Sprint Planning (Plan-First Orchestration)

Replaces the pre-v8.5 Version-First rule. Work is planned before it is dispatched; the version is decided at release, not at start. Release law: docs/orchestrator/VERSIONING.md.

When to plan

Request	Path
Trivial fix (one file, one concern)	Implicit sprint-00 — no plan ceremony, but changelog-at-integration still applies
One coherent feature/bug	Single sprint file, minimal PLAN.md (or extend an existing plan)
Multi-part work, release overhauls, anything touching >1 domain	Full plan: PLAN.md + sprint files

Artifacts

ROADMAP.md                          # living roadmap: initiative → target version → status
plans/vX.Y.Z/PLAN.md                # master plan: analysis, target architecture, sprint index, global ownership
plans/vX.Y.Z/sprint-NN-<slug>.md    # per sprint (template: docs/templates/SPRINT_TEMPLATE.md)
reports/vX.Y.Z/sprint-NN/           # TRACKED agent/subagent reports (committed at integration)

vX.Y.Z is the target version of the plan — a working label. The actual bump happens only in the release sprint and may differ if scope changed (re-label the plan folder then).

Writing the plan

1. Analyze first — understand the repo state before decomposing (audit sprint if needed).
2. Decompose into sprints with disjoint write scopes where possible. Every sprint file carries: Goal, Scope, Non-Goals, Files/Write-Scope table, Risks, Acceptance Criteria, Test/Validation Strategy, Changelog Note, Version Relevance, execution mode.
3. Ownership matrix in PLAN.md — for hot files (VERSION, CHANGELOG.md, ROADMAP.md, README.md, plans/**) name the single writer and the sprint that owns them.
4. Order by dependency — tooling before consumers, contracts before implementations, docs after behavior. Mark which sprints could run in parallel (disjoint scopes only).
5. User review — present the plan before execution for scope-relevant work.

Executing sprints

Per sprint (see CLAUDE.md "Sprint Execution"):

1. Preflight: git status clean; plan assumptions still valid; no in-progress sprint with overlapping write scope; sprint status → in-progress.
2. Dispatch: agents get the sprint file path + their write scope in the prompt. Agents obey their Sprint Contract (stop on BLOCKED (scope|conflict) — never overwrite foreign work).
3. Gates: dual quality gates; a BLOCKED (conflict) halts this and dependent sprints.
4. Integration (serialized — one sprint at a time): @scribe adds the [Unreleased] changelog entry; orchestrator fills the sprint Result, ticks acceptance criteria, status → done. Commit per sprint with a Conventional Commit message — including the sprint's reports/ folder (reports are tracked; temp-dir output is a contract violation).

Parallel sprints — decision rule

Parallel execution is allowed ONLY when ALL are true:

• write-scope tables are disjoint (verified, not assumed),
• neither sprint touches hot files outside serialized integration,
• no dependency between their acceptance criteria.

Otherwise: sequential. When parallel writes to overlapping paths are truly needed, isolate in git worktrees and serialize the merge order explicitly.

Release sprint (always last)

1. All sprints done, [Unreleased] non-empty, working tree clean.
2. Resolve inherited drift first (missing tags etc. — node scripts/release-check.js lists it).
3. Bump type = max of all sprint Version Relevance fields.
4. node scripts/version-bump.js <type> → bump + [Unreleased] promotion + full touchpoint sync.
5. Verify: npm run version:check + npm run release:check green (ahead-of-tag is OK on release/*).
6. Release PR → merge (merge commit) → .github/workflows/release-tag.yml tags + drafts the GitHub Release → maintainer publishes. RCs: vX.Y.Z-rc.N as GitHub pre-release.
7. Flip ROADMAP entry to released.

Push/tag/publish always requires explicit user permission.