Strategic Planning Protocol (SPP-001)

Use this skill to transform a draft plan into a comprehensive, persona-validated roadmap with identified gaps, required artifacts, and success-enabling pre-work.

When to Use

• •Before executing any multi-phase project (3+ phases)
• •After creating an initial plan but before implementation
• •When inheriting or reviewing an existing roadmap
• •When a project spans multiple packages, teams, or domains
• •When you need to ensure alignment across different stakeholders

Core Principle

Plans fail not from bad ideas but from missing foundations. This skill ensures you identify and address gaps before they become blockers.

Phase 0: External Knowledge Assessment

Before evaluating the plan, assess what external knowledge is needed.

0.0 Determinism + Registry Hygiene (Monorepo Reality Check)

If the plan adds or changes any Capability/Blueprint/Tool that is expected to be discoverable (MCP/UI/registry), explicitly include these checks up front:

• •Deterministic artifacts are part of the contract: some repos require committed/generated artifacts (ex: tool catalogs) to be updated alongside code changes.
• •Registry / catalog update order matters (avoid “tool exists in code but is missing in UI”):
  • •Align metadata.domain/subdomain with metadata.id-derived domain parts
  • •Regenerate the tool catalog artifact (deterministically)
  • •Run the sync generator that updates barrel exports/registries
  • •Restart any long-running processes serving tool lists if the UI can be stale until restart
• •Validation levels: declare what “done” means (contract-only vs runtime smoke vs staging).
  • •Contract-only is valid for MVPs, but it must be labeled to avoid “implemented but not runnable” confusion.

External Research Triggers

Ask these questions. If any answer is "yes", research before proceeding:

External Research Template

### External Knowledge Needed

| Topic | Question | Research Source | Findings |
|-------|----------|-----------------|----------|
| [Framework/Pattern] | How to implement X? | Official docs, examples | [Key patterns] |
| [Integration] | How does Y API work? | OpenAPI spec, tutorials | [Auth, endpoints] |
| [Best Practice] | What's the current standard? | Web search, community | [Recommendations] |

### Confidence After Research

| Area | Before | After | Notes |
|------|--------|-------|-------|
| Implementation approach | Low/Medium/High | Low/Medium/High | |
| Integration feasibility | Low/Medium/High | Low/Medium/High | |
| Security posture | Low/Medium/High | Low/Medium/High | |

When to Skip Phase 0

• •All patterns are already in the codebase
• •All integrations have existing capabilities
• •High confidence in implementation approach

Phase 1: Multi-Persona Evaluation

Evaluate the plan from 5 perspectives. For each persona, score alignment (1-10) and identify gaps.

Scoring Rubric

Use this rubric for consistent scoring across personas:

Readiness Thresholds

Required Personas

1. Agent (AI Assistant)

Key Concerns: Tool discoverability, determinism, context propagation, HITL clarity

Generative Prompts for Agent Evaluation:

Imagine you are an AI agent trying to execute this plan's outcomes.
Walk through each phase and ask:

1. "When a user asks me to [action from this plan], what tool do I invoke?"
   - If unclear → Gap: MCP registration or tool naming
   
2. "What information do I need to pass to each capability?"
   - If unclear → Gap: Schema documentation or aiHints
   
3. "If something fails mid-workflow, can I retry safely?"
   - If no → Gap: Idempotency or determinism violation
   
4. "When do I need human approval before proceeding?"
   - If unclear → Gap: HITL signal definitions
   
5. "How do I know if the operation succeeded?"
   - If unclear → Gap: Output schema or status indicators

6. "If I surface an approval request to a human, what context do I include so it is reviewable?"
   - If unclear → Gap: execution/request contract missing incident/workflow context (eventId/incidentId, service tags, contextType)

7. "Will the tool actually appear where agents look for it?"
   - If unclear → Gap: deterministic tool-catalog regeneration + registry/barrel export sync step missing from plan

8. "If the tool list in the UI is stale, do we have a clear restart/refresh step?"
   - If unclear → Gap: runbook/action missing; add explicit “restart/refresh tool catalog” step for local/dev workflows

2. Developer (Platform Contributor)

Key Concerns: Dogfooding, clear patterns, fast feedback, minimal boilerplate

Generative Prompts for Developer Evaluation:

Imagine you are a new developer implementing a similar feature next month.
Walk through the plan and ask:

1. "What patterns will I use that aren't documented?"
   - If any → Gap: Skill creation needed
   
2. "What files will I create more than twice?"
   - If any → Gap: Generator needed
   
3. "How will I know if my code follows the standards?"
   - If unclear → Gap: Linting rules or TDD guidance
   
4. "Where will I get stuck waiting for information?"
   - Each wait → Gap: Documentation or spec needed
   
5. "What would I copy-paste from this implementation?"
   - Each item → Gap: Should be a pattern, not copy-paste

6. "Are tests deterministic across machines and CI?"
   - If unclear → Gap: avoid reliance on global/user-local directories in tests; add explicit overrides/fixtures

7. "If there are two execution surfaces (in-process vs container/runtime), do we keep them aligned?"
   - If unclear → Gap: missing smoke/contract tests proving both surfaces match on key invariants

8. "Are there any `${...}`-shaped template hazards in generated scripts or embedded strings?"
   - If yes → Gap: add explicit escaping conventions and tests for template/script output

3. End User (Platform Operator)

Key Concerns: Usability, response speed, clear workflows, minimal training

Generative Prompts for End User Evaluation:

Imagine you are an SRE at 3am trying to use this system.
Walk through the plan and ask:

1. "What will I click/type to accomplish the main task?"
   - If unclear → Gap: UX design or user flow needed
   
2. "How long will I wait for results?"
   - If unknown → Gap: SLO definition needed
   
3. "What do I do if it doesn't work?"
   - If unclear → Gap: Error handling or troubleshooting guide
   
4. "How will I learn to use this without reading code?"
   - If can't → Gap: User documentation needed
   
5. "What will confuse me about the terminology?"
   - Each term → Gap: Glossary or tooltips needed

6. "If I need to approve/reject an action, can I do it without context switching?"
   - If no → Gap: approval item lacks incident/workflow context (eventId/incidentId, service tags, reasoning, blast radius hints)

4. Leadership (Platform Engineering)

Key Concerns: ROI, compliance, security, strategic alignment, observability

Generative Prompts for Leadership Evaluation:

Imagine you are presenting this project to your VP next quarter.
Walk through the plan and ask:

1. "What numbers will I show to demonstrate value?"
   - If unclear → Gap: Metrics and baseline definition
   
2. "What will auditors ask about this system?"
   - Each question → Gap: Compliance artifact or certification gate
   
3. "What could go wrong that would embarrass us?"
   - Each risk → Gap: Security control or threat model
   
4. "How does this align with our platform strategy?"
   - If unclear → Gap: Strategic alignment documentation
   
5. "How will I know if this is working in production?"
   - If unclear → Gap: Observability (dashboards, alerts)

5. Domain Expert (Project-Specific)

Identify the primary beneficiary of the project and add as 5th persona.

Examples:

• •Incident Management → SRE/On-Call Engineer
• •CI/CD → Release Engineer
• •Security → Security Analyst
• •Data → Data Engineer

Generative Prompts for Domain Expert Evaluation:

Imagine you are the primary beneficiary of this system.
First identify who that is, then ask:

1. "What domain knowledge does this plan assume I have?"
   - If significant → Gap: Domain glossary or onboarding
   
2. "What industry standards should this follow?"
   - Each standard → Verify plan aligns or document exception
   
3. "What existing workflows does this replace or integrate with?"
   - Each workflow → Gap: Migration path or integration spec
   
4. "What would make me distrust this system?"
   - Each concern → Gap: Validation, observability, or escape hatch
   
5. "What would I need to customize for my specific use case?"
   - Each item → Gap: Configuration, extension point, or docs

Evaluation Template

### Persona: [Name]

**Alignment Score:** X/10

| Aspect | Current Plan | Gap | Mitigation |
|--------|--------------|-----|------------|
| [Criteria 1] | What exists | What's missing | How to fix |
| [Criteria 2] | ... | ... | ... |

**Missing Skills for this Persona:**
- skill-name-1 - why needed
- skill-name-2 - why needed

Phase 2: Gap Analysis

2.1 Knowledge Base Inventory

Scan all available skills and categorize by relevance:

# List project skills
ls .cursor/skills/

# List global skills
ls ~/.cursor/skills/

Create a matrix mapping skills to project phases:

2.2 Missing Artifact Identification

For each category, identify what's missing:

Standards/Specs

• • Are all integration APIs documented (OpenAPI specs)?
• • Are data formats standardized?
• • Are naming conventions defined (NIS-001)?

Skills

• • Do skills exist for patterns being used?
• • Are there gaps where manual work is repeated?
• • Could a new skill prevent future friction?

Generators

• • Is there repetitive scaffolding that could be automated?
• • Do generators exist for the artifact types being created?

ADRs (Architecture Decision Records)

• • Are significant architecture decisions documented?
• • Is the rationale for technology choices captured?

Documentation

• • Are operational procedures documented?
• • Do runbooks exist for common scenarios?
• • Is there an onboarding guide?
• • If docs/runbooks are repo-local artifacts, is workspace-root resolution defined and tested (not cwd-dependent)?
• • If runbooks are rendered in a UI, is the renderer safe by default (no raw HTML; link scheme allowlist)?
• • If “plans” live outside the repo (e.g., editor/global plan stores), does the plan include deterministic path resolution (e.g., via homedir()), not a repo-relative assumption?

MCP/Tools

• • Are all capabilities exposed via MCP?
• • Is the tool manifest up to date?
• • Does the plan explicitly include the tool-catalog + registry sync workflow required for discoverability (including process restart if needed)?

2.3 Gap Prioritization

Classify gaps by impact and urgency:

Phase 3: Pre-Work Identification

3.1 Pre-Work Categories

Foundation Documents

• •Severity/priority definitions
• •Role and permission matrices
• •SLA/SLO targets
• •Glossary of terms

Reference Artifacts

• •OpenAPI specs for integrations
• •Sample data/fixtures
• •Configuration templates
• •Environment setup guides

Enabling Skills

• •Skills that document patterns to be used
• •Skills that capture institutional knowledge
• •Skills that prevent repeated research

Architecture Records

• •ADRs for significant decisions
• •Sequence diagrams for complex flows
• •Data flow diagrams

Sample Implementations

• •Sample runbooks/playbooks
• •Template configurations
• •Example test cases
• •Contract tests that “lock” schemas + aiHints.exampleInput/exampleOutput against drift
• •Dogfood tests that run the capability on its own plan/spec artifact (kept resilient to small edits)

3.2 Pre-Work Template

For each pre-work item:

### Pre-Work X.Y: [Title]

**Purpose:** Why this is needed
**Blocks:** Which phases/tasks depend on this
**Effort:** Estimated time/complexity
**Owner:** Who should create this

**Deliverable:**
- File path: `path/to/artifact`
- Format: markdown/json/typescript
- Key sections: [list]

3.3 Dependency Ordering

Pre-work items have dependencies on each other. Order them correctly:

Dependency Analysis Process

1. •List all pre-work items
2. •For each item, ask: "What other pre-work do I need to complete this?"
3. •Build dependency graph:
   code

   Item A → (no deps) → Execute first
   Item B → depends on A → Execute after A
   Item C → depends on A, B → Execute after A and B
   

4. •Identify parallelizable items: Items with same or no dependencies

Dependency Matrix Template

| Pre-Work Item | Depends On | Enables | Parallelizable With |
|---------------|------------|---------|---------------------|
| Severity definitions | None | Sample runbooks | OpenAPI specs |
| Sample runbooks | Severity defs | Testing | ADR |
| OpenAPI specs | None | Capabilities | Severity defs |
| Pattern skill | Implementation complete | Future projects | None |

Execution Order Algorithm

1. •Execute all items with no dependencies (in parallel if possible)
2. •Execute items that depend only on completed items
3. •Repeat until all items complete

Common Dependency Patterns

Phase 4: Retrospective Integration

Every todo should have a retrospective checkpoint. Use the retrospective skill.

Checkpoint Cadence

Checkpoint Content

## Progress
- [x] Completed: [description]

## Learnings
- What worked well
- What was harder than expected

## Friction
- Missing tools/patterns
- Documentation gaps
- Unclear requirements

## Opportunities
- Skills to create
- Generators to build
- Patterns to document

Pattern Tracking

After each retrospective:

1. •Check /retrospectives/PATTERNS.md for recurring issues
2. •Add new patterns with occurrence count
3. •Graduate patterns (≥3 occurrences) to formal solutions

Phase 5: Success Metrics Definition

For each persona, define measurable success criteria:

Validation Level Metrics (Recommended)

Add one explicit row (or equivalent) that labels delivery scope:

• •Contract validation: schemas, examples, prompt templates, deterministic fixtures
• •Runtime smoke: executes in the real runtime surface (container/workflow) with representative inputs
• •Staging/production: runs end-to-end with real infra/secrets and is observable

Output Artifacts

This skill produces:

1. •Persona Evaluation Matrix - Alignment scores and gaps per persona
2. •Skills Integration Matrix - Skills mapped to phases
3. •Gap Analysis Report - Prioritized list of missing artifacts
4. •Pre-Work Plan - Ordered list of foundation work
5. •Success Metrics - Measurable criteria per persona

Phase 6: Post-Implementation Reflection

After completing the plan, update this skill based on learnings.

Reflection Triggers

Update the skill when:

• •A gap was discovered mid-implementation that wasn't caught by Phase 1-3
• •A persona evaluation question would have caught a problem earlier
• •Pre-work ordering caused delays
• •External research was needed that wasn't anticipated

Reflection Template

## SPP-001 Usage Reflection

**Project:** [name]
**Date:** [date]

### What Worked Well
- [Effective aspects of the skill]

### What Was Missing
| Gap | What Happened | Skill Update |
|-----|---------------|--------------|
| [Missing question/check] | [Problem that occurred] | Add to Phase [X] |

### Scoring Calibration
- Were scores accurate predictors of success?
- Were thresholds appropriate?
- Adjustments: [if any]

### New Patterns Discovered
- [Patterns worth adding to the skill]

### Prompts to Add
| Persona | New Prompt | Why Needed |
|---------|------------|------------|
| [persona] | "[question]" | [problem it would catch] |

Updating the Skill

1. •Add new prompts to relevant persona sections
2. •Add new checklist items to gap analysis
3. •Add new categories to pre-work identification
4. •Update scoring rubric if calibration is off
5. •Add to examples in pre-work planning guide

Applied learnings (2026-02-02: Strategic Planner capability)

Use these as common “misses” to check for early in new plans:

Quick Reference Checklist

Before executing any plan:

• • External knowledge assessed (Phase 0)
• • Deterministic artifacts + registry sync steps included (Phase 0.0)
• • Validation level labeled (contract vs runtime smoke vs staging)
• • Evaluated from 5 personas (Agent, Developer, End User, Leadership, Domain Expert)
• • All alignment scores ≥6/10 (or gaps mitigated)
• • Relevant skills identified and read
• • Missing skills identified for creation
• • Gap analysis complete (Standards, Skills, Generators, ADRs, Docs, MCP)
• • Pre-work items identified and prioritized
• • Pre-work dependencies mapped and ordered
• • Retrospective checkpoints scheduled
• • Success metrics defined per persona
• • Retrospectives directory structure verified

After executing the plan:

• • Post-implementation reflection completed
• • Skill updated with learnings (if applicable)

Related Skills

• •retrospective - Checkpoint and retrospective protocols
• •usecase-refinement-protocol - Refine ambiguous requirements
• •architect-workflow-logic - Design workflow architectures
• •test-driven-development - TDD practices
• •docs-with-mermaid - Documentation with diagrams

References

• •Persona Evaluation Template
• •Gap Analysis Checklist
• •Pre-Work Planning Guide