---
name: gsd-plan-phase
description: "Create detailed phase plan (PLAN.md) with verification loop"
argument-hint: "[phase] [--auto] [--research] [--skip-research] [--gaps] [--skip-verify] [--prd <file>] [--reviews] [--text]"
agent: gsd-planner
allowed-tools:
  - Read
  - Write
  - Bash
  - Glob
  - Grep
  - Task
  - AskUserQuestion
  - WebFetch
  - mcp__context7__*
---


<objective>
Create executable phase prompts (PLAN.md files) for a roadmap phase with integrated research and verification.

**Default flow:** Research (if needed) → Plan → Verify → Done

**Orchestrator role:** Parse arguments, validate phase, research domain (unless skipped), spawn gsd-planner, verify with gsd-plan-checker, iterate until pass or max iterations, present results.
</objective>

<!-- Workflow content (was: plan-phase.md) -->
<purpose>
Create executable phase prompts (PLAN.md files) for a roadmap phase with integrated research and verification. Default flow: Research (if needed) -> Plan -> Verify -> Done. Orchestrates gsd-phase-researcher, gsd-planner, and gsd-plan-checker agents with a revision loop (max 3 iterations).
</purpose>

<required_reading>
Read the skill content below before starting.

@${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/ui-brand.md
</required_reading>

<available_agent_types>
Valid GSD subagent types (use exact names — do not fall back to 'general-purpose'):
- gsd-phase-researcher — Researches technical approaches for a phase
- gsd-planner — Creates detailed plans from phase scope
- gsd-plan-checker — Reviews plan quality before execution
</available_agent_types>

<process>

## 1. Initialize

Load all context in one call (paths only to minimize orchestrator context):

```bash
INIT=$(node "$GSD_TOOLS" init plan-phase "$PHASE")
if [[ "$INIT" == @file:* ]]; then INIT=$(cat "${INIT#@file:}"); fi
AGENT_SKILLS_RESEARCHER=$(node "$GSD_TOOLS" agent-skills gsd-researcher 2>/dev/null)
AGENT_SKILLS_PLANNER=$(node "$GSD_TOOLS" agent-skills gsd-planner 2>/dev/null)
AGENT_SKILLS_CHECKER=$(node "$GSD_TOOLS" agent-skills gsd-checker 2>/dev/null)
CONTEXT_WINDOW=$(node "$GSD_TOOLS" config-get context_window 2>/dev/null || echo "200000")
```

When `CONTEXT_WINDOW >= 500000`, the planner prompt includes prior phase CONTEXT.md files so cross-phase decisions are consistent (e.g., "use library X for all data fetching" from Phase 2 is visible to Phase 5's planner).

Parse JSON for: `researcher_model`, `planner_model`, `checker_model`, `research_enabled`, `plan_checker_enabled`, `nyquist_validation_enabled`, `commit_docs`, `text_mode`, `phase_found`, `phase_dir`, `phase_number`, `phase_name`, `phase_slug`, `padded_phase`, `has_research`, `has_context`, `has_reviews`, `has_plans`, `plan_count`, `planning_exists`, `roadmap_exists`, `phase_req_ids`, `response_language`.

**If `response_language` is set:** Include `response_language: {value}` in all spawned subagent prompts so any user-facing output stays in the configured language.

**File paths (for <files_to_read> blocks):** `state_path`, `roadmap_path`, `requirements_path`, `context_path`, `research_path`, `verification_path`, `uat_path`, `reviews_path`. These are null if files don't exist.

**If `planning_exists` is false:** Error — run `/gsd-new-project` first.

## 2. Parse and Normalize Arguments

Extract from $ARGUMENTS: phase number (integer or decimal like `2.1`), flags (`--research`, `--skip-research`, `--gaps`, `--skip-verify`, `--prd <filepath>`, `--reviews`, `--text`).

Set `TEXT_MODE=true` if `--text` is present in $ARGUMENTS OR `text_mode` from init JSON is `true`. When `TEXT_MODE` is active, replace every `AskUserQuestion` call with a plain-text numbered list and ask the user to type their choice number. This is required for Claude Code remote sessions (`/rc` mode) where TUI menus don't work through the Claude App.

Extract `--prd <filepath>` from $ARGUMENTS. If present, set PRD_FILE to the filepath.

**If no phase number:** Detect next unplanned phase from roadmap.

**If `phase_found` is false:** Validate phase exists in ROADMAP.md. If valid, create the directory using `phase_slug` and `padded_phase` from init:
```bash
mkdir -p ".planning/phases/${padded_phase}-${phase_slug}"
```

**Existing artifacts from init:** `has_research`, `has_plans`, `plan_count`.

## 2.5. Validate `--reviews` Prerequisite

**Skip if:** No `--reviews` flag.

**If `--reviews` AND `--gaps`:** Error — cannot combine `--reviews` with `--gaps`. These are conflicting modes.

**If `--reviews` AND `has_reviews` is false (no REVIEWS.md in phase dir):**

Error:
```
No REVIEWS.md found for Phase {N}. Run reviews first:

/gsd-review --phase {N}

Then re-run /gsd-plan-phase {N} --reviews
```
Exit workflow.

## 3. Validate Phase

```bash
PHASE_INFO=$(node "$GSD_TOOLS" roadmap get-phase "${PHASE}")
```

**If `found` is false:** Error with available phases. **If `found` is true:** Extract `phase_number`, `phase_name`, `goal` from JSON.

## 3.5. Handle PRD Express Path

**Skip if:** No `--prd` flag in arguments.

**If `--prd <filepath>` provided:**

1. Read the PRD file:
```bash
PRD_CONTENT=$(cat "$PRD_FILE" 2>/dev/null)
if [ -z "$PRD_CONTENT" ]; then
  echo "Error: PRD file not found: $PRD_FILE"
  exit 1
fi
```

2. Display banner:
```
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 GSD ► PRD EXPRESS PATH
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Using PRD: {PRD_FILE}
Generating CONTEXT.md from requirements...
```

3. Parse the PRD content and generate CONTEXT.md. The orchestrator should:
   - Extract all requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, and constraints from the PRD
   - Map each to a locked decision (everything in the PRD is treated as a locked decision)
   - Identify any areas the PRD doesn't cover and mark as "Claude's Discretion"
   - **Extract canonical refs** from ROADMAP.md for this phase, plus any specs/ADRs referenced in the PRD — expand to full file paths (MANDATORY)
   - Create CONTEXT.md in the phase directory

4. Write CONTEXT.md:
```markdown
# Phase [X]: [Name] - Context

**Gathered:** [date]
**Status:** Ready for planning
**Source:** PRD Express Path ({PRD_FILE})

<domain>
## Phase Boundary

[Extracted from PRD — what this phase delivers]

</domain>

<decisions>
## Implementation Decisions

{For each requirement/story/criterion in the PRD:}
### [Category derived from content]
- [Requirement as locked decision]

### Claude's Discretion
[Areas not covered by PRD — implementation details, technical choices]

</decisions>

<canonical_refs>
## Canonical References

**Downstream agents MUST read these before planning or implementing.**

[MANDATORY. Extract from ROADMAP.md and any docs referenced in the PRD.
Use full relative paths. Group by topic area.]

### [Topic area]
- `path/to/spec-or-adr.md` — [What it decides/defines]

[If no external specs: "No external specs — requirements fully captured in decisions above"]

</canonical_refs>

<specifics>
## Specific Ideas

[Any specific references, examples, or concrete requirements from PRD]

</specifics>

<deferred>
## Deferred Ideas

[Items in PRD explicitly marked as future/v2/out-of-scope]
[If none: "None — PRD covers phase scope"]

</deferred>

---

*Phase: XX-name*
*Context gathered: [date] via PRD Express Path*
```

5. Commit:
```bash
node "$GSD_TOOLS" commit "docs(${padded_phase}): generate context from PRD" --files "${phase_dir}/${padded_phase}-CONTEXT.md"
```

6. Set `context_content` to the generated CONTEXT.md content and continue to step 5 (Handle Research).

**Effect:** This completely bypasses step 4 (Load CONTEXT.md) since we just created it. The rest of the workflow (research, planning, verification) proceeds normally with the PRD-derived context.

## 4. Load CONTEXT.md

**Skip if:** PRD express path was used (CONTEXT.md already created in step 3.5).

Check `context_path` from init JSON.

If `context_path` is not null, display: `Using phase context from: ${context_path}`

**If `context_path` is null (no CONTEXT.md exists):**

Read discuss mode for context gate label:
```bash
DISCUSS_MODE=$(node "$GSD_TOOLS" config-get workflow.discuss_mode 2>/dev/null || echo "discuss")
```

If `TEXT_MODE` is true, present as a plain-text numbered list:
```
No CONTEXT.md found for Phase {X}. Plans will use research and requirements only — your design preferences won't be included.

1. Continue without context — Plan using research + requirements only
[If DISCUSS_MODE is "assumptions":]
2. Gather context (assumptions mode) — Analyze codebase and surface assumptions before planning
[If DISCUSS_MODE is "discuss" or unset:]
2. Run discuss-phase first — Capture design decisions before planning

Enter number:
```

Otherwise use AskUserQuestion:
- header: "No context"
- question: "No CONTEXT.md found for Phase {X}. Plans will use research and requirements only — your design preferences won't be included. Continue or capture context first?"
- options:
  - "Continue without context" — Plan using research + requirements only
  If `DISCUSS_MODE` is `"assumptions"`:
  - "Gather context (assumptions mode)" — Analyze codebase and surface assumptions before planning
  If `DISCUSS_MODE` is `"discuss"` (or unset):
  - "Run discuss-phase first" — Capture design decisions before planning

If "Continue without context": Proceed to step 5.
If "Run discuss-phase first":
  **IMPORTANT:** Do NOT invoke discuss-phase as a nested Skill/Task call — AskUserQuestion
  does not work correctly in nested subcontexts (#1009). Instead, display the command
  and exit so the user runs it as a top-level command:
  ```
  Run this command first, then re-run /gsd-plan-phase {X} ${GSD_WS}:

  /gsd-discuss-phase {X} ${GSD_WS}
  ```
  **Exit the plan-phase workflow. Do not continue.**

## 5. Handle Research

**Skip if:** `--gaps` flag or `--skip-research` flag or `--reviews` flag.

**If `has_research` is true (from init) AND no `--research` flag:** Use existing, skip to step 6.

**If RESEARCH.md missing OR `--research` flag:**

**If no explicit flag (`--research` or `--skip-research`) and not `--auto`:**
Ask the user whether to research, with a contextual recommendation based on the phase:

If `TEXT_MODE` is true, present as a plain-text numbered list:
```
Research before planning Phase {X}: {phase_name}?

1. Research first (Recommended) — Investigate domain, patterns, and dependencies before planning. Best for new features, unfamiliar integrations, or architectural changes.
2. Skip research — Plan directly from context and requirements. Best for bug fixes, simple refactors, or well-understood tasks.

Enter number:
```

Otherwise use AskUserQuestion:
```
AskUserQuestion([
  {
    question: "Research before planning Phase {X}: {phase_name}?",
    header: "Research",
    multiSelect: false,
    options: [
      { label: "Research first (Recommended)", description: "Investigate domain, patterns, and dependencies before planning. Best for new features, unfamiliar integrations, or architectural changes." },
      { label: "Skip research", description: "Plan directly from context and requirements. Best for bug fixes, simple refactors, or well-understood tasks." }
    ]
  }
])
```

If user selects "Skip research": skip to step 6.

**If `--auto` and `research_enabled` is false:** Skip research silently (preserves automated behavior).

Display banner:
```
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 GSD ► RESEARCHING PHASE {X}
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

◆ Spawning researcher...
```

### Spawn gsd-phase-researcher

```bash
PHASE_DESC=$(node "$GSD_TOOLS" roadmap get-phase "${PHASE}" --pick section)
```

Research prompt:

```markdown
<objective>
Research how to implement Phase {phase_number}: {phase_name}
Answer: "What do I need to know to PLAN this phase well?"
</objective>

<files_to_read>
- {context_path} (USER DECISIONS from /gsd-discuss-phase)
- {requirements_path} (Project requirements)
- {state_path} (Project decisions and history)
</files_to_read>

${AGENT_SKILLS_RESEARCHER}

<additional_context>
**Phase description:** {phase_description}
**Phase requirement IDs (MUST address):** {phase_req_ids}

**Project instructions:** Read ./CLAUDE.md if exists — follow project-specific guidelines
**Project skills:** Check .claude/skills/ or .agents/skills/ directory (if either exists) — read SKILL.md files, research should account for project skill patterns
</additional_context>

<output>
Write to: {phase_dir}/{phase_num}-RESEARCH.md
</output>
```

```
Task(
  prompt=research_prompt,
  subagent_type="gsd-phase-researcher",
  model="{researcher_model}",
  description="Research Phase {phase}"
)
```

### Handle Researcher Return

- **`## RESEARCH COMPLETE`:** Display confirmation, continue to step 6
- **`## RESEARCH BLOCKED`:** Display blocker, offer: 1) Provide context, 2) Skip research, 3) Abort

## 5.5. Create Validation Strategy

Skip if `nyquist_validation_enabled` is false OR `research_enabled` is false.

If `research_enabled` is false and `nyquist_validation_enabled` is true: warn "Nyquist validation enabled but research disabled — VALIDATION.md cannot be created without RESEARCH.md. Plans will lack validation requirements (Dimension 8)." Continue to step 6.

**But Nyquist is not applicable for this run** when all of the following are true:
- `research_enabled` is false
- `has_research` is false
- no `--research` flag was provided

In that case: **skip validation-strategy creation entirely**. Do **not** expect `RESEARCH.md` or `VALIDATION.md` for this run, and continue to Step 6.

```bash
grep -l "## Validation Architecture" "${PHASE_DIR}"/*-RESEARCH.md 2>/dev/null || true
```

**If found:**
1. Read template: `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/templates/VALIDATION.md`
2. Write to `${PHASE_DIR}/${PADDED_PHASE}-VALIDATION.md` (use Write tool)
3. Fill frontmatter: `{N}` → phase number, `{phase-slug}` → slug, `{date}` → current date
4. Verify:
```bash
test -f "${PHASE_DIR}/${PADDED_PHASE}-VALIDATION.md" && echo "VALIDATION_CREATED=true" || echo "VALIDATION_CREATED=false"
```
5. If `VALIDATION_CREATED=false`: STOP — do not proceed to Step 6
6. If `commit_docs`: `commit "docs(phase-${PHASE}): add validation strategy"`

**If not found:** Warn and continue — plans may fail Dimension 8.

## 5.55. Security Threat Model Gate

> Skip if `workflow.security_enforcement` is explicitly `false`. Absent = enabled.

```bash
SECURITY_CFG=$(node "$GSD_TOOLS" config-get workflow.security_enforcement --raw 2>/dev/null || echo "true")
SECURITY_ASVS=$(node "$GSD_TOOLS" config-get workflow.security_asvs_level --raw 2>/dev/null || echo "1")
SECURITY_BLOCK=$(node "$GSD_TOOLS" config-get workflow.security_block_on --raw 2>/dev/null || echo "high")
```

**If `SECURITY_CFG` is `false`:** Skip to step 5.6.

**If `SECURITY_CFG` is `true`:** Display banner:

```
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 GSD ► SECURITY THREAT MODEL REQUIRED (ASVS L{SECURITY_ASVS})
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Each PLAN.md must include a <threat_model> block.
Block on: {SECURITY_BLOCK} severity threats.
Opt out: set security_enforcement: false in .planning/config.json
```

Continue to step 5.6. Security config is passed to the planner in step 8.

## 5.6. UI Design Contract Gate

> Skip if `workflow.ui_phase` is explicitly `false` AND `workflow.ui_safety_gate` is explicitly `false` in `.planning/config.json`. If keys are absent, treat as enabled.

```bash
UI_PHASE_CFG=$(node "$GSD_TOOLS" config-get workflow.ui_phase 2>/dev/null || echo "true")
UI_GATE_CFG=$(node "$GSD_TOOLS" config-get workflow.ui_safety_gate 2>/dev/null || echo "true")
```

**If both are `false`:** Skip to step 6.

Check if phase has frontend indicators:

```bash
PHASE_SECTION=$(node "$GSD_TOOLS" roadmap get-phase "${PHASE}" 2>/dev/null)
echo "$PHASE_SECTION" | grep -iE "UI|interface|frontend|component|layout|page|screen|view|form|dashboard|widget" > /dev/null 2>&1
HAS_UI=$?
```

**If `HAS_UI` is 0 (frontend indicators found):**

Check for existing UI-SPEC:
```bash
UI_SPEC_FILE=$(ls "${PHASE_DIR}"/*-UI-SPEC.md 2>/dev/null | head -1)
```

**If UI-SPEC.md found:** Set `UI_SPEC_PATH=$UI_SPEC_FILE`. Display: `Using UI design contract: ${UI_SPEC_PATH}`

**If UI-SPEC.md missing AND `UI_GATE_CFG` is `true`:**

Read auto-chain state:
```bash
AUTO_CHAIN=$(node "$GSD_TOOLS" config-get workflow._auto_chain_active 2>/dev/null || echo "false")
```

**If `AUTO_CHAIN` is `true` (running inside a `--chain` or `--auto` pipeline):**

Auto-generate UI-SPEC without prompting:
```
Skill(skill="gsd-ui-phase", args="${PHASE} --auto ${GSD_WS}")
```
After `gsd-ui-phase` returns, re-read:
```bash
UI_SPEC_FILE=$(ls "${PHASE_DIR}"/*-UI-SPEC.md 2>/dev/null | head -1)
UI_SPEC_PATH="${UI_SPEC_FILE}"
```
Continue to step 6.

**If `AUTO_CHAIN` is `false` (manual invocation):**

If `TEXT_MODE` is true, present as a plain-text numbered list:
```
Phase {N} has frontend indicators but no UI-SPEC.md. Generate a design contract before planning?

1. Generate UI-SPEC first — Run /gsd-ui-phase {N} then re-run /gsd-plan-phase {N}
2. Continue without UI-SPEC
3. Not a frontend phase

Enter number:
```

Otherwise use AskUserQuestion:
- header: "UI Design Contract"
- question: "Phase {N} has frontend indicators but no UI-SPEC.md. Generate a design contract before planning?"
- options:
  - "Generate UI-SPEC first" → Display: "Run `/gsd-ui-phase {N} ${GSD_WS}` then re-run `/gsd-plan-phase {N} ${GSD_WS}`". Exit workflow.
  - "Continue without UI-SPEC" → Continue to step 6.
  - "Not a frontend phase" → Continue to step 6.

**If `HAS_UI` is 1 (no frontend indicators):** Skip silently to step 5.7.

## 5.7. Schema Push Detection Gate

> Detects schema-relevant files in the phase scope and injects a mandatory `[BLOCKING]` schema push task into the plan. Prevents false-positive verification where build/types pass because TypeScript types come from config, not the live database.

Check if any files in the phase scope match schema patterns:

```bash
PHASE_SECTION=$(node "$GSD_TOOLS" roadmap get-phase "${PHASE}" --pick section 2>/dev/null)
```

Scan `PHASE_SECTION`, `CONTEXT.md` (if loaded), and `RESEARCH.md` (if exists) for file paths matching these ORM patterns:

| ORM | File Patterns |
|-----|--------------|
| Payload CMS | `src/collections/**/*.ts`, `src/globals/**/*.ts` |
| Prisma | `prisma/schema.prisma`, `prisma/schema/*.prisma` |
| Drizzle | `drizzle/schema.ts`, `src/db/schema.ts`, `drizzle/*.ts` |
| Supabase | `supabase/migrations/*.sql` |
| TypeORM | `src/entities/**/*.ts`, `src/migrations/**/*.ts` |

Also check if any existing PLAN.md files for this phase already reference these file patterns in `files_modified`.

**If schema-relevant files detected:**

Set `SCHEMA_PUSH_REQUIRED=true` and `SCHEMA_ORM={detected_orm}`.

Determine the push command for the detected ORM:

| ORM | Push Command | Non-TTY Workaround |
|-----|-------------|-------------------|
| Payload CMS | `npx payload migrate` | `CI=true PAYLOAD_MIGRATING=true npx payload migrate` |
| Prisma | `npx prisma db push` | `npx prisma db push --accept-data-loss` (if destructive) |
| Drizzle | `npx drizzle-kit push` | `npx drizzle-kit push` |
| Supabase | `supabase db push` | Set `SUPABASE_ACCESS_TOKEN` env var |
| TypeORM | `npx typeorm migration:run` | `npx typeorm migration:run -d src/data-source.ts` |

Inject the following into the planner prompt (step 8) as an additional constraint:

```markdown
<schema_push_requirement>
**[BLOCKING] Schema Push Required**

This phase modifies schema-relevant files ({detected_files}). The planner MUST include
a `[BLOCKING]` task that runs the database schema push command AFTER all schema file
modifications are complete but BEFORE verification.

- ORM detected: {SCHEMA_ORM}
- Push command: {push_command}
- Non-TTY workaround: {env_hint}
- If push requires interactive prompts that cannot be suppressed, flag the task for
  manual intervention with `autonomous: false`

This task is mandatory — the phase CANNOT pass verification without it. Build and
type checks will pass without the push (types come from config, not the live database),
creating a false-positive verification state.
</schema_push_requirement>
```

Display: `Schema files detected ({SCHEMA_ORM}) — [BLOCKING] push task will be injected into plans`

**If no schema-relevant files detected:** Skip silently to step 6.

## 6. Check Existing Plans

```bash
ls "${PHASE_DIR}"/*-PLAN.md 2>/dev/null || true
```

**If exists AND `--reviews` flag:** Skip prompt — go straight to replanning (the purpose of `--reviews` is to replan with review feedback).

**If exists AND no `--reviews` flag:** Offer: 1) Add more plans, 2) View existing, 3) Replan from scratch.

## 7. Use Context Paths from INIT

Extract from INIT JSON:

```bash
_gsd_field() { node -e "const o=JSON.parse(process.argv[1]); const v=o[process.argv[2]]; process.stdout.write(v==null?'':String(v))" "$1" "$2"; }
STATE_PATH=$(_gsd_field "$INIT" state_path)
ROADMAP_PATH=$(_gsd_field "$INIT" roadmap_path)
REQUIREMENTS_PATH=$(_gsd_field "$INIT" requirements_path)
RESEARCH_PATH=$(_gsd_field "$INIT" research_path)
VERIFICATION_PATH=$(_gsd_field "$INIT" verification_path)
UAT_PATH=$(_gsd_field "$INIT" uat_path)
CONTEXT_PATH=$(_gsd_field "$INIT" context_path)
REVIEWS_PATH=$(_gsd_field "$INIT" reviews_path)
```

## 7.5. Verify Nyquist Artifacts

Skip if `nyquist_validation_enabled` is false OR `research_enabled` is false.

Also skip if all of the following are true:
- `research_enabled` is false
- `has_research` is false
- no `--research` flag was provided

In that no-research path, Nyquist artifacts are **not required** for this run.

```bash
VALIDATION_EXISTS=$(ls "${PHASE_DIR}"/*-VALIDATION.md 2>/dev/null | head -1)
```

If missing and Nyquist is still enabled/applicable — ask user:
1. Re-run: `/gsd-plan-phase {PHASE} --research ${GSD_WS}`
2. Disable Nyquist with the exact command:
   `node "$GSD_TOOLS" config-set workflow.nyquist_validation false`
3. Continue anyway (plans fail Dimension 8)

Proceed to Step 8 only if user selects 2 or 3.

## 8. Spawn gsd-planner Agent

Display banner:
```
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 GSD ► PLANNING PHASE {X}
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

◆ Spawning planner...
```

Planner prompt:

```markdown
<planning_context>
**Phase:** {phase_number}
**Mode:** {standard | gap_closure | reviews}

<files_to_read>
- {state_path} (Project State)
- {roadmap_path} (Roadmap)
- {requirements_path} (Requirements)
- {context_path} (USER DECISIONS from /gsd-discuss-phase)
- {research_path} (Technical Research)
- {verification_path} (Verification Gaps - if --gaps)
- {uat_path} (UAT Gaps - if --gaps)
- {reviews_path} (Cross-AI Review Feedback - if --reviews)
- {UI_SPEC_PATH} (UI Design Contract — visual/interaction specs, if exists)
${CONTEXT_WINDOW >= 500000 ? `
**Cross-phase context (1M model enrichment):**
- Prior phase CONTEXT.md files (locked decisions from earlier phases — maintain consistency)
- Prior phase SUMMARY.md files (what was actually built — reuse patterns, avoid duplication)
` : ''}
</files_to_read>

${AGENT_SKILLS_PLANNER}

**Phase requirement IDs (every ID MUST appear in a plan's `requirements` field):** {phase_req_ids}

**Project instructions:** Read ./CLAUDE.md if exists — follow project-specific guidelines
**Project skills:** Check .claude/skills/ or .agents/skills/ directory (if either exists) — read SKILL.md files, plans should account for project skill rules

</planning_context>

<downstream_consumer>
Output consumed by /gsd-execute-phase. Plans need:
- Frontmatter (wave, depends_on, files_modified, autonomous)
- Tasks in XML format with read_first and acceptance_criteria fields (MANDATORY on every task)
- Verification criteria
- must_haves for goal-backward verification
</downstream_consumer>

<deep_work_rules>
## Anti-Shallow Execution Rules (MANDATORY)

Every task MUST include these fields — they are NOT optional:

1. **`<read_first>`** — Files the executor MUST read before touching anything. Always include:
   - The file being modified (so executor sees current state, not assumptions)
   - Any "source of truth" file referenced in CONTEXT.md (reference implementations, existing patterns, config files, schemas)
   - Any file whose patterns, signatures, types, or conventions must be replicated or respected

2. **`<acceptance_criteria>`** — Verifiable conditions that prove the task was done correctly. Rules:
   - Every criterion must be checkable with grep, file read, test command, or CLI output
   - NEVER use subjective language ("looks correct", "properly configured", "consistent with")
   - ALWAYS include exact strings, patterns, values, or command outputs that must be present
   - Examples:
     - Code: `auth.py contains def verify_token(` / `test_auth.py exits 0`
     - Config: `.env.example contains DATABASE_URL=` / `Dockerfile contains HEALTHCHECK`
     - Docs: `README.md contains '## Installation'` / `API.md lists all endpoints`
     - Infra: `deploy.yml has rollback step` / `docker-compose.yml has healthcheck for db`

3. **`<action>`** — Must include CONCRETE values, not references. Rules:
   - NEVER say "align X with Y", "match X to Y", "update to be consistent" without specifying the exact target state
   - ALWAYS include the actual values: config keys, function signatures, SQL statements, class names, import paths, env vars, etc.
   - If CONTEXT.md has a comparison table or expected values, copy them into the action verbatim
   - The executor should be able to complete the task from the action text alone, without needing to read CONTEXT.md or reference files (read_first is for verification, not discovery)

**Why this matters:** Executor agents work from the plan text. Vague instructions like "update the config to match production" produce shallow one-line changes. Concrete instructions like "add DATABASE_URL=postgresql://... , set POOL_SIZE=20, add REDIS_URL=redis://..." produce complete work. The cost of verbose plans is far less than the cost of re-doing shallow execution.
</deep_work_rules>

<quality_gate>
- [ ] PLAN.md files created in phase directory
- [ ] Each plan has valid frontmatter
- [ ] Tasks are specific and actionable
- [ ] Every task has `<read_first>` with at least the file being modified
- [ ] Every task has `<acceptance_criteria>` with grep-verifiable conditions
- [ ] Every `<action>` contains concrete values (no "align X with Y" without specifying what)
- [ ] Dependencies correctly identified
- [ ] Waves assigned for parallel execution
- [ ] must_haves derived from phase goal
</quality_gate>
```

```
Task(
  prompt=filled_prompt,
  subagent_type="gsd-planner",
  model="{planner_model}",
  description="Plan Phase {phase}"
)
```

## 9. Handle Planner Return

- **`## PLANNING COMPLETE`:** Display plan count. If `--skip-verify` or `plan_checker_enabled` is false (from init): skip to step 13. Otherwise: step 10.
- **`## PHASE SPLIT RECOMMENDED`:** The planner determined the phase is too complex to implement all user decisions without simplifying them. Handle in step 9b.
- **`## CHECKPOINT REACHED`:** Present to user, get response, spawn continuation (step 12)
- **`## PLANNING INCONCLUSIVE`:** Show attempts, offer: Add context / Retry / Manual

## 9b. Handle Phase Split Recommendation

When the planner returns `## PHASE SPLIT RECOMMENDED`, it means the phase has too many decisions to implement at full fidelity within the plan budget. The planner proposes groupings.

**Extract from planner return:**
- Proposed sub-phases (e.g., "17a: processing core (D-01 to D-19)", "17b: billing + config UX (D-20 to D-27)")
- Which D-XX decisions go in each sub-phase
- Why the split is necessary (decision count, complexity estimate)

**Present to user:**
```
## Phase {X} is too complex for full-fidelity implementation

The planner found {N} decisions that cannot all be implemented without
simplifying some. Instead of reducing your decisions, we recommend splitting:

**Option 1: Split into sub-phases**
- Phase {X}a: {name} — {D-XX to D-YY} ({N} decisions)
- Phase {X}b: {name} — {D-XX to D-YY} ({M} decisions)

**Option 2: Proceed anyway** (planner will attempt all, quality may degrade)

**Option 3: Prioritize** — you choose which decisions to implement now,
rest become a follow-up phase
```

Use AskUserQuestion with these 3 options.

**If "Split":** Use `/gsd-insert-phase` to create the sub-phases, then replan each.
**If "Proceed":** Return to planner with instruction to attempt all decisions at full fidelity, accepting more plans/tasks.
**If "Prioritize":** Use AskUserQuestion (multiSelect) to let user pick which D-XX are "now" vs "later". Create CONTEXT.md for each sub-phase with the selected decisions.

## 10. Spawn gsd-plan-checker Agent

Display banner:
```
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 GSD ► VERIFYING PLANS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

◆ Spawning plan checker...
```

Checker prompt:

```markdown
<verification_context>
**Phase:** {phase_number}
**Phase Goal:** {goal from ROADMAP}

<files_to_read>
- {PHASE_DIR}/*-PLAN.md (Plans to verify)
- {roadmap_path} (Roadmap)
- {requirements_path} (Requirements)
- {context_path} (USER DECISIONS from /gsd-discuss-phase)
- {research_path} (Technical Research — includes Validation Architecture)
</files_to_read>

${AGENT_SKILLS_CHECKER}

**Phase requirement IDs (MUST ALL be covered):** {phase_req_ids}

**Project instructions:** Read ./CLAUDE.md if exists — verify plans honor project guidelines
**Project skills:** Check .claude/skills/ or .agents/skills/ directory (if either exists) — verify plans account for project skill rules
</verification_context>

<expected_output>
- ## VERIFICATION PASSED — all checks pass
- ## ISSUES FOUND — structured issue list
</expected_output>
```

```
Task(
  prompt=checker_prompt,
  subagent_type="gsd-plan-checker",
  model="{checker_model}",
  description="Verify Phase {phase} plans"
)
```

## 11. Handle Checker Return

- **`## VERIFICATION PASSED`:** Display confirmation, proceed to step 13.
- **`## ISSUES FOUND`:** Display issues, check iteration count, proceed to step 12.

## 12. Revision Loop (Max 3 Iterations)

Track `iteration_count` (starts at 1 after initial plan + check).

**If iteration_count < 3:**

Display: `Sending back to planner for revision... (iteration {N}/3)`

Revision prompt:

```markdown
<revision_context>
**Phase:** {phase_number}
**Mode:** revision

<files_to_read>
- {PHASE_DIR}/*-PLAN.md (Existing plans)
- {context_path} (USER DECISIONS from /gsd-discuss-phase)
</files_to_read>

${AGENT_SKILLS_PLANNER}

**Checker issues:** {structured_issues_from_checker}
</revision_context>

<instructions>
Make targeted updates to address checker issues.
Do NOT replan from scratch unless issues are fundamental.
Return what changed.
</instructions>
```

```
Task(
  prompt=revision_prompt,
  subagent_type="gsd-planner",
  model="{planner_model}",
  description="Revise Phase {phase} plans"
)
```

After planner returns -> spawn checker again (step 10), increment iteration_count.

**If iteration_count >= 3:**

Display: `Max iterations reached. {N} issues remain:` + issue list

Offer: 1) Force proceed, 2) Provide guidance and retry, 3) Abandon

## 13. Requirements Coverage Gate

After plans pass the checker (or checker is skipped), verify that all phase requirements are covered by at least one plan.

**Skip if:** `phase_req_ids` is null or TBD (no requirements mapped to this phase).

**Step 1: Extract requirement IDs claimed by plans**
```bash
# Collect all requirement IDs from plan frontmatter
PLAN_REQS=$(grep -h "requirements_addressed\|requirements:" ${PHASE_DIR}/*-PLAN.md 2>/dev/null | tr -d '[]' | tr ',' '\n' | sed 's/^[[:space:]]*//' | sort -u)
```

**Step 2: Compare against phase requirements from ROADMAP**

For each REQ-ID in `phase_req_ids`:
- If REQ-ID appears in `PLAN_REQS` → covered ✓
- If REQ-ID does NOT appear in any plan → uncovered ✗

**Step 3: Check CONTEXT.md features against plan objectives**

Read CONTEXT.md `<decisions>` section. Extract feature/capability names. Check each against plan `<objective>` blocks. Features not mentioned in any plan objective → potentially dropped.

**Step 4: Report**

If all requirements covered and no dropped features:
```
✓ Requirements coverage: {N}/{N} REQ-IDs covered by plans
```
→ Proceed to step 14.

If gaps found:
```
## ⚠ Requirements Coverage Gap

{M} of {N} phase requirements are not assigned to any plan:

| REQ-ID | Description | Plans |
|--------|-------------|-------|
| {id} | {from REQUIREMENTS.md} | None |

{K} CONTEXT.md features not found in plan objectives:
- {feature_name} — described in CONTEXT.md but no plan covers it

Options:
1. Re-plan to include missing requirements (recommended)
2. Move uncovered requirements to next phase
3. Proceed anyway — accept coverage gaps
```

If `TEXT_MODE` is true, present as a plain-text numbered list (options already shown in the block above). Otherwise use AskUserQuestion to present the options.

## 13b. Record Planning Completion in STATE.md

After plans pass all gates, record that planning is complete so STATE.md reflects the new phase status:

```bash
node "$GSD_TOOLS" state planned-phase --phase "${PHASE_NUMBER}" --name "${PHASE_NAME}" --plans "${PLAN_COUNT}"
```

This updates STATUS to "Ready to execute", sets the correct plan count, and timestamps Last Activity.

## 14. Present Final Status

Route to `<offer_next>` OR `auto_advance` depending on flags/config.

## 15. Auto-Advance Check

Check for auto-advance trigger:

1. Parse `--auto` and `--chain` flags from $ARGUMENTS
2. **Sync chain flag with intent** — if user invoked manually (no `--auto` and no `--chain`), clear the ephemeral chain flag from any previous interrupted `--auto` chain. This does NOT touch `workflow.auto_advance` (the user's persistent settings preference):
   ```bash
   if [[ ! "$ARGUMENTS" =~ --auto ]] && [[ ! "$ARGUMENTS" =~ --chain ]]; then
     node "$GSD_TOOLS" config-set workflow._auto_chain_active false 2>/dev/null
   fi
   ```
3. Read both the chain flag and user preference:
   ```bash
   AUTO_CHAIN=$(node "$GSD_TOOLS" config-get workflow._auto_chain_active 2>/dev/null || echo "false")
   AUTO_CFG=$(node "$GSD_TOOLS" config-get workflow.auto_advance 2>/dev/null || echo "false")
   ```

**If `--auto` or `--chain` flag present AND `AUTO_CHAIN` is not true:** Persist chain flag to config (handles direct invocation without prior discuss-phase):
```bash
if ([[ "$ARGUMENTS" =~ --auto ]] || [[ "$ARGUMENTS" =~ --chain ]]) && [[ "$AUTO_CHAIN" != "true" ]]; then
  node "$GSD_TOOLS" config-set workflow._auto_chain_active true
fi
```

**If `--auto` or `--chain` flag present OR `AUTO_CHAIN` is true OR `AUTO_CFG` is true:**

Display banner:
```
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 GSD ► AUTO-ADVANCING TO EXECUTE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Plans ready. Launching execute-phase...
```

Launch execute-phase using the Skill tool to avoid nested Task sessions (which cause runtime freezes due to deep agent nesting):
```
Skill(skill="gsd-execute-phase", args="${PHASE} --auto --no-transition ${GSD_WS}")
```

The `--no-transition` flag tells execute-phase to return status after verification instead of chaining further. This keeps the auto-advance chain flat — each phase runs at the same nesting level rather than spawning deeper Task agents.

**Handle execute-phase return:**
- **PHASE COMPLETE** → Display final summary:
  ```
  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
   GSD ► PHASE ${PHASE} COMPLETE ✓
  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

  Auto-advance pipeline finished.

  Next: /gsd-discuss-phase ${NEXT_PHASE} --auto ${GSD_WS}
  ```
- **GAPS FOUND / VERIFICATION FAILED** → Display result, stop chain:
  ```
  Auto-advance stopped: Execution needs review.

  Review the output above and continue manually:
  /gsd-execute-phase ${PHASE} ${GSD_WS}
  ```

**If neither `--auto` nor config enabled:**
Route to `<offer_next>` (existing behavior).

</process>

<offer_next>
Output this markdown directly (not as a code block):

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 GSD ► PHASE {X} PLANNED ✓
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

**Phase {X}: {Name}** — {N} plan(s) in {M} wave(s)

| Wave | Plans | What it builds |
|------|-------|----------------|
| 1    | 01, 02 | [objectives] |
| 2    | 03     | [objective]  |

Research: {Completed | Used existing | Skipped}
Verification: {Passed | Passed with override | Skipped}

───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

## ▶ Next Up

**Execute Phase {X}** — run all {N} plans

/clear then:

/gsd-execute-phase {X} ${GSD_WS}

───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

**Also available:**
- cat .planning/phases/{phase-dir}/*-PLAN.md — review plans
- /gsd-plan-phase {X} --research — re-research first
- /gsd-review --phase {X} --all — peer review plans with external AIs
- /gsd-plan-phase {X} --reviews — replan incorporating review feedback

───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
</offer_next>

<windows_troubleshooting>
**Windows users:** If plan-phase freezes during agent spawning (common on Windows due to
stdio deadlocks with MCP servers — see Claude Code issue anthropics/claude-code#28126):

1. **Force-kill:** Close the terminal (Ctrl+C may not work)
2. **Clean up orphaned processes:**
   ```powershell
   # Kill orphaned node processes from stale MCP servers
   Get-Process node -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Where-Object {$_.StartTime -lt (Get-Date).AddHours(-1)} | Stop-Process -Force
   ```
3. **Clean up stale task directories:**
   ```powershell
   # Remove stale subagent task dirs (Claude Code never cleans these on crash)
   Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:USERPROFILE\.claude\tasks\*" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
   ```
4. **Reduce MCP server count:** Temporarily disable non-essential MCP servers in settings.json
5. **Retry:** Restart Claude Code and run `/gsd-plan-phase` again

If freezes persist, try `--skip-research` to reduce the agent chain from 3 to 2 agents:
```
/gsd-plan-phase N --skip-research
```
</windows_troubleshooting>

<success_criteria>
- [ ] .planning/ directory validated
- [ ] Phase validated against roadmap
- [ ] Phase directory created if needed
- [ ] CONTEXT.md loaded early (step 4) and passed to ALL agents
- [ ] Research completed (unless --skip-research or --gaps or exists)
- [ ] gsd-phase-researcher spawned with CONTEXT.md
- [ ] Existing plans checked
- [ ] gsd-planner spawned with CONTEXT.md + RESEARCH.md
- [ ] Plans created (PLANNING COMPLETE or CHECKPOINT handled)
- [ ] gsd-plan-checker spawned with CONTEXT.md
- [ ] Verification passed OR user override OR max iterations with user decision
- [ ] User sees status between agent spawns
- [ ] User knows next steps
</success_criteria>


<runtime_note>
**Copilot (VS Code):** Use `vscode_askquestions` wherever this workflow calls `AskUserQuestion`. They are equivalent — `vscode_askquestions` is the VS Code Copilot implementation of the same interactive question API. Do not skip questioning steps because `AskUserQuestion` appears unavailable; use `vscode_askquestions` instead.
</runtime_note>

<context>
Phase number: $ARGUMENTS (optional — auto-detects next unplanned phase if omitted)

**Flags:**
- `--research` — Force re-research even if RESEARCH.md exists
- `--skip-research` — Skip research, go straight to planning
- `--gaps` — Gap closure mode (reads VERIFICATION.md, skips research)
- `--skip-verify` — Skip verification loop
- `--prd <file>` — Use a PRD/acceptance criteria file instead of discuss-phase. Parses requirements into CONTEXT.md automatically. Skips discuss-phase entirely.
- `--reviews` — Replan incorporating cross-AI review feedback from REVIEWS.md (produced by `/gsd-review`)
- `--text` — Use plain-text numbered lists instead of TUI menus (required for `/rc` remote sessions)

Normalize phase input in step 2 before any directory lookups.
</context>

<process>
Execute the plan-phase workflow steps embedded above end-to-end.
Preserve all workflow gates (validation, research, planning, verification loop, routing).
</process>