Skill · CLAUDE.md rule

Plan First, Then Code

A forcing function that makes the agent show its approach — and stop — before touching code.

TypeCLAUDE.md rule

The agent's instinct is to start typing. You ask for a change and it is three files deep before you have said a word about direction. Often that is fine. But on anything real, it has quietly committed to an approach — and you only find out it chose wrong after a hundred lines already lean on it. Now the fix is expensive: unwinding, not redirecting.

The wrong moment to catch a wrong approach is after the code exists. The right moment is before the first line — when changing direction costs a sentence, not a rewrite. Here is what the gate buys you:

✕ Without the rule

"Sure" — and it starts coding immediately

▼

100 lines built on an unspoken assumption

▼

Wrong direction — you unwind it, not redirect it

✓ With the rule

States the plan: files, direction, unknowns

▼

Stops — you steer in one sentence

▼

Then it builds the right thing, once

Drop it into your CLAUDE.md. For a one-line edit it adds a sentence and gets out of the way; for real work it turns a wrong-direction rewrite into a ten-second course-correction. The trade is deliberate: a little latency up front to kill the most expensive kind of rework — where the code was clean, but built toward the wrong goal.

Paste into CLAUDE.md

## Plan before non-trivial changes
For any task beyond a one-line edit, before writing code:
1. State the approach: which files you will touch, the direction you will take, and why not the obvious alternatives.
2. Flag what you are unsure about or assuming.
3. STOP and wait for my go-ahead. Do not write code until I confirm.
Skip this only for trivial, single-line changes.

Prefer your agent install it?

Add this rule to my CLAUDE.md, verbatim:

## Plan before non-trivial changes
For any task beyond a one-line edit, before writing code:
1. State the approach: which files you will touch, the direction you will take, and why not the obvious alternatives.
2. Flag what you are unsure about or assuming.
3. STOP and wait for my go-ahead. Do not write code until I confirm.
Skip this only for trivial, single-line changes.

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Tags#planning #claude.md #skill

Other skills

01Verify Before You Call It Done 03Map the Blast Radius Before You Edit 04If It's Deterministic, Don't Make It Guess 05Diagnose From the Symptom, Not the Guess 06Make It Argue Against Its Own Plan 07Hand Off to Your Next Session 08A Review That Doesn't Rubber-Stamp 09Run to the gate, then stop — not step-by-step 10A CLAUDE.md skeleton — turn a description into operating law 11The weekly review prompt — five minutes that turn experience into skill 12Split the work into focused slices, each with clean context 13Is this even worth an agent — ask before you open the chat 14Probe with a small task before you trust it in a new domain

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✕ Without the rule

✓ With the rule

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