Create Plan

Create Plan

Produces a structured implementation plan from a specification or requirements document, organized into phases with milestones, dependencies, effort estimates, and a risk register.

Prerequisites

• Apply the shared SDLC conventions in skills/sdlc/references/shared.md.
• If no argument is provided, locate the feature directory under .sdlc/features/ whose frontmatter issue field references $ISSUE_NUMBER.
• .sdlc/features/N-/specification.md (must have passed review with findings verdict approved), or a specification/requirements document provided in context or as a file path ($1)
• .sdlc/features/N-/telemetry.md (optional, if a telemetry plan was produced): include analytics instrumentation as deliverables in the plan
• .sdlc/features/N-/observability.md (optional, if an observability plan was produced): include logging, metrics, tracing, and alerting as deliverables in the plan
• Team size and velocity context (if available)

Steps

1. Read the specification or requirements, and the telemetry and observability plans if present.
2. Identify all units of work and group them into logical phases.
3. Define phase goals (milestones) and their success criteria.
4. Map dependencies between phases and external factors.
5. Estimate effort for each phase (person-days or story points).
6. Identify risks and mitigations.
7. Propose a timeline if team capacity is known.
8. Write the output to .sdlc/features/N-/plan.md.

Output Format

Use the template at skills/sdlc/templates/features/plan.md (copied to .sdlc/templates/features/plan.md by /initialize-sdlc-directory; use the project's customized copy if present). Write the result to the artifact path named in the steps above.

Outcome

If $OUTCOME_YAML is set, emit verdict: approved there per skills/sdlc/references/shared.md once the draft plan/ PR is opened. If no PR was opened, omit the file.

Example Usage

Scenario 1: End-to-end feature Spec describes a payment flow. Plan: Phase 1 (DB schema + migrations), Phase 2 (API endpoints), Phase 3 (frontend integration), Phase 4 (testing + hardening), Phase 5 (rollout).

Scenario 2: High-risk external dependency Plan includes a spike in Phase 1 to validate a third-party payment provider integration before committing to Phase 2 scope.

Completion Checklist

Before handing off to review, confirm:

• [ ] Telemetry and observability deliverables pulled into the plan as explicit work items

Self-check the draft against the [review-plan checklist](../review-plan/SKILL.md) and fix what you can, so review finds less to flag.

Next Step

Run /review-plan to audit for completeness, feasibility, and risk coverage before moving on. Once approved, run /publish-plan to commit the plan and share it with the issue author, then continue with /create-tasks-decomposition.

Useful Commands Reference

No CLI commands required. This skill operates on document content provided in context.

Source & license

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

• Author: tomzx
• Source: tomzx/agents
• License: MIT

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