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 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.

Templates

All templates are in templates/ and are customized during setup.