...

If the companion skill writes a native artifact outside .deep-planning/, such as .ultraplan/plan.md, keep that native artifact and also update or link the corresponding .deep-planning/ artifact so the validator can reason over the full planning packet.

References

Read references only when needed:

• references/project-modes.md when selecting or revising project mode.
• references/artifact-contracts.md before writing or validating .deep-planning/ artifacts.
• references/phase-contracts.md before running the full workflow or resuming a workflow.
• references/proceed-gates.md before stopping for approval.
• references/subagent-strategy.md before delegating planning or execution work.

Phase Flow

1. Harness preflight: record workspace, writable roots, Git state if present, available skills, subagent authorization, allowed artifact paths, and selected project mode.
2. Intake and criteria: sharpen success criteria, failure criteria, out-of-scope boundaries, owner decisions, risk tolerance, and documentation permissions.
3. Project map and evidence catalog: invoke $repo-map-codex if available or produce equivalent repo-map.md and evidence-catalog.md.
4. Failure autopsy: if prior failures exist, use systematic debugging or diagnosis to build failure-autopsy.md and dead-ends-registry.md.
5. Assumption attack: challenge criteria, evidence, dead ends, and unresolved claims; update assumption-ledger.md.
6. Targeted probes: run low-cost probes mapped to assumptions. Do not implement features.
7. Design synthesis: use brainstorming only if real design ambiguity remains; otherwise write the selected design directly.
8. Grounded implementation plan: use $ultraplan-codex for software-heavy work; for artifact-heavy work write .deep-planning/implementation-plan.md. When $ultraplan-codex writes .ultraplan/plan.md, also write or update .deep-planning/implementation-plan.md with the execution sequence, verification command, and a pointer to the native plan.
9. Verification plan: invoke $verification-plan-codex if available or produce equivalent proof criteria.
10. Adversarial review: invoke $adversarial-plan-review-codex if available or locally red-team the plan and fix blockers.
11. Final execution plan: use superpowers:writing-plans for code-heavy work; otherwise write a decision-complete artifact execution plan.
12. Execution strategy: choose subagent-driven, parallel, or inline execution only after explicit approval.
13. Final verification and archive: use verification-before-completion behavior, then write final validation and handoff records.

Project Modes

Classify the project in preflight:

| Mode | Use when | Delivery primitive | | --- | --- | --- | | software-git | Git repository and commits/PRs are allowed | branch, commit, PR, CI | | software-no-git | Code exists but no commit workflow is allowed | file snapshots, milestone state, validation log | | business-artifact | Work is mostly docs, reports, spreadsheets, decisions, or analysis | approval packet, evidence log, deliverable folder | | mixed-business-coding | Business deliverables include code, scripts, data, or automation | artifact snapshots plus code and business validation |

Default to mixed-business-coding when uncertain.

Required Artifacts

Maintain these in the target project's .deep-planning/ folder as applicable:

• state.md
• harness-preflight.md
• project-mode.md
• success-criteria.md
• failure-criteria.md
• out-of-scope.md
• stakeholder-map.md
• repo-map.md
• evidence-catalog.md
• assumption-ledger.md
• decision-log.md
• failure-autopsy.md
• dead-ends-registry.md
• probe-results.md
• design.md
• implementation-plan.md
• verification-plan.md
• adversarial-review.md
• execution-strategy.md
• final-validation.md
• handoffs/

Use .ultraplan/plan.md when $ultraplan-codex is part of the selected software-heavy workflow, but do not treat it as a replacement for .deep-planning/implementation-plan.md.

Handoff Policy

Do not run full handoff after every small phase by default. Always update .deep-planning/state.md. Run $handoff-codex at major context gates: after Phase 0, after failure autopsy, after final plan approval, before execution handoff, and at final archive. In this workflow, store handoffs under .deep-planning/handoffs/.md or record a state pointer to the handoff path.

Validation

Before presenting a final execution plan, run scripts/validate_deep_planning_artifacts.py against the target project when possible. Treat missing required artifacts, incomplete state fields, unresolved proceed gates, failed adversarial verdicts, blocking review findings, or unreviewed verification criteria as blockers.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: dachent
• Source: dachent/skills
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.