plan-the-big-one

Find the way from here to the goal, one decision at a time, and write it down so the next session starts where this one stopped. This skill plans. It does not build.

Idea: $ARGUMENTS. If that is empty, the idea in the conversation.

If the work fits in one session, say so and do not make a map. For one design choice with scale questions, use /lets-build-pyramids.

The map

One file or one issue. Use the tracker the project already uses; if it has none, use docs/plans/<topic>.md, and ask before you create anything in a shared tracker.

# <goal in plain words>

## Destination
What is true when this is finished: a spec, a decision or a shipped change. One or two lines.

## Decided
- <decision>: <the answer in one line>. <where the detail or evidence is>

## Open
- [find out] <question> (blocked by: <other question>)
- [decide] <question>
- [try] <question a rough prototype would settle>
- [do] <manual step a decision waits on>

## Not clear yet
<areas you know are coming but cannot yet ask a sharp question about>

## Out of scope
<work past the destination, and why>

• A question goes in Open when you can state it sharply, even if nobody can answer it yet. Otherwise it goes in Not clear yet. Do not chop fog into fake tickets.
• Size each open question to one session.
• A decision lives in one place. The map holds one line and points to the detail.
• Plans and old tickets are research, not requirements. Check them against the code that exists today.

How to work through it

1. Read first. Read the code, docs and tickets the idea touches. Write the Destination and show it to the reader. Everything else depends on it.
2. Find the facts yourself. Answer every [find out] question you can from the code, the logs, the docs or the web, with evidence. Never ask the reader for a fact you can look up.

3. Ask in rounds. Ask only the [decide] questions you can ask now, meaning those whose earlier decisions are settled. Skip any question whose answer depends on another open one. Show each on one concrete example, with the same named people across the round, in plain words:

   Q1. <the choice, in one plain sentence>
   Example: <named people and records in one situation>
   A. <option>: <what happens to them>   (recommended: <why, one line>)
   B. <option>: <what happens to them>

   "1 A, 2 B" answers a round, and "all as recommended" accepts it.

   Each answer changes what is open. Update the map, then ask the next round.

4. Challenge your own plan. For each step ask: why do we need this, does it already exist, and could we do less? Remove what does not survive.
5. Save before you stop. The map must be enough for a new session with no memory of this one. End by naming the next open question.

When it is done

The map is done when nothing is left to decide before someone can build it. Then:

• Turn it into ordered steps, foundation first, each one checkable on its own.
• Do not start building until the reader says so.