## Planning Context (pre-injected by WXP)
**Phase:**
**Project State:**
**Phase Roadmap:**
---
Create executable phase prompts (PLAN.md files) for a roadmap phase with integrated research and verification. Default flow: Research (if needed) -> Plan -> Verify -> Done. Orchestrates gsd-phase-researcher, gsd-planner, and gsd-plan-checker agents with a revision loop (max 3 iterations).
Read all files referenced by the invoking prompt's execution_context before starting.
@.pi/gsd/references/ui-brand.md
Valid GSD subagent types (use exact names - do not fall back to 'general-purpose'):
- gsd-phase-researcher - Researches technical approaches for a phase
- gsd-planner - Creates detailed plans from phase scope
- gsd-plan-checker - Reviews plan quality before execution
## 1. Initialize
Load all context in one call (paths only to minimize orchestrator context):
Parse JSON for: `researcher_model`, `planner_model`, `checker_model`, `research_enabled`, `plan_checker_enabled`, `nyquist_validation_enabled`, `commit_docs`, `text_mode`, `phase_found`, `phase_dir`, `phase_number`, `phase_name`, `phase_slug`, `padded_phase`, `has_research`, `has_context`, `has_reviews`, `has_plans`, `plan_count`, `planning_exists`, `roadmap_exists`, `phase_req_ids`.
**File paths (for blocks):** `state_path`, `roadmap_path`, `requirements_path`, `context_path`, `research_path`, `verification_path`, `uat_path`, `reviews_path`. These are null if files don't exist.
**If `planning_exists` is false:** Error - run `/gsd-new-project` first.
## 2. Parse and Normalize Arguments
Extract from $ARGUMENTS: phase number (integer or decimal like `2.1`), flags (`--research`, `--skip-research`, `--gaps`, `--skip-verify`, `--prd `, `--reviews`, `--text`).
Set `TEXT_MODE=true` if `--text` is present in $ARGUMENTS OR `text_mode` from init JSON is `true`. When `TEXT_MODE` is active, replace every `AskUserQuestion` call with a plain-text numbered list and ask the user to type their choice number. This is required for Claude Code remote sessions (`/rc` mode) where TUI menus don't work through the the agent App.
Extract `--prd ` from $ARGUMENTS. If present, set PRD_FILE to the filepath.
**If no phase number:** Detect next unplanned phase from roadmap.
**If `phase_found` is false:** Validate phase exists in ROADMAP.md. If valid, create the directory using `phase_slug` and `padded_phase` from init:
```bash
mkdir -p ".planning/phases/${padded_phase}-${phase_slug}"
```
**Existing artifacts from init:** `has_research`, `has_plans`, `plan_count`.
## 2.5. Validate `--reviews` Prerequisite
**Skip if:** No `--reviews` flag.
**If `--reviews` AND `--gaps`:** Error - cannot combine `--reviews` with `--gaps`. These are conflicting modes.
**If `--reviews` AND `has_reviews` is false (no REVIEWS.md in phase dir):**
Error:
```
No REVIEWS.md found for Phase {N}. Run reviews first:
/gsd-review --phase {N}
Then re-run /gsd-plan-phase {N} --reviews
```
Exit workflow.
## 3. Validate Phase
```bash
PHASE_INFO=$(pi-gsd-tools roadmap get-phase "${PHASE}")
```
**If `found` is false:** Error with available phases. **If `found` is true:** Extract `phase_number`, `phase_name`, `goal` from JSON.
## 3.5. Handle PRD Express Path
**Skip if:** No `--prd` flag in arguments.
**If `--prd ` provided:**
1. Read the PRD file:
```bash
PRD_CONTENT=$(cat "$PRD_FILE" 2>/dev/null)
if [ -z "$PRD_CONTENT" ]; then
echo "Error: PRD file not found: $PRD_FILE"
exit 1
fi
```
2. Display banner:
```
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
GSD ► PRD EXPRESS PATH
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Using PRD: {PRD_FILE}
Generating CONTEXT.md from requirements...
```
3. Parse the PRD content and generate CONTEXT.md. The orchestrator should:
- Extract all requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, and constraints from the PRD
- Map each to a locked decision (everything in the PRD is treated as a locked decision)
- Identify any areas the PRD doesn't cover and mark as "the agent's Discretion"
- **Extract canonical refs** from ROADMAP.md for this phase, plus any specs/ADRs referenced in the PRD - expand to full file paths (MANDATORY)
- Create CONTEXT.md in the phase directory
4. Write CONTEXT.md:
```markdown
# Phase [X]: [Name] - Context
**Gathered:** [date]
**Status:** Ready for planning
**Source:** PRD Express Path ({PRD_FILE})
## Phase Boundary
[Extracted from PRD - what this phase delivers]
## Implementation Decisions
{For each requirement/story/criterion in the PRD:}
### [Category derived from content]
- [Requirement as locked decision]
### the agent's Discretion
[Areas not covered by PRD - implementation details, technical choices]
## Canonical References
**Downstream agents MUST read these before planning or implementing.**
[MANDATORY. Extract from ROADMAP.md and any docs referenced in the PRD.
Use full relative paths. Group by topic area.]
### [Topic area]
- `path/to/spec-or-adr.md` - [What it decides/defines]
[If no external specs: "No external specs - requirements fully captured in decisions above"]
## Specific Ideas
[Any specific references, examples, or concrete requirements from PRD]
## Deferred Ideas
[Items in PRD explicitly marked as future/v2/out-of-scope]
[If none: "None - PRD covers phase scope"]
---
*Phase: XX-name*
*Context gathered: [date] via PRD Express Path*
```
5. Commit:
```bash
pi-gsd-tools commit "docs(${padded_phase}): generate context from PRD" --files "${phase_dir}/${padded_phase}-CONTEXT.md"
```
6. Set `context_content` to the generated CONTEXT.md content and continue to step 5 (Handle Research).
**Effect:** This completely bypasses step 4 (Load CONTEXT.md) since we just created it. The rest of the workflow (research, planning, verification) proceeds normally with the PRD-derived context.
## 4. Load CONTEXT.md
**Skip if:** PRD express path was used (CONTEXT.md already created in step 3.5).
Check `context_path` from init JSON.
If `context_path` is not null, display: `Using phase context from: ${context_path}`
**If `context_path` is null (no CONTEXT.md exists):**
Read discuss mode for context gate label:
```bash
DISCUSS_MODE=$(pi-gsd-tools config-get workflow.discuss_mode 2>/dev/null || echo "discuss")
```
If `TEXT_MODE` is true, present as a plain-text numbered list:
```
No CONTEXT.md found for Phase {X}. Plans will use research and requirements only - your design preferences won't be included.
1. Continue without context - Plan using research + requirements only
[If DISCUSS_MODE is "assumptions":]
2. Gather context (assumptions mode) - Analyze codebase and surface assumptions before planning
[If DISCUSS_MODE is "discuss" or unset:]
2. Run discuss-phase first - Capture design decisions before planning
Enter number:
```
Otherwise use AskUserQuestion:
- header: "No context"
- question: "No CONTEXT.md found for Phase {X}. Plans will use research and requirements only - your design preferences won't be included. Continue or capture context first?"
- options:
- "Continue without context" - Plan using research + requirements only
If `DISCUSS_MODE` is `"assumptions"`:
- "Gather context (assumptions mode)" - Analyze codebase and surface assumptions before planning
If `DISCUSS_MODE` is `"discuss"` (or unset):
- "Run discuss-phase first" - Capture design decisions before planning
If "Continue without context": Proceed to step 5.
If "Run discuss-phase first":
**IMPORTANT:** Do NOT invoke discuss-phase as a nested Skill/Task call - AskUserQuestion
does not work correctly in nested subcontexts (#1009). Instead, display the command
and exit so the user runs it as a top-level command:
```
Run this command first, then re-run /gsd-plan-phase {X} ${GSD_WS}:
/gsd-discuss-phase {X} ${GSD_WS}
```
**Exit the plan-phase workflow. Do not continue.**
## 5. Handle Research
**Skip if:** `--gaps` flag or `--skip-research` flag or `--reviews` flag.
**If `has_research` is true (from init) AND no `--research` flag:** Use existing, skip to step 6.
**If RESEARCH.md missing OR `--research` flag:**
**If no explicit flag (`--research` or `--skip-research`) and not `--auto`:**
Ask the user whether to research, with a contextual recommendation based on the phase:
If `TEXT_MODE` is true, present as a plain-text numbered list:
```
Research before planning Phase {X}: {phase_name}?
1. Research first (Recommended) - Investigate domain, patterns, and dependencies before planning. Best for new features, unfamiliar integrations, or architectural changes.
2. Skip research - Plan directly from context and requirements. Best for bug fixes, simple refactors, or well-understood tasks.
Enter number:
```
Otherwise use AskUserQuestion:
```
AskUserQuestion([
{
question: "Research before planning Phase {X}: {phase_name}?",
header: "Research",
multiSelect: false,
options: [
{ label: "Research first (Recommended)", description: "Investigate domain, patterns, and dependencies before planning. Best for new features, unfamiliar integrations, or architectural changes." },
{ label: "Skip research", description: "Plan directly from context and requirements. Best for bug fixes, simple refactors, or well-understood tasks." }
]
}
])
```
If user selects "Skip research": skip to step 6.
**If `--auto` and `research_enabled` is false:** Skip research silently (preserves automated behavior).
Display banner:
```
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
GSD ► RESEARCHING PHASE {X}
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆ Spawning researcher...
```
### Spawn gsd-phase-researcher
```bash
PHASE_DESC=$(pi-gsd-tools roadmap get-phase "${PHASE}" --pick section)
```
Research prompt:
```markdown
Research how to implement Phase {phase_number}: {phase_name}
Answer: "What do I need to know to PLAN this phase well?"
- {context_path} (USER DECISIONS from /gsd-discuss-phase)
- {requirements_path} (Project requirements)
- {state_path} (Project decisions and history)
${AGENT_SKILLS_RESEARCHER}
**Phase description:** {phase_description}
**Phase requirement IDs (MUST address):** {phase_req_ids}
**Project instructions:** Read ./GEMINI.md if exists - follow project-specific guidelines
**Project skills:** Check .agent/skills/ or .agents/skills/ directory (if either exists) - read SKILL.md files, research should account for project skill patterns
```
```
Task(
prompt=research_prompt,
subagent_type="gsd-phase-researcher",
model="{researcher_model}",
description="Research Phase {phase}"
)
```
### Handle Researcher Return
- **`## RESEARCH COMPLETE`:** Display confirmation, continue to step 6
- **`## RESEARCH BLOCKED`:** Display blocker, offer: 1) Provide context, 2) Skip research, 3) Abort
## 5.5. Create Validation Strategy
Skip if `nyquist_validation_enabled` is false OR `research_enabled` is false.
If `research_enabled` is false and `nyquist_validation_enabled` is true: warn "Nyquist validation enabled but research disabled - VALIDATION.md cannot be created without RESEARCH.md. Plans will lack validation requirements (Dimension 8)." Continue to step 6.
**But Nyquist is not applicable for this run** when all of the following are true:
- `research_enabled` is false
- `has_research` is false
- no `--research` flag was provided
In that case: **skip validation-strategy creation entirely**. Do **not** expect `RESEARCH.md` or `VALIDATION.md` for this run, and continue to Step 6.
```bash
grep -l "## Validation Architecture" "${PHASE_DIR}"/*-RESEARCH.md 2>/dev/null || true
```
**If found:**
1. Read template: `.pi/gsd/templates/VALIDATION.md`
2. Write to `${PHASE_DIR}/${PADDED_PHASE}-VALIDATION.md` (use Write tool)
3. Fill frontmatter: `{N}` → phase number, `{phase-slug}` → slug, `{date}` → current date
4. Verify:
```bash
test -f "${PHASE_DIR}/${PADDED_PHASE}-VALIDATION.md" && echo "VALIDATION_CREATED=true" || echo "VALIDATION_CREATED=false"
```
5. If `VALIDATION_CREATED=false`: STOP - do not proceed to Step 6
6. If `commit_docs`: `commit "docs(phase-${PHASE}): add validation strategy"`
**If not found:** Warn and continue - plans may fail Dimension 8.
## 5.6. UI Design Contract Gate
> Skip if `workflow.ui_phase` is explicitly `false` AND `workflow.ui_safety_gate` is explicitly `false` in `.planning/config.json`. If keys are absent, treat as enabled.
```bash
UI_PHASE_CFG=$(pi-gsd-tools config-get workflow.ui_phase 2>/dev/null || echo "true")
UI_GATE_CFG=$(pi-gsd-tools config-get workflow.ui_safety_gate 2>/dev/null || echo "true")
```
**If both are `false`:** Skip to step 6.
Check if phase has frontend indicators:
```bash
PHASE_SECTION=$(pi-gsd-tools roadmap get-phase "${PHASE}" 2>/dev/null)
echo "$PHASE_SECTION" | grep -iE "UI|interface|frontend|component|layout|page|screen|view|form|dashboard|widget" > /dev/null 2>&1
HAS_UI=$?
```
**If `HAS_UI` is 0 (frontend indicators found):**
Check for existing UI-SPEC:
```bash
UI_SPEC_FILE=$(ls "${PHASE_DIR}"/*-UI-SPEC.md 2>/dev/null | head -1)
```
**If UI-SPEC.md found:** Set `UI_SPEC_PATH=$UI_SPEC_FILE`. Display: `Using UI design contract: ${UI_SPEC_PATH}`
**If UI-SPEC.md missing AND `UI_GATE_CFG` is `true`:**
If `TEXT_MODE` is true, present as a plain-text numbered list:
```
Phase {N} has frontend indicators but no UI-SPEC.md. Generate a design contract before planning?
1. Generate UI-SPEC first - Run /gsd-ui-phase {N} then re-run /gsd-plan-phase {N}
2. Continue without UI-SPEC
3. Not a frontend phase
Enter number:
```
Otherwise use AskUserQuestion:
- header: "UI Design Contract"
- question: "Phase {N} has frontend indicators but no UI-SPEC.md. Generate a design contract before planning?"
- options:
- "Generate UI-SPEC first" → Display: "Run `/gsd-ui-phase {N} ${GSD_WS}` then re-run `/gsd-plan-phase {N} ${GSD_WS}`". Exit workflow.
- "Continue without UI-SPEC" → Continue to step 6.
- "Not a frontend phase" → Continue to step 6.
**If `HAS_UI` is 1 (no frontend indicators):** Skip silently to step 6.
## 6. Check Existing Plans
```bash
ls "${PHASE_DIR}"/*-PLAN.md 2>/dev/null || true
```
**If exists AND `--reviews` flag:** Skip prompt - go straight to replanning (the purpose of `--reviews` is to replan with review feedback).
**If exists AND no `--reviews` flag:** Offer: 1) Add more plans, 2) View existing, 3) Replan from scratch.
## 7. Use Context Paths from INIT
Extract from INIT JSON:
```bash
_gsd_field() { node -e "const o=JSON.parse(process.argv[1]); const v=o[process.argv[2]]; process.stdout.write(v==null?'':String(v))" "$1" "$2"; }
STATE_PATH=$(_gsd_field "$INIT" state_path)
ROADMAP_PATH=$(_gsd_field "$INIT" roadmap_path)
REQUIREMENTS_PATH=$(_gsd_field "$INIT" requirements_path)
RESEARCH_PATH=$(_gsd_field "$INIT" research_path)
VERIFICATION_PATH=$(_gsd_field "$INIT" verification_path)
UAT_PATH=$(_gsd_field "$INIT" uat_path)
CONTEXT_PATH=$(_gsd_field "$INIT" context_path)
REVIEWS_PATH=$(_gsd_field "$INIT" reviews_path)
```
## 7.5. Verify Nyquist Artifacts
Skip if `nyquist_validation_enabled` is false OR `research_enabled` is false.
Also skip if all of the following are true:
- `research_enabled` is false
- `has_research` is false
- no `--research` flag was provided
In that no-research path, Nyquist artifacts are **not required** for this run.
```bash
VALIDATION_EXISTS=$(ls "${PHASE_DIR}"/*-VALIDATION.md 2>/dev/null | head -1)
```
If missing and Nyquist is still enabled/applicable - ask user:
1. Re-run: `/gsd-plan-phase {PHASE} --research ${GSD_WS}`
2. Disable Nyquist with the exact command:
`pi-gsd-tools config-set workflow.nyquist_validation false`
3. Continue anyway (plans fail Dimension 8)
Proceed to Step 8 only if user selects 2 or 3.
## 8. Spawn gsd-planner Agent
Display banner:
```
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
GSD ► PLANNING PHASE {X}
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆ Spawning planner...
```
Planner prompt:
```markdown
**Phase:** {phase_number}
**Mode:** {standard | gap_closure | reviews}
- {state_path} (Project State)
- {roadmap_path} (Roadmap)
- {requirements_path} (Requirements)
- {context_path} (USER DECISIONS from /gsd-discuss-phase)
- {research_path} (Technical Research)
- {verification_path} (Verification Gaps - if --gaps)
- {uat_path} (UAT Gaps - if --gaps)
- {reviews_path} (Cross-AI Review Feedback - if --reviews)
- {UI_SPEC_PATH} (UI Design Contract - visual/interaction specs, if exists)
${AGENT_SKILLS_PLANNER}
**Phase requirement IDs (every ID MUST appear in a plan's `requirements` field):** {phase_req_ids}
**Project instructions:** Read ./GEMINI.md if exists - follow project-specific guidelines
**Project skills:** Check .agent/skills/ or .agents/skills/ directory (if either exists) - read SKILL.md files, plans should account for project skill rules
Output consumed by /gsd-execute-phase. Plans need:
- Frontmatter (wave, depends_on, files_modified, autonomous)
- Tasks in XML format with read_first and acceptance_criteria fields (MANDATORY on every task)
- Verification criteria
- must_haves for goal-backward verification
## Anti-Shallow Execution Rules (MANDATORY)
Every task MUST include these fields - they are NOT optional:
1. **``** - Files the executor MUST read before touching anything. Always include:
- The file being modified (so executor sees current state, not assumptions)
- Any "source of truth" file referenced in CONTEXT.md (reference implementations, existing patterns, config files, schemas)
- Any file whose patterns, signatures, types, or conventions must be replicated or respected
2. **``** - Verifiable conditions that prove the task was done correctly. Rules:
- Every criterion must be checkable with grep, file read, test command, or CLI output
- NEVER use subjective language ("looks correct", "properly configured", "consistent with")
- ALWAYS include exact strings, patterns, values, or command outputs that must be present
- Examples:
- Code: `auth.py contains def verify_token(` / `test_auth.py exits 0`
- Config: `.env.example contains DATABASE_URL=` / `Dockerfile contains HEALTHCHECK`
- Docs: `README.md contains '## Installation'` / `API.md lists all endpoints`
- Infra: `deploy.yml has rollback step` / `docker-compose.yml has healthcheck for db`
3. **``** - Must include CONCRETE values, not references. Rules:
- NEVER say "align X with Y", "match X to Y", "update to be consistent" without specifying the exact target state
- ALWAYS include the actual values: config keys, function signatures, SQL statements, class names, import paths, env vars, etc.
- If CONTEXT.md has a comparison table or expected values, copy them into the action verbatim
- The executor should be able to complete the task from the action text alone, without needing to read CONTEXT.md or reference files (read_first is for verification, not discovery)
**Why this matters:** Executor agents work from the plan text. Vague instructions like "update the config to match production" produce shallow one-line changes. Concrete instructions like "add DATABASE_URL=postgresql://... , set POOL_SIZE=20, add REDIS_URL=redis://..." produce complete work. The cost of verbose plans is far less than the cost of re-doing shallow execution.
- [ ] PLAN.md files created in phase directory
- [ ] Each plan has valid frontmatter
- [ ] Tasks are specific and actionable
- [ ] Every task has `` with at least the file being modified
- [ ] Every task has `` with grep-verifiable conditions
- [ ] Every `` contains concrete values (no "align X with Y" without specifying what)
- [ ] Dependencies correctly identified
- [ ] Waves assigned for parallel execution
- [ ] must_haves derived from phase goal
```
```
Task(
prompt=filled_prompt,
subagent_type="gsd-planner",
model="{planner_model}",
description="Plan Phase {phase}"
)
```
## 9. Handle Planner Return
- **`## PLANNING COMPLETE`:** Display plan count. If `--skip-verify` or `plan_checker_enabled` is false (from init): skip to step 13. Otherwise: step 10.
- **`## CHECKPOINT REACHED`:** Present to user, get response, spawn continuation (step 12)
- **`## PLANNING INCONCLUSIVE`:** Show attempts, offer: Add context / Retry / Manual
## 10. Spawn gsd-plan-checker Agent
Display banner:
```
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
GSD ► VERIFYING PLANS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆ Spawning plan checker...
```
Checker prompt:
```markdown
**Phase:** {phase_number}
**Phase Goal:** {goal from ROADMAP}
- {PHASE_DIR}/*-PLAN.md (Plans to verify)
- {roadmap_path} (Roadmap)
- {requirements_path} (Requirements)
- {context_path} (USER DECISIONS from /gsd-discuss-phase)
- {research_path} (Technical Research - includes Validation Architecture)
${AGENT_SKILLS_CHECKER}
**Phase requirement IDs (MUST ALL be covered):** {phase_req_ids}
**Project instructions:** Read ./GEMINI.md if exists - verify plans honor project guidelines
**Project skills:** Check .agent/skills/ or .agents/skills/ directory (if either exists) - verify plans account for project skill rules
- ## VERIFICATION PASSED - all checks pass
- ## ISSUES FOUND - structured issue list
```
```
Task(
prompt=checker_prompt,
subagent_type="gsd-plan-checker",
model="{checker_model}",
description="Verify Phase {phase} plans"
)
```
## 11. Handle Checker Return
- **`## VERIFICATION PASSED`:** Display confirmation, proceed to step 13.
- **`## ISSUES FOUND`:** Display issues, check iteration count, proceed to step 12.
## 12. Revision Loop (Max 3 Iterations)
Track `iteration_count` (starts at 1 after initial plan + check).
**If iteration_count < 3:**
Display: `Sending back to planner for revision... (iteration {N}/3)`
Revision prompt:
```markdown
**Phase:** {phase_number}
**Mode:** revision
- {PHASE_DIR}/*-PLAN.md (Existing plans)
- {context_path} (USER DECISIONS from /gsd-discuss-phase)
${AGENT_SKILLS_PLANNER}
**Checker issues:** {structured_issues_from_checker}
Make targeted updates to address checker issues.
Do NOT replan from scratch unless issues are fundamental.
Return what changed.
```
```
Task(
prompt=revision_prompt,
subagent_type="gsd-planner",
model="{planner_model}",
description="Revise Phase {phase} plans"
)
```
After planner returns -> spawn checker again (step 10), increment iteration_count.
**If iteration_count >= 3:**
Display: `Max iterations reached. {N} issues remain:` + issue list
Offer: 1) Force proceed, 2) Provide guidance and retry, 3) Abandon
## 13. Requirements Coverage Gate
After plans pass the checker (or checker is skipped), verify that all phase requirements are covered by at least one plan.
**Skip if:** `phase_req_ids` is null or TBD (no requirements mapped to this phase).
**Step 1: Extract requirement IDs claimed by plans**
```bash
# Collect all requirement IDs from plan frontmatter
PLAN_REQS=$(grep -h "requirements_addressed\|requirements:" ${PHASE_DIR}/*-PLAN.md 2>/dev/null | tr -d '[]' | tr ',' '\n' | sed 's/^[[:space:]]*//' | sort -u)
```
**Step 2: Compare against phase requirements from ROADMAP**
For each REQ-ID in `phase_req_ids`:
- If REQ-ID appears in `PLAN_REQS` → covered ✓
- If REQ-ID does NOT appear in any plan → uncovered ✗
**Step 3: Check CONTEXT.md features against plan objectives**
Read CONTEXT.md `` section. Extract feature/capability names. Check each against plan `` blocks. Features not mentioned in any plan objective → potentially dropped.
**Step 4: Report**
If all requirements covered and no dropped features:
```
✓ Requirements coverage: {N}/{N} REQ-IDs covered by plans
```
→ Proceed to step 14.
If gaps found:
```
## ⚠ Requirements Coverage Gap
{M} of {N} phase requirements are not assigned to any plan:
| REQ-ID | Description | Plans |
| ------ | ---------------------- | ----- |
| {id} | {from REQUIREMENTS.md} | None |
{K} CONTEXT.md features not found in plan objectives:
- {feature_name} - described in CONTEXT.md but no plan covers it
Options:
1. Re-plan to include missing requirements (recommended)
2. Move uncovered requirements to next phase
3. Proceed anyway - accept coverage gaps
```
If `TEXT_MODE` is true, present as a plain-text numbered list (options already shown in the block above). Otherwise use AskUserQuestion to present the options.
## 14. Present Final Status
Route to `` OR `auto_advance` depending on flags/config.
## 15. Auto-Advance Check
Check for auto-advance trigger:
1. Parse `--auto` flag from $ARGUMENTS
2. **Sync chain flag with intent** - if user invoked manually (no `--auto`), clear the ephemeral chain flag from any previous interrupted `--auto` chain. This does NOT touch `workflow.auto_advance` (the user's persistent settings preference):
```bash
if [[ ! "$ARGUMENTS" =~ --auto ]]; then
pi-gsd-tools config-set workflow._auto_chain_active false 2>/dev/null
fi
```
3. Read both the chain flag and user preference:
```bash
AUTO_CHAIN=$(pi-gsd-tools config-get workflow._auto_chain_active 2>/dev/null || echo "false")
AUTO_CFG=$(pi-gsd-tools config-get workflow.auto_advance 2>/dev/null || echo "false")
```
**If `--auto` flag present OR `AUTO_CHAIN` is true OR `AUTO_CFG` is true:**
Display banner:
```
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
GSD ► AUTO-ADVANCING TO EXECUTE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Plans ready. Launching execute-phase...
```
Launch execute-phase using the Skill tool to avoid nested Task sessions (which cause runtime freezes due to deep agent nesting):
```
Skill(skill="gsd-execute-phase", args="${PHASE} --auto --no-transition ${GSD_WS}")
```
The `--no-transition` flag tells execute-phase to return status after verification instead of chaining further. This keeps the auto-advance chain flat - each phase runs at the same nesting level rather than spawning deeper Task agents.
**Handle execute-phase return:**
- **PHASE COMPLETE** → Display final summary:
```
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
GSD ► PHASE ${PHASE} COMPLETE ✓
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Auto-advance pipeline finished.
Next: /gsd-discuss-phase ${NEXT_PHASE} --auto ${GSD_WS}
```
- **GAPS FOUND / VERIFICATION FAILED** → Display result, stop chain:
```
Auto-advance stopped: Execution needs review.
Review the output above and continue manually:
/gsd-execute-phase ${PHASE} ${GSD_WS}
```
**If neither `--auto` nor config enabled:**
Route to `` (existing behavior).
Output this markdown directly (not as a code block):
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
GSD ► PHASE {X} PLANNED ✓
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
**Phase {X}: {Name}** - {N} plan(s) in {M} wave(s)
| Wave | Plans | What it builds |
| ---- | ------ | -------------- |
| 1 | 01, 02 | [objectives] |
| 2 | 03 | [objective] |
Research: {Completed | Used existing | Skipped}
Verification: {Passed | Passed with override | Skipped}
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
## ▶ Next Up
**Execute Phase {X}** - run all {N} plans
/gsd-execute-phase {X} ${GSD_WS}
/new first → fresh context window
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
**Also available:**
- cat .planning/phases/{phase-dir}/*-PLAN.md - review plans
- /gsd-plan-phase {X} --research - re-research first
- /gsd-review --phase {X} --all - peer review plans with external AIs
- /gsd-plan-phase {X} --reviews - replan incorporating review feedback
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
**Windows users:** If plan-phase freezes during agent spawning (common on Windows due to
stdio deadlocks with MCP servers - see Claude Code issue anthropics/claude-code#28126):
1. **Force-kill:** Close the terminal (Ctrl+C may not work)
2. **Clean up orphaned processes:**
```powershell
# Kill orphaned node processes from stale MCP servers
Get-Process node -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Where-Object {$_.StartTime -lt (Get-Date).AddHours(-1)} | Stop-Process -Force
```
3. **Clean up stale task directories:**
```powershell
# Remove stale subagent task dirs (Claude Code never cleans these on crash)
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:USERPROFILE\.claude\tasks\*" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
```
4. **Reduce MCP server count:** Temporarily disable non-essential MCP servers in settings.json
5. **Retry:** Restart Claude Code and run `/gsd-plan-phase` again
If freezes persist, try `--skip-research` to reduce the agent chain from 3 to 2 agents:
```
/gsd-plan-phase N --skip-research
```
- [ ] .planning/ directory validated
- [ ] Phase validated against roadmap
- [ ] Phase directory created if needed
- [ ] CONTEXT.md loaded early (step 4) and passed to ALL agents
- [ ] Research completed (unless --skip-research or --gaps or exists)
- [ ] gsd-phase-researcher spawned with CONTEXT.md
- [ ] Existing plans checked
- [ ] gsd-planner spawned with CONTEXT.md + RESEARCH.md
- [ ] Plans created (PLANNING COMPLETE or CHECKPOINT handled)
- [ ] gsd-plan-checker spawned with CONTEXT.md
- [ ] Verification passed OR user override OR max iterations with user decision
- [ ] User sees status between agent spawns
- [ ] User knows next steps