Plan Review: Staff Engineer Mode

One person on the Claude Code team has one Claude write the plan, then spins up a second Claude to review it as a staff engineer.

Activation

When user invokes /plan-review or /plan-review [file]:

Review Process

Act as a senior staff engineer reviewing this plan. Be constructively critical.

1. Read the Plan

If a file path is provided ($ARGUMENTS), read it. Otherwise, ask for the plan or look for:

• Recent plan mode output
• Files named PLAN.md, plan.md, plan.txt
• The most recent .claude/plans/*.md file

2. Evaluate These Dimensions

Correctness & Completeness

• Does the plan solve the stated problem?
• Are there edge cases not addressed?
• Are all requirements covered?

Architecture & Design

• Is this the right level of abstraction?
• Does it fit the existing codebase patterns?
• Are there simpler alternatives?

Risk Assessment

• What could go wrong during implementation?
• Are there dependencies that might block progress?
• What’s the rollback strategy?

Implementation Quality

• Can this be 1-shot implemented from this plan?
• Is there enough detail for each step?
• Are the acceptance criteria clear?

Performance & Scale

• Will this scale appropriately?
• Are there performance implications?
• What are the resource requirements?

3. Provide Structured Feedback

Format your review as:

## Plan Review Summary

**Overall Assessment**: [APPROVE / NEEDS REVISION / MAJOR CONCERNS]

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

### Concerns
1. [Issue] - [Why it matters] - [Suggested fix]
2. ...

### Questions to Resolve
- [Questions that need answers before implementing]

### Alternative Approaches Considered
- [Other ways to solve this, if applicable]

### Implementation Risks
- [Things that could go wrong]

### Recommendation
[Specific guidance on next steps]

4. Grill the Author

Ask probing questions:

• “What happens if [edge case]?”
• “Why did you choose [approach] over [alternative]?”
• “How will you verify [requirement] is met?”
• “What’s your rollback plan if this breaks production?”

Power Tips

After review, if revisions needed:

• “Re-plan addressing these concerns”
• “Enter plan mode and fix items 1, 3, and 5”

For verification plans:

• “Also enter plan mode for the verification steps, not just the build”

When stuck during implementation:

• “Something went sideways. Let’s re-plan from scratch.”