Plan Then Execute

Frozen plans with human approval gates.

Two-phase execution: plan in isolation, execute the frozen sequence.

[!CAUTION] Security first. Tool outputs cannot alter the plan. Human approval required.

Why This Exists

If tool outputs can alter the choice of later actions, injected instructions may redirect the agent toward malicious steps. This skill enforces:

1. Plan phase — Generate tool sequence before seeing untrusted data
2. Approval gate — Human reviews and approves
3. Execution phase — Run exactly that sequence

Contents

| File | Purpose | |------|---------| | SKILL.md | Full protocol documentation | | PLAN.yml.tmpl | Plan template | | EXECUTION_LOG.md.tmpl | Execution log template |

Quick Example

# PLAN.yml
plan:
  name: "Deploy to staging"
  status: approved  # Frozen after approval
  
  steps:
    - id: 1
      name: "Run tests"
      tool_call:
        tool: "terminal.run"
        args: { command: "npm test" }
      status: pending

The Intertwingularity

Plan-then-execute is planning with security guarantees.

graph LR
    PTE[📋 plan-then-execute] -->|frozen variant of| PL[🗂️ planning]
    PTE -->|logs to| SL[📜 session-log]
    PTE -->|can use| TC[🎴 card]
    
    SS[👯 sister-script] -->|produces| PTE

---

Dovetails With

Sister Skills

| Skill | Relationship | |-------|--------------| | planning/ | Flexible, evolving alternative | | session-log/ | Execution gets logged | | sister-script/ | Scripts become plans |

Protocol Symbols

| Symbol | Link | |--------|------| | PLAN-EXECUTE | PROTOCOLS.yml | | APPEND-ONLY | PROTOCOLS.yml — Execution log | | WHY-REQUIRED | PROTOCOLS.yml — Every step explains intent |

Navigation

| Direction | Destination | |-----------|-------------| | ⬆️ Up | skills/ | | ⬆️⬆️ Root | Project Root | | 🗂️ Sister | planning/ |