SpecKit Plan

VerifiedSafe

Execute the implementation planning workflow using the plan template to generate design artifacts.

Sby Skills Guide Bot
DevelopmentIntermediate
207/23/2026
Claude Code
#spec-kit#planning-workflow#implementation#design-artifacts#extensions

Recommended for

Our review

Executes the implementation planning workflow using a plan template to generate design artifacts.

Strengths

  • Structured approach with predefined phases
  • Supports pre- and post-extension hooks
  • Generates multiple design artifacts (research, data model, contracts)
  • Built-in constitution compliance check

Limitations

  • Requires a spec-kit project structure with .specify/ directory
  • Depends on bash scripts and YAML parsing
  • Does not evaluate hook conditions
When to use it

When planning complex feature implementations that require thorough design documentation and artifact generation.

When not to use it

For simple tasks or ad-hoc changes where formal planning overhead is unnecessary.

Security analysis

Safe
Quality score85/100

The skill orchestrates a planning workflow using local file reads, writes, and a specified setup script. No network calls, destructive commands, or exfiltration risks are present. All actions are scoped to the project's .specify directory.

No concerns found

Examples

Plan user authentication feature
Execute speckit-plan for implementing user authentication with feature spec at docs/features/auth.md
Plan with custom arguments
Run speckit-plan with argument 'feature: payment-integration'

name: "speckit-plan" description: "Execute the implementation planning workflow using the plan template to generate design artifacts." compatibility: "Requires spec-kit project structure with .specify/ directory" metadata: author: "github-spec-kit" source: "templates/commands/plan.md"

User Input

$ARGUMENTS

You MUST consider the user input before proceeding (if not empty).

Pre-Execution Checks

Check for extension hooks (before planning):

  • Check if .specify/extensions.yml exists in the project root.
  • If it exists, read it and look for entries under the hooks.before_plan key
  • If the YAML cannot be parsed or is invalid, skip hook checking silently and continue normally
  • Filter out hooks where enabled is explicitly false. Treat hooks without an enabled field as enabled by default.
  • For each remaining hook, do not attempt to interpret or evaluate hook condition expressions:
    • If the hook has no condition field, or it is null/empty, treat the hook as executable
    • If the hook defines a non-empty condition, skip the hook and leave condition evaluation to the HookExecutor implementation
  • For each executable hook, output the following based on its optional flag:
    • Optional hook (optional: true):
      ## Extension Hooks
      
      **Optional Pre-Hook**: {extension}
      Command: `/{command}`
      Description: {description}
      
      Prompt: {prompt}
      To execute: `/{command}`
      
    • Mandatory hook (optional: false):
      ## Extension Hooks
      
      **Automatic Pre-Hook**: {extension}
      Executing: `/{command}`
      EXECUTE_COMMAND: {command}
      
      Wait for the result of the hook command before proceeding to the Outline.
      
  • If no hooks are registered or .specify/extensions.yml does not exist, skip silently

Outline

  1. Setup: Run .specify/scripts/bash/setup-plan.sh --json from repo root and parse JSON for FEATURE_SPEC, IMPL_PLAN, SPECS_DIR, BRANCH. For single quotes in args like "I'm Groot", use escape syntax: e.g 'I'''m Groot' (or double-quote if possible: "I'm Groot").

  2. Load context: Read FEATURE_SPEC and .specify/memory/constitution.md. Load IMPL_PLAN template (already copied).

  3. Execute plan workflow: Follow the structure in IMPL_PLAN template to:

    • Fill Technical Context (mark unknowns as "NEEDS CLARIFICATION")
    • Fill Constitution Check section from constitution
    • Evaluate gates (ERROR if violations unjustified)
    • Phase 0: Generate research.md (resolve all NEEDS CLARIFICATION)
    • Phase 1: Generate data-model.md, contracts/, quickstart.md
    • Phase 1: Update agent context by running the agent script
    • Re-evaluate Constitution Check post-design
  4. Stop and report: Command ends after Phase 2 planning. Report branch, IMPL_PLAN path, and generated artifacts.

  5. Check for extension hooks: After reporting, check if .specify/extensions.yml exists in the project root.

    • If it exists, read it and look for entries under the hooks.after_plan key
    • If the YAML cannot be parsed or is invalid, skip hook checking silently and continue normally
    • Filter out hooks where enabled is explicitly false. Treat hooks without an enabled field as enabled by default.
    • For each remaining hook, do not attempt to interpret or evaluate hook condition expressions:
      • If the hook has no condition field, or it is null/empty, treat the hook as executable
      • If the hook defines a non-empty condition, skip the hook and leave condition evaluation to the HookExecutor implementation
    • For each executable hook, output the following based on its optional flag:
      • Optional hook (optional: true):
        ## Extension Hooks
        
        **Optional Hook**: {extension}
        Command: `/{command}`
        Description: {description}
        
        Prompt: {prompt}
        To execute: `/{command}`
        
      • Mandatory hook (optional: false):
        ## Extension Hooks
        
        **Automatic Hook**: {extension}
        Executing: `/{command}`
        EXECUTE_COMMAND: {command}
        
    • If no hooks are registered or .specify/extensions.yml does not exist, skip silently

Phases

Phase 0: Outline & Research

  1. Extract unknowns from Technical Context above:

    • For each NEEDS CLARIFICATION → research task
    • For each dependency → best practices task
    • For each integration → patterns task
  2. Generate and dispatch research agents:

    For each unknown in Technical Context:
      Task: "Research {unknown} for {feature context}"
    For each technology choice:
      Task: "Find best practices for {tech} in {domain}"
    
  3. Consolidate findings in research.md using format:

    • Decision: [what was chosen]
    • Rationale: [why chosen]
    • Alternatives considered: [what else evaluated]

Output: research.md with all NEEDS CLARIFICATION resolved

Phase 1: Design & Contracts

Prerequisites: research.md complete

  1. Extract entities from feature specdata-model.md:

    • Entity name, fields, relationships
    • Validation rules from requirements
    • State transitions if applicable
  2. Define interface contracts (if project has external interfaces) → /contracts/:

    • Identify what interfaces the project exposes to users or other systems
    • Document the contract format appropriate for the project type
    • Examples: public APIs for libraries, command schemas for CLI tools, endpoints for web services, grammars for parsers, UI contracts for applications
    • Skip if project is purely internal (build scripts, one-off tools, etc.)
  3. Agent context update:

    • Update the plan reference between the <!-- SPECKIT START --> and <!-- SPECKIT END --> markers in AGENTS.md to point to the plan file created in step 1 (the IMPL_PLAN path)

Output: data-model.md, /contracts/*, quickstart.md, updated agent context file

Key rules

  • Use absolute paths for filesystem operations; use project-relative paths for references in documentation and agent context files
  • ERROR on gate failures or unresolved clarifications
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