structured planning

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title: Structured Planning category: concepts tags: [harness, planning, dag, layer-2, quality] status: developing created: 2026-04-28 updated: 2026-04-28 sources:

• "harness-implementation-plan" related:
• "agentic-harness"
• "spec-hardening"
• "grounding-checkpoints"
• "schema-orchestration" layer: "Layer_2" summary: Layer 2 produces a machine-readable task DAG reviewed before code begins. No code without a plan. Plans are validated, adversarially reviewed, and must be approved. provenance: extracted: 0.85 inferred: 0.15 ambiguous: 0.0

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Structured Planning

Origin Principle

Machine-readable task DAG reviewed before code begins. No code without a plan.

Flow

spec_hardened event →
Planner.createPlan(spec) → AI call → ExecutionPlan with nodes[]
    ↓
DAG validation: cycle detection, orphan detection, spec coverage
    ↓
If invalid: regenerate (max_plan_revisions)
    ↓
Plan review gate:
    → Adversarial critic review of plan
    → OR human approval (config: require_approval)
    ↓
Store ExecutionPlan in .pi/harness/plans/<id>.json
    ↓
Emit: plan_approved → Archon workflow (Layer 7)

ExecutionPlan Data Contract

Each PlanNode in the DAG includes:

• task_id, title, description — what to do
• inputs, outputs — declared data dependencies
• dependencies — which tasks must complete first
• risk_surface — at least one risk entry per task
• verification — concrete method to verify completion
• status — pending → in_progress → completed/failed/blocked

The ExecutionPlan tracks:

• DAG validation status
• Review status (pending/approved/rejected/revised)
• Reviewer notes if rejected

Validation

Automated DAG validation checks:

• Cycle detection — no circular dependencies
• Orphan detection — no disconnected nodes
• Spec coverage — every success criterion maps to at least one task

Review Gate

Plans go through adversarial review before approval:

• A critic agent attacks the plan (missing tasks, incorrect dependencies, overly broad tasks)
• If rejected, the planner regenerates with review notes incorporated
• require_approval config controls whether human approval is also needed
• max_plan_revisions caps regeneration cycles (default: 3)

Extension Interface

Type	Name	Description
Tool	create-plan	Generate plan from hardened spec
Tool	review-plan	Adversarial review of plan
Tool	approve-plan	Human approval gate
Command	/harness-plan-status	Current plan status

Files

• lib/harness-planner.ts — Planner class, DAG generation, validation
• extensions/harness-planner.ts — Extension: listens for spec_hardened, produces plan