Planning Commits

Planning Commits

Plan the sequence of commits for any non-trivial changeset before writing code, and before drafting commit messages. The skill's output is a plan: a numbered list where each entry states one commit's scope in a single sentence and the context that motivates it.

Commit-message-writing skills consume this plan one entry at a time. Defer all message phrasing to the appropriate writing skill — in a Go-centric repository, golang-dev:committing. Planning stops at scope and context; naming the commit is a separate concern handled later.

Core Principles

A commit plan satisfies three facets together — atomic, fine-grained, incremental:

• Atomic. Group changes by value (user-facing capability, feature, single decision), not by syntactic category (all types, all interfaces, all handlers). Each commit advances one identifiable piece of value that can be reverted, evaluated, or rebased in isolation from its neighbours.
• Fine-grained. Each commit lands one reviewable change. The test is reviewability, not file count: a two-line diff can be fine-grained, a fifty-file diff is not, regardless of how small each edit is.
• Incremental. Build the final value over a planned sequence. Start with a skeleton; layer capabilities; never forward-reference symbols or behaviours that do not yet exist on the branch.

For the full definitions, including the value-vs-syntactic distinction and the decision-rationale-layering benefit, consult references/triad.md.

Reference Files

| File | Contains | Load When | |------|----------|-----------| | references/triad.md | Full definitions of atomic, fine-grained, incremental, with the value-vs-syntactic distinction | First time the skill triggers in a session | | references/plan-shape.md | Shape of a plan entry, hand-off to the message-writing skill, worked mini-example | Before producing the plan deliverable |

When to Plan

Plan commits proactively at the earliest signal that the work ahead is non-trivial:

• A user brief mentions more than one capability, feature, or decision.
• The working tree already contains unstaged changes spanning unrelated concerns.
• The expected diff is larger than what a reviewer can hold in their head as one decision.
• A user has scolded about commit shape, granularity, or sequence in a prior turn.

Do not wait for the word "commit" to appear in user prose. In any non-trivial task, commits are inevitable and the sequence is best chosen before the first line of code lands.

When to Skip Planning

Some changesets do not warrant a plan:

• Mechanical edits. Typo fixes, formatting passes, dependency-manifest tidying (go mod tidy, npm prune, cargo update --workspace), single-line bug fixes. The plan would have one entry; producing it is overhead.
• Exploratory work. The user has signalled they are "playing around" or "just trying something" and no commits are planned for this session. Wait for the user to convert exploration into intent before planning.
• Single-capability changesets. When the entire diff is the smallest version of one reviewable change, the plan has one entry — which is to say there is nothing to plan. Hand off to the message-writing skill directly.

When skipping, do not ask. Proceed to writing directly and let the user redirect if they want a plan after all.

Workflow

When planning commits for a non-trivial changeset:

1. Inspect the Working Tree

git status
git diff

Identify what has changed and what remains to be changed. If the work has not started, inspect the brief itself — what the user described, which files will likely change.

2. Identify Capabilities and Decisions

Read the changeset or brief for distinct units of value:

• User-facing capabilities (endpoints, commands, public APIs, features).
• Single decisions worth isolating (dependency choices, policy switches, architectural commitments).
• Documentation that travels with each capability.

If the first instinct is to group by symbol kind, abstraction layer, or mechanical role, stop. Consult the anti-pattern examples in the table below to recognise the failure mode before drafting the plan.

3. Draft the Plan

Produce a numbered list in the shape defined by references/plan-shape.md. For each entry:

• A single sentence stating the scope.
• A paragraph stating the context: why this commit, why now, what it deliberately does not include.

Start with a skeleton commit when the work introduces a new package, module, or subsystem (see examples/skeleton-first.md). Layer capabilities one per commit, each carrying the docs, flags, and tests it justifies.

Each commit's diff stays scoped to its own change, including the mechanical hygiene (formatting, manifest tidying, regenerating derived files) the change itself produces. When the working tree starts contaminated before work begins, the cleanup belongs in a dedicated first commit, not buried in the first feature commit.

A plan entry that reads like a good commit message is a sign of premature naming — strip it back to plain prose before continuing. The message-writing skill in step 5 produces the actual phrasing.

4. Present for Approval

Show the plan to the user. Make it easy to redirect:

• Number each entry so the user can reference individual commits.
• Keep entries brief enough that the whole plan fits in one screen.
• Invite specific corrections rather than open-ended feedback.

The plan is a proposal, not a contract. Adjust it freely as the user redirects.

5. Hand Off Each Commit to the Message-Writing Skill

When implementing a commit from the plan:

1. Stage only the changes for that entry's scope.
2. Load the commit-message-writing skill appropriate to the repository — in a Go-centric repository, golang-dev:committing.
3. Pass the entry's scope and context as input to that skill, which produces the actual commit message.

The plan entry is the input; the commit message is the output of the message-writing skill, not of this one.

Example Files

| File | Pattern | Demonstrates | |------|---------|--------------| | examples/skeleton-first.md | First commit lays the ground | Incremental | | examples/flags-grow-with-features.md | Flags arrive with their feature | Atomic | | examples/siblings-by-decision.md | Sibling endpoints split by contract | Atomic | | examples/docs-with-feature.md | Docs travel with their feature | Incremental | | examples/dependency-adoption-isolated.md | Dependency choice gets its own commit | Atomic (decision layering) | | examples/decision-rationale-layering.md | Decision body carries WHY-EXTRINSIC | Atomic (decision layering) | | examples/go-mod-get-before-use.md | One go.mod: get per module, ahead of use | Atomic (Go-specialised) | | examples/go-mod-tidy-first.md | Cleanup of a contaminated tree as the first commit | Atomic / Incremental | | examples/antipattern-by-symbol-kind.md | All types, then all methods | Counter-example | | examples/antipattern-by-layer.md | Interfaces, then implementations | Counter-example | | examples/antipattern-by-mechanical-layer.md | All handlers, then routes, then tests | Counter-example | | examples/antipattern-flags-up-front.md | All flags at the start | Counter-example | | examples/antipattern-trailing-docs-dump.md | Docs piled into a final commit | Counter-example | | examples/antipattern-trailing-format-dump.md | Formatting and tidying deferred to a trailing commit | Counter-example |

Validation Checklist

Before presenting the plan:

Each entry:

• [ ] Scope is a single sentence (not a properly-formed commit message)
• [ ] Context is a paragraph stating why this commit, why now, and what it deliberately excludes
• [ ] The commit's changes can be reverted in isolation without breaking subsequent commits' premises
• [ ] No forward reference to a symbol, behaviour, or file that no later commit introduces

Across the sequence:

• [ ] First commit is a skeleton or the smallest-standalone value, never a forward-referencing stub
• [ ] Flags arrive with the features that consume them, not up front
• [ ] Docs travel with each feature commit, never piled into a trailing dump
• [ ] No commit groups by symbol kind, abstraction layer, or mechanical role
• [ ] Decisions worth defending later have their own commit with body-carryable rationale

Overall:

• [ ] A reviewer can evaluate each commit in isolation and form an opinion
• [ ] Reverting any single commit leaves the branch in a coherent state
• [ ] The sequence builds the final value, not just a rearrangement of files

Special Cases

Mixed-Language Changesets

When a changeset spans multiple languages or ecosystems (a Go service plus its Helm chart, a Rust library plus its Python bindings):

• Plan each capability's full vertical stack as one commit, not each language's contribution as a separate commit.
• The exception is when the cross-language wiring itself is the decision worth isolating. A binding-generator switch, for example, is a decision commit even if the diff spans both languages.

Dependency-Only Changes

When the entire changeset is go.mod/package.json/Cargo.toml updates with no new callers and no behavioural changes:

• Group by what kinds of dependencies are updated and why. A security-patch sweep is one commit; unrelated minor-version bumps are separate commits.
• If a major-version update forces code changes, that is a decision commit (see examples/decision-rationale-layering.md).

Large Refactors

When a refactor crosses many files but introduces no new capabilities:

• Plan by the conceptual transformation, not by file. "Rename Foo to Bar across the codebase" is one commit if the rename is purely mechanical. "Restructure error returns to expose typed errors" is several commits, one per call-site cluster that shares an error contract.
• Mechanical commits and decision commits should not mix. If the refactor exposes a decision worth defending (e.g., choosing a specific error taxonomy), that decision lands in its own commit with the rationale.

Source & license

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

• Author: notorious-ai
• Source: notorious-ai/claude-plugins
• License: MIT

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