---
name: scoville-plan
description: Repository-native planning guardrail for creating, maintaining, resuming, auditing, and handing off durable project Plans, Work Items, and Decision records through direct Markdown and YAML edits only. Owns their concise writing and wording audits without requiring Scribe. Use when a task invokes Scoville Plan, requests repository-owned implementation planning or decision records, must survive interruption or compaction, or works in a format-version-1 project with PROJECT_INDEX.md, docs/plans, and docs/decisions. Do not use for a small contained task that needs no durable plan, or when the user explicitly opts out of Scoville Plan.
compatibility: "Any Agent Skills host with read and write access to the repository's PROJECT_INDEX.md, docs/plans and docs/decisions. Direct Markdown and YAML edits only; requires no CLI, MCP server, database or network. Optional structural validator needs Python 3. Developed for Codex and Claude Code; other hosts untested."
---

# Scoville Plan

Maintain repository direction through direct Markdown and YAML edits. Preserve
supported native `format_version: 1` behavior: setup, read-only
recovery, Plans, Work Items, Decisions, proposals, lifecycles, blockers,
evidence, and narrow repair. Require no CLI, MCP server, database, journal, or
hidden state; remove or reinterpret no project-knowledge feature.

A record does not prove work.

On explicit opt-out: read no references; do not create or change planning files;
make no Skill-derived claims. Report any exact conflict with a higher-priority
project instruction requiring this Plan system.

## Ownership and limits

Precedence:

1. system, safety, and explicit current-request instructions;
2. repository instructions and their canonical planning mechanism;
3. an existing supported native profile;
4. these defaults for gaps.

Use the existing durable owner; never create a parallel Plan. Apply compatible
guardrails only; runtime plans are disposable mirrors.

Never invoke a planning CLI. The optional bundled
validator is strictly read-only and structural, never a write path. Claim no
locking, atomic publication, typed mutation, or semantic proof; report
observations only.

Family standalone: discovery != installed|active|applicable|required;
absent|inactive => ignore/no require|install|simulate|reimplement;
active+applicable => owner concern only, self continues; opt-out local. Owners:
`scoville-brainstorm` divergence;
`scoville-code-anti-ai-slop` engineering/proof; `scoville-ui-anti-ai-slop`
interface/rendered proof; `scoville-scribe-anti-ai-slop` wording/fidelity;
`scoville-handoff` transfer.

When `scoville-workflow` is available, Plan may make optional Steps usable as
later dispatch units without activating or loading that Workflow. Group each
Step around one coherent outcome slice with comparable routing risk and
reasoning demand. Separate a trivial text edit from a complex structural change;
do not split code, UI, browser work, or other activities that share the same
outcome, risk, authorization, and Acceptance boundary. The Workflow still
selects the live model and reasoning when explicitly invoked.

Plan owns wording and fidelity of its native records. If Scribe is installed,
do not additionally activate, load, or apply it to their creation, rewriting,
or wording audit. An explicit user request to use Scribe takes precedence for
wording. Plan still owns permitted edits, format, and lifecycle unless opted out.
If Scribe is active for another text segment, keep it scoped there. Plan works
without Scribe and never requires its installation.

## Choose planning and route references

Use a Plan for dependent outcomes, material sequencing, durable
handoff, or a binding workflow. Implement one small reversible change directly
unless the project requires a tracked Work Item.

Exact reference codes: `R` [read-only.md](references/read-only.md); `G`
[planning-granularity.md](references/planning-granularity.md); `P`
[native-plan-format.md](references/native-plan-format.md); `L`
[native-project-lifecycle.md](references/native-project-lifecycle.md); `E`
[native-editing.md](references/native-editing.md); `W`
[native-work-items.md](references/native-work-items.md); `D`
[native-decision-format.md](references/native-decision-format.md); `B`
[native-decision-batches.md](references/native-decision-batches.md); `V`
[profile-validation.md](references/profile-validation.md).

Classify the operation and edited record, then load exactly its route. An edit
inside a Work Item uses the Work Item route even though its file is a Plan.

| Operation | Load |
| --- | --- |
| Read direction or list records; no write | R |
| Initialize a wholly absent profile | G, P, L, E |
| Create or restructure Plan | G, P, L, E |
| Insert, refine, move, select, block, advance, or remove Work Item | P, W, E |
| Record explicit human choice or possible material Decision | D, P, E |
| Apply explicitly authorized Decision transition | D, P, E |
| Apply explicitly authorized accept-or-reject batch | D, B, P, E |
| Activate, complete, or cancel Plan | P, L, W only if current work changes, E |
| Audit Plan structure or lifecycle | P; add G only for decomposition judgment |
| Audit Decision structure or lifecycle | D |
| Audit record wording | P for Plans or Work Items; D for Decisions |
| Rewrite Plan Goal or Non-goals | P, L, E |
| Rewrite Work Item wording | P, W, E |
| Rewrite Decision wording | D, P, E |
| Validate after writes or diagnose a complete supported profile | Run V; then only the native reference for a reported diagnostic or correction |

For read-only, preload no format guides. If profile existence is unknown,
list the root before canonical reads; never probe absent
`PROJECT_INDEX.md`. For an explicitly requested new durable Plan, use the
workspace as setup root, classify the whole profile, and initialize only if all
three canonical paths are absent. Otherwise report absence. Preserve and stop
on partial, foreign, unsupported, invalid, or intent-invalid state unless the
route permits intent-preserving repair.

## Preserve authority and lifecycle

| Input or state | Required treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Goal, Non-goals, blocker, dependency, acceptance result, evidence, or lifecycle choice | Never invent. Implementation, ordinary documentation, source, silence, and current behavior are evidence, not authorization. |
| Activation, cancellation, changed scope, weaker Acceptance, ambiguous successor, or adoption of a possible material choice | Ask before changing durable state. |
| User selects a direction, asks to preserve it in project rules, or applicable project instruction clearly records the human-selected direction | Create and accept its Decision without re-asking. |
| Analysis reveals a possible material Decision about scope, architecture, public behavior, stored data, security, dependencies, reversibility, Acceptance, migration, or rollout | Create `proposed`; report recommendation, alternatives, tradeoffs, and effect; ask to accept, reject, or revise. Do not pre-accept. |

Link each created Decision to every affected mutable Work Item.

Apply a historical stop to its recorded subject and scope. Compare it with the
current authorized work before blocking a different workflow; a stop for one
provider does not automatically stop another. Preserve applicable restrictions.
If their scope is material and unresolved, ask only about the dependent action;
do not infer permission from silence or discard a stop because it is old.

A proposal request creates `proposed`; a clear request to record the stated
choice authorizes acceptance. Reject, deprecate, supersede, activate, or cancel
only with the explicit lifecycle choice required by the route. For an
authorized multi-Decision accept-or-reject transition, use B and its helper
route; never substitute single-transition or audit behavior.

At work start, inventory Decision frontmatter and read every proposal. Report
ID/title/recommendation/effect, including proposals unrelated to current work.
Request accept|reject|revise when the requested work depends on that choice or
the user asks to handle Decisions. A status/listing request does not require a
decision answer. Preserve unresolved proposals at handoff; do not repeat an
unchanged decision question merely because another status turn occurs. New
decision-relevant evidence may warrant asking again. Stop only dependent work.

Mark a Work Item `done` only after observing Acceptance and adding concise
evidence. A captured structural-validation result supports only structural
judgment and reporting, never acceptance evidence or mutation authority. Keep
failed or partial work `in_progress`, `paused`, or explicitly blocked.

## Keep behavior-complete work

- Split independently resumable outcomes when Acceptance, dependencies,
  ownership, or rollout timing differs. Put subordinate order in optional
  Steps. Put testing, review, documentation, and release checks in Acceptance
  or Evidence unless independently requested as resumable outcomes.
- For later Scoville Workflow use, one Step is one subplan dispatch point. Give
  each Step a single routing class when confidently known, using an optional
  `[route: ultra_low|low|medium|high|ultra_high]` prefix. Never mix materially
  different routing needs in one Step or hard-code a model. Without Steps, the
  whole Work Item remains one dispatch unit.
- Keep at most one Work Item `in_progress`, equal to `current_item`. This limits
  concurrency, not total Plan items.
- Change authored content or order only while `todo`. After start, preserve the
  starting approach and change only live state allowed by the route.
- `Next action` is the first unperformed concrete action. After implementation,
  advance to the first unobserved test, build, browser check, review, or
  evaluator-owned verification.
- Select current work only when dependencies are done and the successor is
  explicit. Use `complete_and_advance` only when completion and the exact
  replacement start form one valid prepared result.
- When final real work finishes, complete its Work Item and Plan and set the
  index idle. Never invent a successor to keep the Plan active.

## Mutate narrowly and verify

### Write compact records

Keep facts needed to choose, resume, verify, or revisit the work. Use direct
sentences and compact bullets where the format permits. State each fact in its
owning field, repeating it only when needed for correct interpretation. Remove
filler, irrelevant chronology, and repeated rationale. Keep already concise
text. Do not trade readability for abbreviations or long compressed sentences.

Before writing and during a wording audit, check that every sentence adds
necessary information and that shortening preserves facts, constraints,
alternatives, tradeoffs, uncertainty, exact identifiers, acceptance criteria,
and evidence. Review only the requested scope. Brevity never authorizes changing
immutable history, weakening Acceptance, or claiming unobserved verification.
Report audit findings without editing. No fixed word or sentence count proves
quality, and the structural validator does not perform this semantic check.

### Apply and check edits

Before writing, confirm root, format, active Plan, current Work Item, affected
bytes, outcome, and required acceptance evidence. Use context-bound patches;
preserve unrelated work. Prepare and inspect the full multi-file result before
applying any member.

After writing:

1. reread changed frontmatter and complete affected Work Item or Decision blocks;
2. inspect the scoped diff and check changed prose against the compact-record rules;
3. check index ownership, active-Plan count, current-item status, Work Item key
   order, dependency order and cycles, Decision and Plan references, blockers,
   lifecycle fields, Evidence, and `Next action`;
4. when its script and Python are already available, run the optional validator
   through V; otherwise perform and report the scoped manual inspection;
5. record only acceptance evidence observed for the mutation.

Use E's scoped-read rules: complete byte and structural checks need not print
unchanged history. Widen reads when the operation or a diagnostic requires it.

During mutation, also stop on concurrent changes, ambiguous lifecycle authority,
or a partial multi-file transition.
Do not overwrite a problem into apparent validity.

## Report durable state

Lead with Plan outcome. Name changed canonical files, active/blocked work,
observed checks/evidence, unresolved choices, and next action. Distinguish native
structural inspection from behavioral verification; omit routine file narration.