Plan Readiness Review

Overview

Pressure test whether a plan is ready for implementation. Catches structural gaps, feasibility issues, and scope problems before committing to build.

Core principle: Find problems before implementation, not during.

Announce at start: "I'm using the plan-readiness-review skill to evaluate this plan."

Plan location: plans/active/{plan-name}/

The Process

Step 1: Load Plan

Read all files from plans/active/{plan-name}/design/
Read all files from plans/active/{plan-name}/implementation/ (if exists)
Note: Plan must be committed to repo before worktree creation

Step 2: Evaluate Against Criteria

Structure:

[ ] All required sections present (problem, solution, tasks)?
[ ] Steps specific enough to execute without interpretation?
[ ] Success criteria defined?
[ ] Dependencies between tasks identified?

Feasibility:

[ ] Technical approach sound?
[ ] Required APIs/libraries exist?
[ ] No impossible constraints?

Scope:

[ ] Right-sized for one branch?
[ ] Should it be split into multiple plans?
[ ] Over-engineered for the problem?
[ ] Missing obvious requirements?

Clarity:

[ ] Would a fresh agent understand every instruction?
[ ] Any ambiguous instructions?
[ ] Missing context that implementer would need?

Step 3: Cross-Reference Codebase

Check if plan accounts for:

Existing patterns in the codebase
Files that will be affected
Test patterns to follow
Related code that might need updates

Step 4: Produce Verdict

Output this format:

## Plan Readiness Review: {plan-name}

### Verdict: READY | NEEDS WORK | SPLIT RECOMMENDED

### Strengths
- [What's solid about this plan]

### Issues Found
- **[Category]**: [Issue description]
  - Suggested fix: [How to address]

### Questions to Resolve
- [Anything ambiguous that needs human input]

### Recommendation
[1-2 sentence summary of what to do next]

Verdict Meanings

| Verdict | Meaning | Next Step | |---------|---------|-----------| | READY | Plan is executable as-is | Proceed to implementation | | NEEDS WORK | Fixable issues found | Address issues, re-review | | SPLIT RECOMMENDED | Too large for one branch | Create multiple plans |

Red Flags

Never:

Rubber-stamp a plan without thorough review
Skip codebase cross-reference
Approve plans with ambiguous instructions

Always:

Check every evaluation criterion
Verify file paths exist or make sense
Flag anything a fresh agent might misinterpret

Integration

Invoked by:

gremlins:worktree-workflow (start phase) - First gate in workflow
Standalone when reviewing any plan

Pairs with:

gremlins:writing-plans - Reviews output of that skill
gremlins:executing-plans - Feeds into that skill when READY