plan-task — Claude Code skill: turn a draft into a phased plan
Turns a rough task spec into a plan with acceptance criteria, an architecture overview and verifiable phases, each gated by a judge.
npx skills add NeoLabHQ/context-engineering-kit --skill plan-task -a claude-codeWhat plan-task does
Point it at a task file under .specs/tasks/draft/. The skill runs research, a pass over the codebase and a business-analysis stage at the same time; the last one tightens the description and writes acceptance criteria. Those results get merged into an architecture overview. Then the task is split into separate sub-task files, grouped into phases you can check on their own.
Behaviour is driven by flags. --target-quality sets the judge threshold, --max-iterations caps retries per phase, and --included-stages or --skip pick which stages run. --fast keeps only business analysis and decomposition while judges still score at a lower bar; --one-shot runs the same two stages with no judges at all. Use --refine to re-run only what a git diff of the task file affected, and --human-in-the-loop to pause after chosen phases.
The task file path is required and the file has to sit in .specs/tasks/draft/. When the run finishes, the task moves from draft/ to todo/. With --one-shot nothing filters out a weak plan, so that mode is the wrong pick for work you care about.
What it helps with
- turn a rough task note into an implementable plan
- break a large task into sub-task files by verifiable phase
- get an architecture overview before writing code
- rerun affected stages after the spec was edited
- set a quality bar for automated phase checks
Example prompts for the agent
- Refine
.specs/tasks/draft/add-validation.feature.mdwith--target-quality 4.0 - Rerun only the affected stages for
.specs/tasks/draft/add-validation.feature.mdusing--refine - Pick up where it stopped for
.specs/tasks/draft/add-validation.feature.mdwith--continue
How to install plan-task
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add NeoLabHQ/context-engineering-kit --skill plan-task -a claude-code2Manually: put the files in place
~/.claude/skills/plan-task/SKILL.mdCopy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/plan-task/
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add NeoLabHQ/context-engineering-kit --skill plan-task -a codex2Manually: put the files in place
.agents/skills/plan-task/SKILL.mdFor all projects use ~/.agents/skills/
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add NeoLabHQ/context-engineering-kit --skill plan-task -a cursor2Manually: put the files in place
.cursor/skills/plan-task/SKILL.mdCursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/
1GitHub CLI
gh skill install NeoLabHQ/context-engineering-kit plan-task2Manually: put the files in place
.github/skills/plan-task/SKILL.md1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add NeoLabHQ/context-engineering-kit --skill plan-task -a gemini-cli2Platform CLI
gemini skills install https://github.com/NeoLabHQ/context-engineering-kit --path skills/plan-taskManually: put the files in place
.devin/skills/plan-task/SKILL.mdThe legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works
Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add NeoLabHQ/context-engineering-kit --skill plan-task -a opencodeClaude.ai
Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills
Step by step, with commands for each platform: How to install skills in Claude Code: five ways
Questions about plan-task
How do I install plan-task in Claude Code?
Run npx skills add NeoLabHQ/context-engineering-kit --skill plan-task -a claude-code. The skill then lives at ~/.claude/skills/plan-task/SKILL.md.
What does plan-task do?
It refines a draft spec through analysis, builds an architecture overview, splits the work into sub-task files grouped by phase, and promotes the task from draft/ to todo/.
Can I skip the quality checks?
Yes: --skip-judges or the --one-shot shortcut drops them. Phases then run without a judge, so a weak plan passes through unchecked.
