Agent-Skills.md

Agent Skills: Project Planning Skill

Use when the user says 'build a project plan', 'help me plan X', 'break down this project', or 'scope out this feature' - orchestrates issue-decomposition, architecture-diagramming, dependency-mapping, and timeline-planning to produce GitHub issues, diagrams, and a saved plan document

UncategorizedID: britt/claude-code-skills/project-planning

Repository

britt/claude-code-skills
brittLicense: MIT
4

Install this agent skill to your local

pnpm dlx add-skill https://github.com/britt/claude-code-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/project-planning

Skill Files

Browse the full folder contents for project-planning.

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skills/project-planning/SKILL.md

Skill Metadata

Name
project-planning
Description
"Use when the user says 'build a project plan', 'help me plan X', 'break down this project', or 'scope out this feature' - orchestrates issue-decomposition, architecture-diagramming, dependency-mapping, and timeline-planning to produce GitHub issues, diagrams, and a saved plan document"

Project Planning Skill

Orchestrate a comprehensive project planning workflow that generates GitHub issues, architecture diagrams, dependency graphs, and timeline charts from a natural language project description.

Prerequisites: Requires the issue-decomposition, architecture-diagramming, dependency-mapping, and timeline-planning skills (installed individually or via the project-foundations bundle). If a sub-skill is unavailable, perform that step inline.

When to Use

Activate this skill when user says:

  • "Let's build a project plan for..."
  • "Help me plan [project name]"
  • "Create a project plan"
  • "Break down this project"
  • "Help me scope out..."
  • "Plan the implementation of..."

Sub-Skills

This skill coordinates four specialized sub-skills:

| Skill | Purpose | |-------|---------| | issue-decomposition | Break down into GitHub issues | | architecture-diagramming | Generate architecture diagrams | | dependency-mapping | Map issue dependencies | | timeline-planning | Create Gantt charts |

Planning Workflow

Step 1: Understand the Project

Ask key questions to scope the work:

  1. Project Overview

    • What is this project/feature?
    • Who are the primary users?
    • What problem does it solve?

  2. Technical Context

    • What technologies will be used?
    • Are there existing patterns to follow?
    • What external integrations are needed?

  3. Constraints

    • Any technical requirements or limitations?
    • Dependencies on other work?

Step 2: Analyze Existing Codebase

If working in an existing project:

  • Analyze the project structure
  • Review existing code patterns
  • Explore the project organization

Step 3: Decompose into Issues

Use the issue-decomposition skill to generate 5-15 well-structured issues with:

  • User stories
  • Acceptance criteria
  • Dependencies
  • Estimates
  • Labels

Step 4: Generate Architecture Diagram

Use the architecture-diagramming skill to create a Mermaid diagram showing:

  • Major components
  • Data flow
  • External integrations
  • Boundaries and layers

Step 5: Map Dependencies

Use the dependency-mapping skill to generate a dependency graph showing:

  • Blocking relationships
  • Parallel opportunities
  • Critical path

Step 6: Create Timeline

Use the timeline-planning skill to create a Gantt chart with:

  • Phases and milestones
  • Task durations
  • Dependencies

Step 7: Preview and Confirm

Before creating anything:

## Project Plan Preview

### Issues to Create (X total)
| # | Title | Estimate | Dependencies |
|---|-------|----------|--------------|
| 1 | Setup | Small | None |
| 2 | Core feature | Medium | #1 |
...

### Architecture
[Mermaid diagram]

### Dependencies
[Mermaid diagram]

### Timeline
[Mermaid Gantt]

---
Create these issues and save the plan? (y/n)

Step 8: Create and Save

On confirmation:

  1. Create all issues using gh issue create (requires the gh CLI) or an available GitHub MCP tool; if neither is available, output the issue bodies for manual creation
  2. Save planning document to docs/plans/<slug>-plan.md
  3. Save the plan summary to a markdown file in the repo (e.g. docs/plans/)

Planning Document Format

Save to docs/plans/<project-slug>-plan.md:

# Project Plan: [Project Name]

**Generated:** [Date]
**Status:** Draft
**Owner:** @[username]

## Overview
[2-3 sentence summary of the project]

## Goals
- [Goal 1]
- [Goal 2]
- [Goal 3]

## System Architecture

[Mermaid flowchart from architecture-diagramming skill]

## Issue Dependency Graph

[Mermaid flowchart from dependency-mapping skill]

## Timeline

[Mermaid Gantt from timeline-planning skill]

## Risks & Assumptions
- [Risk or assumption 1]
- [Risk or assumption 2]

## Issues Created
| Issue | Title | Status | Estimate |
|-------|-------|--------|----------|
| #201 | [Title] | Open | Small |
| #202 | [Title] | Open | Medium |
...

Best Practices

  1. Start with understanding - Don't jump to decomposition
  2. Preview before creating - Show user the full plan first
  3. Keep issues focused - One concern per issue
  4. Link everything - Cross-reference issues, diagrams, notes
  5. Save outputs - Store plan documents in the repo for future reference
  6. Iterate if needed - User can adjust before finalizing

After Planning

Suggest next steps:

  • Assign issues to team members
  • Set up project board with columns
  • Schedule kickoff meeting
  • Review plan with stakeholders

Related skills:

  • stakeholder-tracking - Track stakeholder goals
  • requirement-elicitation - Deeper requirements discovery