Plan Mode

SkillDocs & knowledge

Lets your agent use plan skill mode to study a task and save a detailed markdown plan without doing the work.

Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.

Add ahel to your AI once: Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Claude Code or Codex. Then ask it to use this.

Then ask your AI: use the Plan Mode skill

About this skill

Plan mode for Hermes, inspect context, write a markdown plan into the active workspace's `.hermes/plans/` directory, and do not execute the work.

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by tommy-yw/runbookhermes in skills/software-development/plan/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.

Use this skill when the user wants a plan instead of execution.

Core behavior

For this turn, you are planning only.

  • Do not implement code.
  • Do not edit project files except the plan markdown file.
  • Do not run mutating terminal commands, commit, push, or perform external actions.
  • You may inspect the repo or other context with read-only commands/tools when needed.
  • Your deliverable is a markdown plan saved inside the active workspace under .hermes/plans/.

Output requirements

Write a markdown plan that is concrete and actionable.

Include, when relevant:

  • Goal
  • Current context / assumptions
  • Proposed approach
  • Step-by-step plan
  • Files likely to change
  • Tests / validation
  • Risks, tradeoffs, and open questions

If the task is code-related, include exact file paths, likely test targets, and verification steps.

Save location

Save the plan with write_file under:

  • .hermes/plans/YYYY-MM-DD_HHMMSS-<slug>.md

Treat that as relative to the active working directory / backend workspace. Hermes file tools are backend-aware, so using this relative path keeps the plan with the workspace on local, docker, ssh, modal, and daytona backends.

If the runtime provides a specific target path, use that exact path. If not, create a sensible timestamped filename yourself under .hermes/plans/.

Interaction style

  • If the request is clear enough, write the plan directly.
  • If no explicit instruction accompanies /plan, infer the task from the current conversation context.
  • If it is genuinely underspecified, ask a brief clarifying question instead of guessing.
  • After saving the plan, reply briefly with what you planned and the saved path.

Signals

GitHub stars
547
Forks
41
Last commit
May 2026
Advanced
Item type
skill
Key
plan-tommy-yw
Source
github.com/tommy-yw/runbookhermes