real-work

Real Work

Turn planning into a durable, resumable artifact. The plan file — not the conversation — is the source of truth: it records what to do, what's done, how it was verified, and how to deploy. Any future agent can resume from it with zero prior context.

Use when planning multi-step / multi-session work that may outlive the current session. Skip for trivial single-session tasks.

1. Reach complete understanding first

Do not write the plan until scope is fully understood. Relentlessly ask the user questions until you both share a complete understanding with no gaps — treat an unasked question as a future bug.

• Don't stop at the first round; keep going until no ambiguity, assumption, or open decision remains. Probe edges: scope boundaries (in/out), dependencies, constraints, success criteria, data, environments, deployment, failure cases.
• Surface every assumption for the user to confirm. If an answer opens a new unknown, ask the follow-up — drill down recursively.
• Use AskUserQuestion for concrete choices. When done, summarize the full scope back and only proceed once the user confirms nothing is missing.

2. Write the plan

Save to plans/<descriptive-name>.md in the repository root (create plans/ if needed). Use this self-documenting template:

# <Work Title>

<1-2 sentence goal and scope.>

## For Future Agents
As work proceeds: mark checkboxes `- [x]` as items complete; when a phase is done,
set its status to `Complete` and write its **Phase Summary** (what was done, key
decisions, anything needed to continue with zero context); run the phase's
**Verification Plan** and record the result before moving on. When all phases are
done, fill in **Final Recap** and **Deployment Plan**.

## Phase 1: <Title>
Status: Not started   <!-- Not started | In progress | Complete -->

- [ ] <concrete, actionable item>
- [ ] <concrete, actionable item>

### Verification Plan
- <command/check the agent can run autonomously, with expected result>

### Phase Summary
_(write when phase completes)_

## Phase 2: <Title>
Status: Not started
- [ ] <actionable item>
### Verification Plan
- <autonomous check>
### Phase Summary
_(write when phase completes)_

## Final Recap
_(write when all phases complete: summary of the entire piece of work)_

## Deployment Plan
_(write when all phases complete: step-by-step deployment instructions)_

Common mistakes

• Vague items — each checkbox is a concrete task ("Add retry logic to PaymentClient.Charge"), not a theme ("improve payments").
• Non-autonomous verification — give runnable commands with expected output, not "test it manually".
• Wrong location — always the repo-root plans/ folder.
• Pre-filling summaries — phase summaries, recap, and deployment plan stay as placeholders until that work actually completes.