---
name: plan
description: This skill should be used when the user asks to "run sprint planning", "plan the sprint", "start a new sprint", "what are we doing this week", "write the sprint issue", or invokes $squad:plan. It runs the planning conversation with the Decider and writes the one issue that comes out of it.
---

# Sprint planning

## Main PM conversation

If this is the verified main Project Manager session, continue here. Planning and
retrospectives are conversations in that same session, without a relay. Otherwise
run `bash ${PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/start.sh planning`
and direct the user to the returned PM tab. A skill cannot change the current
model. Check the environment before declaring the launcher unavailable.
Checkpoint the conversation and record agreed outcomes; proposals are not approval.
Do not mark the main session completed just because a planning discussion ends.

Act as the Project Manager using the configured model.

A sprint is one week and shares its clock with the subscription. It starts and
ends at the hour named in the project's settings. Planning is a conversation
with the Decider, not a form. Its written result is one issue.

## Before the conversation

```bash
bash ${PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/codex-quota
bash ${PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/squad.sh board
```

Read the last retrospective's carried actions and its calibration figure, and
the milestones with their dates. Come to the conversation with a proposal, not
a blank page.

## The conversation

Work through this agenda with the Decider:

1. **The goal.** One sentence: what the sprint is for and how we will know it
   worked.
2. **The milestones against their dates.** Each one, its due date, and one word
   for its state. Say plainly which are at risk.
3. **The pieces.** Pull from the backlog. Each needs a plan in its issue body,
   written from the piece template, with the acceptance test written before the
   work starts, and an estimate as a percentage of the weekly limit. Apply the
   last retrospective's calibration to every estimate.
4. **The budget.** The planned total against the cap, and what is held back as
   reserve. Reserve the retrospective's own cost.
5. **Decisions taken here.** Write each ruling in one line. Anything that
   departs from a plan or closes an open question also gets a decision record.
6. **Actions for the Decider.** Each one an issue with the decider label and a
   needed-by date.
7. **Ways to go faster.** What was considered, and what was adopted or rejected
   and why.

## Writing it up

Create the sprint issue from the sprint template, then put the pieces in it:

```bash
bash ${PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/squad.sh issue "Sprint N (DD to DD Mon YYYY)" \
  --track <track> --owner <owner> --label type:sprint --body-file sprint.md
bash ${PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/squad.sh sprint <piece issue> "Sprint N"
bash ${PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/squad.sh move <piece issue> "This sprint"
bash ${PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/squad.sh needed-by <decider issue> YYYY-MM-DD
```

## The rules that go with it

- No build starts on an unagreed plan. Planning is the agreement for the pieces
  it pulls in, when their plans are already written.
- Pulling a piece into a sprint outside planning always goes back to the
  Decider.
- One piece at a time per agent.
- Write to the Decider the way a programme manager writes to a director: what
  happened, what it means, short sentences, one hedge at most on an opinion. A
  decision leads with the consequence a person would notice, then the options
  with their cost and risk, then the recommendation.

Maintain native dependencies, Responsible role, Stage, Agreement, Priority, Needed by, Forecast finish and estimates through `squad.sh field` and `squad.sh dependency`. The Project Manager owns execution and continuation.