technical-planning

# Technical Planning Skill

Create actionable implementation plans for features and tasks.

## Core Principle

**A good plan turns a vague goal into concrete, executable steps.**

## Planning vs Architecture

**Technical Planning (this skill):**

- Tactical: "How do I build feature X?"
- Specific implementation steps
- Days to weeks of work
- Breaks work into tasks
- Focuses on execution

**Architecture Design (architecture-design skill):**

- Strategic: "How should the system be structured?"
- High-level design decisions
- Weeks to months of impact
- Defines components and patterns
- Focuses on structure

**Use planning for:**

- Implementing specific features
- Breaking down work into tasks
- Sequencing implementation steps
- Estimating complexity

**Use architecture for:**

- Designing new systems
- Major refactors
- Technology choices
- Long-term strategy

## The Planning Process

### 1. Understand Requirements

**Clarify what success looks like:**

- What exactly needs to be built?
- What problem does it solve?
- What are the acceptance criteria?
- What's in scope vs out of scope?

**Ask questions:**

- Who will use this?
- What's the expected behavior?
- What edge cases should be handled?
- Are there performance requirements?
- Security concerns?

### 2. Analyze Current State

**Understand what exists:**

- What code is already there?
- What patterns are in use?
- What can be reused?
- What needs to change?

**Research:**

```bash
# Find similar implementations
grep -r "similar_pattern" .

# Find related files
find . -name "*related*"

# Check existing tests
grep -r "test.*similar" test/
```

### 3. Break Down Into Tasks

**Good tasks are:**

- **Specific**: "Add user authentication" ❌ → "Create login API endpoint" ✅
- **Testable**: Clear success criteria
- **Right-sized**: Hours to days, not weeks
- **Independent** (when possible): Can be done in any order
- **Ordered** (when dependencies exist): Clear sequence

**Task template:**

```markdown
### Task: [Spec