Execute plan tasks
One task per run — implement it, verify it, tick it, stop. The review between tasks is the point; never carry on into the next.
Invocation: /execute-plan-tasks <plan-path> [task-id]
Pick the task
Read the plan whole — summary, conventions and overrides, the steps the task cites, acceptance
criteria — then its ## Tasks section, and the decisions log beside it when it exists
(<id>-<slug>.DECISIONS.md, <id>-<slug> being the plan filename without .PLAN.md): a logged
deviation outranks the plan text it deviates from. Ambiguous or missing plan path → ask. Several
task sections → ask which one this run works from. No task section → stop and point at
/split-plan-tasks.
task-id given → that task; none → the first unticked one in order. A range or a whole group → run
its first task only, saying the rest need their own runs; a task already ticked → say so and ask
whether to redo it. Its dependencies — earlier tasks in its group, plus every task in each group its
Depends on line names — must be ticked; name any unticked dependency and ask before proceeding.
Done when the chosen task, its steps, its acceptance criteria, its dependency state and any logged deviation that touches it are stated.
Execute
- Scope is the task's steps, nothing else: no work belonging to a later task, no drive-by refactors. Work the plan calls for that no task covers → report it, don't absorb it.
- The plan's conventions and overrides bind every task, this one included.
- Never guess. What the code settles, settle by reading it; what it doesn't goes to the user as
one question carrying your recommendation, worded via
explain-in-simple-languagewhen available. Append each settled deviation from the plan, and its why, as one line to the decisions log beside the plan (<id>-<slug>.DECISIONS.md), creating it if absent. - A copy is not exempt. A file the plan says to copy or mirror was written for its own runtime and tooling: check each setting fits this task's target before copying. A misfit is a deviation — settle and log it as above.
- Fail-first test — a step requiring its test to fail before the fix, however the plan words it: write the test, run it and see it fail on the bug (its assertion, or the error the bug raises; a broken import or fixture is no failure seen), only then write the fix; never skip the run because the fix looks obvious. Rework the test within the step until it fails that way; until it does, no fix is written, and a test that cannot be made to fail that way is blocked outright (below). Once the fix is in, rerun the same test and see it pass.
- Blocked outright — a step the codebase contradicts, an unmet prerequisite — → stop, leave the task unticked, report what blocks it; leave the edits made so far in place and list them with the blocker, never revert on your own.
Done when every step of the task is implemented, or its blocker reported.
Verify
Run the task's Done when check, then the validation the project's governing docs name — failing that, its toolchain's lint, tests and build; nothing runnable → say so rather than invent a command. Fix what this task broke; a failure that predates it or lands outside its scope is reported, never fixed silently. A Done when or AC only a human can check is handed to the user as the exact steps to perform, never run by proxy or claimed.
Done when both pass or are handed to the user, or every remaining failure is reported with why it stands.
Close
Tick the task - [ ] → - [x], plus each acceptance criterion it Satisfies whose every
satisfying task is now ticked — the plan's only edits, made once verification passed or every
remaining failure is reported as predating the task or outside its scope, never the task's own
Done when or AC checks: those pass or are handed to the user. Name the ACs still partly open. A
check handed to the user never holds the task's tick back, while a manual-only AC
stays unticked even when its tasks are ticked; both are listed as pending the user's check. Then
print the files touched, any deviation logged, any fail-first test's failure seen in one line, and
the task's Commit subject (absent → propose one in the repo's style) to commit once the change is
reviewed. Finally hand off the next unticked
task as its own fenced block under the label "Next task:", holding a single copy-pasteable launch
command — session name and prompt combined, in the launch syntax of the agent tool in use
(vendor-agnostic — claude below is only the example; <slug> is the plan filename without id
prefix or extension):
claude --name execute-tasks-<slug> "/execute-plan-tasks <plan-path> <next-task-id>"
Then offer the alternative: one line offering to clear the current session (vendor-agnostic —
/clear is only the example) and run the next phase here, then the same labelled block(s) with the
bare prompt, /execute-plan-tasks <plan-path> <next-task-id>.
When the finished task completes its group, say so first: the group is one PR, so its tasks get
committed and reviewed before the next group starts. With /self-review available, add in both
forms, ahead of the next-task block, a block labelled "Review the group first:" (same <slug>),
also when the no-task-left line replaces the next-task block:
claude --name self-review-<slug> "/self-review"
When no task is left, say in place of the next-task blocks that the plan is done, or, while an AC is pending the user's check, that its tasks are done and acceptance is pending.
Done when the touched files, any fail-first test's failure seen, the commit subject, the checks
pending the user, both /self-review forms when a group completed and it is available, and either
both next-task forms or the no-task-left line are printed.
Boundaries
- Never commit, push, or open a PR.
- The plan file's only changes are those checkboxes; the decisions log is appended to, never rewritten.
