Plan

Skill moralespanitz/research-loop/skills/plan

Use when user has a selected hypothesis or route and needs a concrete execution plan broken into tasks. Triggered by "what are the next steps", "how do I start", "plan this out".From its SKILL.md

Install

npx -y skills add moralespanitz/research-loop --skill plan

Assembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.

One thing to look at

4 stars4 stars. Stars are a popularity signal and not a quality one, but at this level it is likely that nobody has read this closely except its author, and you would be relying on your own review.

SKILL.md

2.7 KB, as published. Nobody here has run it

<SUBAGENT-STOP> If you were dispatched as a subagent, skip this skill. Execute your task and return results. </SUBAGENT-STOP> <HARD-GATE> Do NOT produce a vague timeline or milestone list. Every task must be specific enough that someone with no context could execute it. If a task takes more than 1 day, break it down further. </HARD-GATE>

Plan Skill — Concrete Execution Plan

The difference between a plan that works and one that doesn't is specificity. "Set up the codebase" is not a task. "Fork IDSIA/recurrent-fwp, rename to dopamine-read-gate, run python train.py to confirm baseline, record output" is a task.

Step 1 — Read the session

Read the lab notebook to understand exactly where the researcher is:

cat .research-loop/sessions/<slug>/lab_notebook.md

Summarize back to the researcher:

"You've selected [hypothesis/route]. You have [what's done]. The next phase is [what's needed]."

Ask one clarifying question if anything is ambiguous. Then proceed.

Step 2 — Write the plan

Break the work into tasks. Each task must have:

A specific action (verb + object)
The exact file, repo, command, or person involved
How to verify it's done (what does success look like?)
Time estimate (be honest — hours, not days)

Format:

## Execution Plan — [hypothesis name]
Date: <date>

### Phase: [name]

**Task 1: [action]**
- Do: [exact steps]
- Verify: [how you know it worked]
- Time: [estimate]

**Task 2: [action]**
- Do: [exact steps]
- Verify: [how you know it worked]
- Time: [estimate]

...

Step 3 — Create todos

Use TodoWrite to create one todo per task. Mark the first one as in_progress.

Show the researcher the plan and ask:

"Does this cover everything? Any task that's unclear or needs breaking down further?"

Wait for approval. Then say:

"Starting Task 1. Tell me when you're ready."

Step 4 — Track progress

As each task completes:

Mark it complete in TodoWrite
Append a one-line note to lab_notebook.md: [date]: Task [N] complete — [what was done]
Surface the next task explicitly: > "Task [N] done. Next: [Task N+1 description]. Ready?"

What makes a bad plan

Milestones instead of tasks ("Week 1: build the model")
Tasks without verification steps ("set up environment")
Tasks that depend on unknowns without surfacing them ("get lab data" — do you have the contact? have you emailed?)
No time estimates

If you catch yourself writing any of these, stop and break it down further.