Founder Plan Skill

Routes founder-specific planning requests to the founder-plan-agent, enabling interactive forcing questions workflow for market sizing, competitive analysis, and GTM strategy planning.

Context Pointers

Reference (do not load eagerly):

• Path: .claude/context/formats/subagent-return.md
• Purpose: Return validation
• Load at: Subagent execution only

Note: This skill is a thin wrapper. Context is loaded by the delegated agent, not this skill.

Trigger Conditions

This skill activates when:

Direct Invocation

• /plan command on a task with language: founder
• Extension routing lookup finds routing.plan.founder

Task-Type-Based Routing

• Task type is "founder"
• /plan {N} where task {N} has language="founder"

When NOT to trigger

Do not invoke for:

• Tasks with other language types (general, meta, neovim, etc.)
• Quick mode operations (--quick flag)
• Tasks already in [PLANNED] or [COMPLETED] status

Execution

1. Input Validation

Validate inputs from delegation context:

• task_number - Required, integer
• research_path - Optional, path to existing research reports
• session_id - Required, string

# Validate task_number is present
if [ -z "$task_number" ]; then
  return error "task_number is required"
fi

# Validate session_id is present
if [ -z "$session_id" ]; then
  return error "session_id is required"
fi

2. Preflight Status Update

Update task status to "planning" in state.json:

jq --argjson num "$task_number" \
   --arg ts "$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" \
   '(.active_projects[] | select(.project_number == $num)) += {
     status: "planning",
     last_updated: $ts
   }' specs/state.json > specs/tmp/state.json && mv specs/tmp/state.json specs/state.json

Update TODO.md status marker to [PLANNING].

3. Create Postflight Marker

Create marker file to signal postflight operations needed:

padded_num=$(printf "%03d" "$task_number")
project_name=$(jq -r --argjson num "$task_number" \
  '.active_projects[] | select(.project_number == $num) | .project_name' \
  specs/state.json)
task_dir="specs/${padded_num}_${project_name}"
mkdir -p "$task_dir"

cat > "$task_dir/.postflight-pending" << EOF
{
  "session_id": "${session_id}",
  "skill": "skill-founder-plan",
  "task_number": ${task_number},
  "operation": "plan",
  "reason": "Postflight pending: status update, artifact linking, git commit",
  "created": "$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)"
}
EOF

4. Context Preparation

Extract task_type from state.json (null-safe):

# Extract task_type from state.json (null-safe)
task_type=$(jq -r --argjson num "$task_number" \
  '.active_projects[] | select(.project_number == $num) | .task_type // null' \
  specs/state.json)

Prepare delegation context for agent:

{
  "task_context": {
    "task_number": 234,
    "project_name": "market_sizing_fintech_payments",
    "description": "Market sizing: fintech payments",
    "task_type": "founder",
    "task_type": "market"
  },
  "research_path": "specs/234_market_sizing_fintech_payments/reports/01_context.md",
  "metadata_file_path": "specs/234_market_sizing_fintech_payments/.return-meta.json",
  "metadata": {
    "session_id": "sess_{timestamp}_{random}",
    "delegation_depth": 2,
    "delegation_path": ["orchestrator", "plan", "skill-founder-plan"]
  }
}

5. Invoke Agent

CRITICAL: You MUST use the Agent tool to spawn the agent.

Required Tool Invocation:

Tool: Agent (NOT Skill, NOT Plan)
Parameters:
  - subagent_type: "founder-plan-agent"
  - prompt: [Include task_context, research_path, metadata_file_path, metadata]
  - description: "Create founder analysis plan with forcing questions"

The agent will:

• Load existing context (research reports if any)
• Conduct interactive forcing questions to gather data
• Generate plan artifact with gathered context stored
• Write metadata file for postflight consumption
• Return brief text summary

5b. Self-Execution Fallback

CRITICAL: If you performed the work above WITHOUT using the Agent tool (i.e., you read files, wrote artifacts, or updated metadata directly instead of spawning a subagent), you MUST write a .return-meta.json file now before proceeding to postflight. Use the schema from return-metadata-file.md with the appropriate status value for this operation.

If you DID use the Agent tool, skip this stage -- the subagent already wrote the metadata.

Postflight (ALWAYS EXECUTE)

The following stages MUST execute after work is complete, whether the work was done by a subagent or inline (Stage 5b). Do NOT skip these stages for any reason.

6. Read Metadata File

Read the metadata file:

metadata_file="specs/${padded_num}_${project_name}/.return-meta.json"
metadata=$(cat "$metadata_file")
status=$(echo "$metadata" | jq -r '.status')

7. Postflight Status Update

If agent succeeded (status == "planned"):

# Update state.json
jq --argjson num "$task_number" \
   --arg ts "$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" \
   '(.active_projects[] | select(.project_number == $num)) += {
     status: "planned",
     last_updated: $ts
   }' specs/state.json > specs/tmp/state.json && mv specs/tmp/state.json specs/state.json

# Link artifact in state.json
plan_path=$(echo "$metadata" | jq -r '.artifacts[0].path')
plan_summary=$(echo "$metadata" | jq -r '.artifacts[0].summary')
jq --argjson num "$task_number" \
   --arg path "$plan_path" \
   --arg summary "$plan_summary" \
   '(.active_projects[] | select(.project_number == $num)).artifacts += [{
     type: "plan",
     path: $path,
     summary: $summary
   }]' specs/state.json > specs/tmp/state.json && mv specs/tmp/state.json specs/state.json

Update TODO.md status marker to [PLANNED] and link plan artifact per @.claude/context/patterns/artifact-linking-todo.md with field_name=**Plan**, next_field=**Description**.

8. Git Commit

git add -A
git commit -m "$(cat <<'EOF'
task {N}: create implementation plan

Session: {session_id}

EOF
)"

9. Cleanup and Return

Remove postflight markers and metadata:

rm -f "$task_dir/.postflight-pending"
rm -f "$task_dir/.postflight-loop-guard"
rm -f "$task_dir/.return-meta.json"

Return brief text summary to caller.

Return Format

Brief text summary (NOT JSON).

Expected successful return:

Founder plan created for task {N}:
- {questions_asked} forcing questions completed, {phase_count} phases planned
- Context gathered: {brief summary of key data points}
- Plan: specs/{NNN}_{SLUG}/plans/01_{short-slug}.md
- Status updated to [PLANNED]
- Changes committed with session {session_id}
- Next: Run /implement {N} to execute the plan and generate report

Error Handling

Session ID Missing

Return immediately with failed status.

Task Not Found

Return error with guidance to check task number.

Agent Errors

Pass through the agent's error return verbatim.

User Abandonment

Return partial status with progress made, keep status as "planning".