codagent-ai/agent-skills/plan-tasks

Plan Tasks

Create a small set of self-contained delivery tasks from the proposal, specifications, design, any supplied test plan, and relevant repository context. Each task goes to a skilled agent with no prior conversation; include necessary decisions, paths, constraints, scenarios, and automated-test obligations without dictating line-by-line implementation.

Read the proposal, design, specifications, and relevant repository context. When test-plan.md exists or the caller supplies a test plan, read it and include its obligations; otherwise plan from the available definition artifacts without requiring or inventing test-plan content.

Size before decomposing

Estimate the whole change from novelty, uncertainty, architectural reach, migration risk, integration breadth, and verification burden. Do not equate file, requirement, scenario, provider, or UI counts with task count.

Choose the smallest fitting band. Mechanical propagation across layers or adapters usually remains one task. For Medium-or-larger changes, or unclear provider, migration, cutover, feasibility, or cleanup boundaries, read references/task-sizing.md.

Form delivery units

A task is an independently meaningful outcome a generalist can implement, test, and review in one focused session. Prefer vertical slices that include their schema, config, logic, interfaces, tests, and documentation.

Split only for a distinct outcome, implementation risk, real dependency or release gate, or substantial independently verifiable foundation. Merge boundaries that create broad unfinished plumbing, duplicate edits, or a large implicit handoff. Fold ordinary scaffolding, migrations, refactors, test setup, and documentation into the outcome they support.

When a test plan is supplied, assign each INT-* and E2E-* obligation to the task that first makes its boundary or journey executable; a cross-task E2E belongs to the final task completing that journey. Do not assign acceptance exploration or HT-* execution to implementors. Unit cases remain implementation-time decisions.

Compare the result with the independent LOE estimate. Merge coupled candidates above the band; never invent work to reach a count. Use repository context to resolve ordinary planning choices. Stop only when approved source artifacts contradict each other enough that safe implementation cannot be planned. Do not ask the user to approve the task count or grouping.

Write the tasks

Write tasks under <change-dir>/tasks/. Use an unnumbered <slug>.md for one task or ordered <NN>-<slug>.md files for multiple tasks. Use real repository paths and no placeholders.

Copy every name the design or specs fix verbatim: test hooks and attributes, selectors, routes, file paths, commands, config and schema keys, and public identifiers. Other tooling may depend on the exact spelling, so do not rename, namespace, or offer alternatives or a choice of scheme. If a fixed name looks wrong, keep it and record the concern as an open assumption in the task's Background and in your report.

For one task, exact references to the design and specs may replace copied artifact text. When a test plan is supplied, also cite it for the assigned INT-* and E2E-* obligations:

# Task: <Title>
 
## Goal
<Outcome and reason>
 
## Background
You MUST read:
-`design.md` for <relevant decisions>
-`specs/<capability>/spec.md` for <requirements and scenarios>
 
<Relevant paths, constraints, and context>
 
## Test Plan
-`<INT-* or E2E-*>`: <strategy and completion signal>
 
## Done When
<Concrete delivery signals, including the assigned automated obligations>

When a test plan is supplied, include - test-plan.md for <assigned INT/E2E obligations> under You MUST read and the ## Test Plan section shown above. Otherwise omit both and use ordinary completion signals under ## Done When.

For multiple tasks, each file must stand alone and must not refer to another task:

# Task: <Title>
 
## Goal
<Outcome and reason>
 
## Background
<Motivation, design decisions, exact paths/APIs, and constraints>
 
## Spec
<Relevant requirements and scenarios copied verbatim>
 
## Done When
<Scenarios and automated obligations pass, plus concrete delivery signals>

When a test plan is supplied, add a ## Test Plan section with the assigned INT-* and E2E-* obligations and relevant strategy; otherwise omit that section and test-plan-specific completion signals.

Keep all variants of one behavior together. If tasks genuinely share a scenario, copy it into each and state that task's portion. A standalone refactor is justified only when it is independently risky and reviewable; otherwise keep refactoring with the behavior it enables.

Order multiple tasks by real dependencies and use matching zero-padded prefixes. Write <change-dir>/tasks.md with one linked checkbox per task:

-[ ] [<Task title>](tasks/01-<slug>.md)
-[ ] [<Task title>](tasks/02-<slug>.md)

The task title MUST be an actual Markdown link. A path in an inline code span is not a link.

Report the task count, titles, and index path. Do not invoke another lifecycle skill.