git:20261013.cc25d5a to git:20261013.eaed446

---

name: scoville-plan

description: Maintain, resume and audit repository Plans, Work Items and Decisions. Use for Scoville Plan requests, planning records in projects with PROJECT_INDEX.md and docs/plans, durable work across interruptions or context compaction, and follow-up instructions that add or change work during an active Plan. Use to add, remove, reorder or clarify Plan points. Exclude pure informational questions with no retained action, small tasks needing no durable Plan, and explicit opt-out. A requested transfer prompt belongs to Handoff.

compatibility: "Any Agent Skills host with repository read and write access. Direct Markdown and YAML planning needs no service or network. Python helpers require Python 3.11+. Manual alternatives load only without suitable Python 3.11+. Helper errors remain errors. Developed for Codex and Claude Code. Other hosts are untested."

---

# Scoville Plan

Maintain native `format_version: 1` Plans, Work Items and Decisions through direct

Markdown and YAML edits. Use the repository's existing planning owner. A small

reversible task needs no new Plan unless required locally.

On explicit opt-out, read no references or records under this Skill and make

no Skill-derived changes or claims. Report a conflicting repository requirement.

This Skill works independently. Other Scoville Skills are optional. Use an

available, active sibling only for its applicable concern; do not install,

simulate or require an absent sibling. Honor explicit user exclusions.

Relevant neighboring owners:

- `scoville-code`: implementation scope, risk, and validation outside Plan records.

- `scoville-handoff`: active-work transfer snapshots.

Plan owns its records' wording and lifecycle. It does not start Workflow or

choose dispatch routes. Run one editor at a time; do not change affected files

or executor model or reasoning settings concurrently. Reads and Skill upgrades

require no migration.

Before writing Plans, Work Items, Decisions or reports, read and apply the

[shared writing rules](references/writing.md). Native record fields and lifecycle

requirements remain governed by this Skill.

## Authority and evidence

1. Follow instructions in this order: system and developer instructions with

safety requirements, explicit user instructions, repository rules, then the

supported native profile. The agent's temporary task list is a disposable

mirror of repository records.

2. Preserve actual scope, choices, dependencies and binding constraints. Source material

(including code, records, documents and configuration), an absence of

objections, current behavior or a passing structural validator does not

prove that an action was authorized or that work was performed.

Apply historical stops only to their recorded scope.

3. Ask only for a missing material choice: activation, cancellation, deletion,

changed scope, changed Acceptance requirements, ambiguous succession or Decision transition.

Check applicable accepted Decisions and the current item's Instructions

before asking; reuse authority that covers the action and ask only about

the uncovered material choice. After compaction, recover the recorded

state and next action and continue. Do not repeat an approval question or

status report without a material change, a user request or a binding

communication requirement.

4. Record explicit material human choices as accepted Decisions. Unresolved material

choices become proposals; report alternatives, tradeoffs and effect, and

ask only before dependent work. Link Decisions to affected todo items, never

unrelated items. After a Work Item has started, add each relevant proposal

to its Decisions field; you may also add relevant accepted Decisions. Each

ADR's status determines its decision state.

5. At work start, except for an assigned read-only field review, classify the

planning profile with the table below. For a complete supported profile, run

the proposal inventory below and read relevant proposals (all proposals for

a full audit); an inventory error does not change that classification.

Follow the table for other profiles. Preserve unresolved choices at handoff.

6. Mark a Work Item done only after observing every Acceptance criterion and recording its

concise result. Failed or partial work remains unfinished. Report observed checks

separately from unverified behavior.

7. Stop affected execution on an explicit stop or invalidating correction.

Answer informational questions and continue. In a mixed message, separate

the question from instructions that add or change work. Append additive work

8. Keep required facts once in their owning field. Preserve existing record

language unless the user requests a change. New Plans use the task request's

language; related Work Items and Decisions use the owning Plan's language.

Unrelated later questions change no record language. Keep native labels, IDs,

statuses and technical literals unchanged.

## Proposal inventory

Reuse an already verified interpreter meeting this Skill's Python 3.11+

requirement. Otherwise check `py -3`

on Windows or `python3` elsewhere; try `python` if needed. Choose it locally,

without asking the user. Verify its version before the first helper operation.

Use that executable wherever examples say `python` or `<verified-python>`,

including Python commands after `--run --`.

Report a missing runtime only when no suitable installed interpreter is found.

Before helper calls, follow [shell command rules](references/shell-commands.md).

```text

```

Read relevant Decisions from the returned paths. The inventory includes unlinked

proposals and works without an active Plan. Load [inventory details](references/read-only.md#surface-proposals)

only for output fields or selection-mode constraints.

## Load only the current route

| Operation | Additional reference |

| --- | --- |

| Read direction, list records, select dispatch units | [read-only.md](references/read-only.md) |

| Explicit request to inspect or repair progress, migrate records, or maintain and clean up existing Plans; never ordinary recovery | [repair.md](references/repair.md) |

If the planning profile is unknown, first list the project root to locate

PROJECT_INDEX.md, docs/plans and docs/decisions:

| Observed profile | Action |

| --- | --- |

| All three form a complete supported profile | Use the existing owner and selected operation route. |

| All three absent; durable Plan requested | Initialize through the lifecycle route. |

| All three absent; no durable Plan requested | Do not initialize. |

| Partial, foreign, unsupported or ambiguous | Preserve; repair only an unambiguous representation defect that changes no intent. |

Validate the complete profile once after a coherent profile update and before

reporting that update or starting dependent work. Related Plan, Decision and

index edits form one update; do not validate intermediate field writes.

Updating only an evidence report, without changing profile fields, structure

or referenced paths, does not require profile validation.

See Runtime helpers below for the profile-specific runtime rule.

Report outcome, active or blocked work, actual evidence, unresolved choices and

the next action. Direct file edits do not lock out another editor or guarantee

that several writes succeed together. Keep one editor and stop dependent work

if another editor changes the files or a write leaves only part of the result.

## Runtime helpers

Use the bundled helpers for their operations. Read their invocation instructions,

not their source, unless diagnosing a failure.

| Condition | Required route |

| --- | --- |

| Suitable Python 3.11+ is available | Use the bundled helper; do not load manual references. |

| No suitable Python 3.11+ | Read only the matching optional reference below. |

| Missing script, missing dependency or helper error | Stop the affected operation; this never enables the manual route. |

| Helper | Optional no-Python reference |

| --- | --- |

| `scripts/select_context.py` | [select_context](references/fallbacks/select_context-fallback.md) |

| `scripts/validate_profile.py` | [validate_profile](references/fallbacks/validate_profile-fallback.md) |

| `scripts/check_text_size.py` | [check_text_size](references/fallbacks/check_text_size-fallback.md) |