Plan mode
Investigate a change and save a reviewable plan before implementing it.
Start with a question
Section titled “Start with a question”Choose Plan from the chat composer’s mode picker. Describe the outcome, constraints, and what needs deciding. Include the relevant files or project context.
For example:
Investigate how sign-in works. Propose the smallest change that adds a retry state. Identify affected files, risks, and tests. Save the plan; do not implement it yet.
What Plan can do
Section titled “What Plan can do”Plan has read-only investigation tools plus file-writing tools intended for Markdown
plans. These writes still pass through approval handling. It can save a plan such as
PLAN.md or docs/plans/sign-in-retry.md. Non-trivial plans can open in a rendered
preview alongside chat.
Plan is not a promise that nothing is written: plan documents and memory can be updated. Source-code changes and terminal execution belong in an implementation mode. Delegated work in Plan uses the read-only research profile.
Review before implementation
Section titled “Review before implementation”A useful plan names the files involved, explains alternatives, identifies risks, and defines how the result will be tested. Read the saved document and correct assumptions. Then explicitly switch to Agent and ask it to implement the approved plan.
A saved plan is not an executed change. Check the actual diff and test results afterward.