Plot: Create Idea

Create a plan for review: idea branch, plan file, and draft PR.

Input: $ARGUMENTS in the format <slug>: <title description>

Example: /plot-idea sse-backpressure: Handle SSE client disconnects gracefully

Setup

Add a ## Plot Config section to the adopting project’s CLAUDE.md:

## Plot Config
- **Project board:** <your-project-name> (#<number>)  <!-- optional, for `gh pr edit --add-project` -->
- **Branch prefixes:** idea/, feature/, bug/, docs/, infra/
- **Plan directory:** docs/plans/
- **Active index:** docs/plans/active/
- **Delivered index:** docs/plans/delivered/

Model Guidance

The entire skill is small-model capable except the soft duplicate warning (title similarity in step 2).

1. Parse Input

If $ARGUMENTS is empty or missing:

• Look at the conversation context for clues about what the user wants to plan
• If obvious, propose: “It looks like you want to plan <slug>: <title>. Shall I proceed?”
• Otherwise ask: “What’s the idea? Usage: /plot-idea <slug>: <title>“

Extract slug and title from $ARGUMENTS:

• Everything before the first : is the slug (trimmed)
• Everything after is the title (trimmed)
• If no : found, treat the entire input as the slug and ask for a title
• Slug must match [a-z0-9-]+ (lowercase letters, digits, hyphens only). If it doesn’t, ask the user to fix it rather than silently normalizing

2. Pre-flight Checks

• Warn if working tree has uncommitted changes (offer to stash)
• Verify gh auth status has project scope
• Check that branch idea/<slug> does not already exist (if it does, ask whether to check it out or pick a new name)
• Duplicate detection:
  • ls docs/plans/active/ 2>/dev/null + gh pr list --json headRefName --jq '.[].headRefName' | grep '^idea/' to find existing plans and idea branches
  • Hard gate: if a plan with the identical slug already exists (file or branch), stop and ask the user to pick a different name
  • Soft warning: if any existing plan title shares 3+ significant words with the proposed title, warn the user and ask to confirm this is intentionally separate work (only check Draft/Approved plans, not Delivered ones)

Smaller models: Skip the title similarity check. Enforce the hard gate (identical slug) only. Ask the user: “Could not check for similar plan titles. Please verify manually that this doesn’t overlap with existing plans.”

3. Create Branch

git fetch origin main
git checkout -b idea/<slug> origin/main

4. Create Plan File

CREATE_DATE=$(date -u +%Y-%m-%d)

Write docs/plans/${CREATE_DATE}-<slug>.md with this template:

# <title>

> <title as one-line summary>

## Status

- **Phase:** Draft
- **Type:** feature | bug | docs | infra
- **Sprint:** <!-- optional, filled when plan is added to a sprint -->

## Changelog

<!-- Release note entry. Written during planning, refined during implementation. -->

- <user-facing change description>

## Motivation

<!-- Why does this matter? What problem does it solve? -->

## Design

### Approach

<!-- How will this be implemented? Key architectural decisions. -->

### Open Questions

- [ ] ...

## Branches

<!-- Branches to create when approved: -->
<!-- - `type/name` — description -->

- `feature/<slug>` — <description>

## Notes

<!-- Session log, decisions, links -->

Ask the user what Type to use, presenting this reference:

Always ask — don’t infer from the title.

5. Create Active Symlink and Commit

mkdir -p docs/plans/active docs/plans/delivered
ln -s ../${CREATE_DATE}-<slug>.md docs/plans/active/<slug>.md
git add docs/plans/${CREATE_DATE}-<slug>.md docs/plans/active/<slug>.md
git commit -m "plot: <title>"
git push -u origin idea/<slug>

6. Create PR

Create a draft PR (plan is still being written/refined):

gh pr create \
  --draft \
  --title "Plan: <title>" \
  --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
## Plan

See [`docs/plans/${CREATE_DATE}-<slug>.md`](../blob/idea/<slug>/docs/plans/${CREATE_DATE}-<slug>.md) on this branch.

Refine the plan, then mark ready for review with `gh pr ready`. Once reviewed, run `/plot-approve <slug>` to merge and start implementation.

---
*Created with `/plot-idea`*
EOF
)"

7. Add to Project Board

Read the ## Plot Config section from CLAUDE.md for the project board name. If configured:

gh pr edit <number> --add-project "<project board name>"

If no project board is configured, skip this step.

8. Summary

Print:

• Branch: idea/<slug>
• Plan file: docs/plans/<CREATE_DATE>-<slug>.md
• Active index: docs/plans/active/<slug>.md (symlink)
• PR URL (draft)
• Next steps:
  1. Refine the plan (especially the Branches section)
  2. When ready for review: gh pr ready <number>
  3. After review: /plot-approve <slug>