Writing Plans

SkillProductivity

Use when you have a spec or requirements for a multi-step task, before touching code

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

Connect ahel once, and every AI you use reads what you have installed.

Then ask your AI: use the Writing Plans skill

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by heymegabyte/claude-skills in 20-superpowers/writing-plans/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.

Write an implementation plan for an engineer with zero context for this codebase and questionable test taste. Decompose into bite-sized, independently verifiable tasks. DRY, YAGNI, TDD, frequent commits.

Pairs with /generate-prp (research-driven blueprint) and /writing-plans. Save to docs/superpowers/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-<feature>.md (user preference overrides). Worktree, if isolated, comes from using-git-worktrees at execution time.

Announce: "Using the writing-plans skill to create the implementation plan."

Scope

  • One plan per independent subsystem — each must produce working, testable software alone. If the spec spans several, suggest splitting into separate plans.

File structure (decide before tasks)

  • Map every file to create/modify and its single responsibility — this locks in decomposition.
  • One responsibility per file; prefer small focused files; files that change together live together (split by responsibility, not layer).
  • Follow established codebase patterns. Restructure a file only when it's grown unwieldy AND you're already modifying it.

Task right-sizing

  • A task = the smallest unit that carries its own test cycle and is worth a fresh reviewer's gate.
  • Fold setup/config/scaffolding/docs into the task whose deliverable needs them. Split only where a reviewer could reject one task while approving its neighbor.
  • Each task ends with an independently testable deliverable.

Step granularity

Each step is one 2-5 min action: write failing test → run it (confirm RED) → minimal implementation → run (confirm GREEN) → commit.

Plan document shape

Header (required):

# [Feature] Implementation Plan

> **For agentic workers:** REQUIRED SUB-SKILL: superpowers:subagent-driven-development (recommended) or superpowers:executing-plans. Steps use `- [ ]` checkboxes.

**Goal:** [one sentence]   **Architecture:** [2-3 sentences]   **Tech Stack:** [key libs]

## Global Constraints
[Project-wide spec requirements — version floors, dep limits, naming/copy rules,
platform — one line each, exact values verbatim. Every task implicitly includes this.]

Per task:

  • Files — exact Create: / Modify:path:lines / Test: paths.
  • InterfacesConsumes: exact signatures from earlier tasks; Produces: exact names + param/return types later tasks rely on (implementers see only their own task).
  • Steps — checkbox per step, with the ACTUAL test code, exact run command + expected output, the ACTUAL implementation code, and the commit.

No placeholders (these are plan failures)

  • "TBD"/"TODO"/"implement later"/"fill in details".
  • "Add appropriate error handling / validation / edge cases".
  • "Write tests for the above" without the test code; "similar to Task N" without repeating the code (tasks may be read out of order).
  • Steps describing what without showing how (code steps need code blocks).
  • References to types/functions/methods not defined in any task.

Self-review (yourself, not a subagent)

  1. Spec coverage — every spec requirement maps to a task; list + fill gaps.
  2. Placeholder scan — hunt the patterns above; fix inline.
  3. Type consistency — names/signatures in later tasks match earlier definitions (clearLayers() in T3 vs clearFullLayers() in T7 is a bug).

For a fresh-eyes pass, dispatch plan-document-reviewer-prompt.md.

Execution handoff

Offer: (1) Subagent-driven (recommended) — superpowers:subagent-driven-development, fresh subagent per task + two-stage review; (2) Inlinesuperpowers:executing-plans, batch execution with checkpoints.

Signals

GitHub stars
21
Forks
4
Last commit
Sep 2026
Advanced
Catalog kind
skill
Gateway key
writing-plans-heymegabyte
Source
github.com/heymegabyte/claude-skills