docs: refine Plan Mode documentation structure and workflow

[jerop]

Refactors the Plan Mode guide to emphasize its role in research, design, and strategic planning.

• Streamlined introduction highlighting research, design, and planning benefits.
• Consolidated initiation methods and configuration options under 'Entering plan mode'.
• Refined the implementation workflow to accurately reflect the 4-step 'Explore, Consult, Draft, Review' cycle.
• Standardized terminology (e.g., 'Gemini CLI'), heading casing, and placeholder syntax.
• Improved cross-referencing for YOLO mode, subagents, and the policy engine.

Related to #16871
Preview: https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli/blob/update-planning-workflow/docs/cli/plan-mode.md

[gemini-code-assist]

Summary of Changes

Hello @jerop, I'm Gemini Code Assist¹! I'm currently reviewing this pull request and will post my feedback shortly. In the meantime, here's a summary to help you and other reviewers quickly get up to speed!

This pull request significantly refines the Plan Mode documentation within the Gemini CLI. The changes aim to provide a clearer, more structured, and user-friendly guide by reorganizing content, standardizing terminology, and detailing an updated planning workflow. This enhancement helps users better understand Plan Mode's purpose, how to enable and utilize it effectively for strategic planning, and how to customize its behavior.

Highlights

• Documentation Structure Refinement: The Plan Mode guide's introduction was streamlined to emphasize its role in research, design, and strategic planning, detailing benefits like exploration, design, and planning before implementation.
• Consolidated Initiation Methods: Methods for entering Plan Mode, including default configuration, keyboard shortcuts, commands, and natural language prompts, were consolidated under a single 'Entering Plan Mode' section for clarity.
• Updated Planning Workflow: The planning workflow was refined to accurately reflect a new 4-step 'Explore & Analyze, Consult, Draft, Review & Approval' cycle, providing a clearer procedural guide.
• Terminology and Cross-referencing: Terminology was standardized (e.g., 'Gemini CLI'), heading casing was made consistent, and cross-referencing to related features like YOLO mode, subagents, and the policy engine was improved.
• Removed Manual Table of Contents: The manual table of contents was removed to comply with documentation standards, allowing for automatic generation.
• Relocated Custom Plan Directory Section: The section detailing 'Custom Plan Directory and Policies' was moved to a more logical position within the 'Tool Restrictions' section, after 'Customizing Policies'.

Changelog

• docs/cli/plan-mode.md
  • Updated the introductory description of Plan Mode, detailing its benefits for research, design, and planning.
  • Revised the section on enabling and entering Plan Mode, consolidating configuration options and entry methods.
  • Refined the 'Planning Workflow' to outline a new four-step process: Explore & Analyze, Consult, Draft, and Review & Approval.
  • Standardized terminology, such as replacing 'agent' with 'Gemini CLI' and updating heading casing.
  • Improved cross-references to related documentation for YOLO mode, subagents, and the policy engine.
  • Relocated the 'Custom Plan Directory and Policies' section for better flow.
  • Removed the manual table of contents.

Activity

• No specific activity (comments, reviews, etc.) was provided in the context for this pull request.

Using Gemini Code Assist

The full guide for Gemini Code Assist can be found on our documentation page, here are some quick tips.

Invoking Gemini

You can request assistance from Gemini at any point by creating a comment using either /gemini <command> or @gemini-code-assist <command>. Below is a summary of the supported commands on the current page.

Feature	Command	Description
Code Review	/gemini review	Performs a code review for the current pull request in its current state.
Pull Request Summary	/gemini summary	Provides a summary of the current pull request in its current state.
Comment	@gemini-code-assist	Responds in comments when explicitly tagged, both in pull request comments and review comments.
Help	/gemini help	Displays a list of available commands.

Customization

To customize Gemini Code Assist for GitHub experience, repository maintainers can create a configuration file and/or provide a custom code review style guide (such as PEP-8 for Python) by creating and adding files to a .gemini/ folder in the base of the repository. Detailed instructions can be found here.

Limitations & Feedback

Gemini Code Assist may make mistakes. Please leave feedback on any instances where its feedback is incorrect or counter productive. You can react with 👍 and 👎 on @gemini-code-assist comments. If you're interested in giving your feedback about your experience with Gemini Code Assist for Github and other Google products, sign up here.

You can also get AI-powered code generation, chat, as well as code reviews directly in the IDE at no cost with the Gemini Code Assist IDE Extension.

Footnotes

1. Review the Privacy Notices, Generative AI Prohibited Use Policy, Terms of Service, and learn how to configure Gemini Code Assist in GitHub here. Gemini can make mistakes, so double check it and use code with caution. ↩

[gemini-code-assist]

Code Review

The documentation for Plan Mode has been significantly improved with a clearer workflow and better organization. The introduction is more benefit-oriented, and the transition from 'Starting' to 'Enabling' Plan Mode is well-handled. I found a technical issue in the regex example for custom policies where excessive backslashes are used, which would prevent the policy from matching correctly. Also, the PR description mentions removing the manual table of contents, but it appears to have been updated instead.

[github-actions]

Size Change: -2 B (0%)

Total Size: 25.1 MB

ℹ️ View Unchanged

Filename	Size	Change
./bundle/gemini.js	25.1 MB	-2 B (0%)
./bundle/sandbox-macos-permissive-open.sb	890 B	0 B
./bundle/sandbox-macos-permissive-proxied.sb	1.31 kB	0 B
./bundle/sandbox-macos-restrictive-open.sb	3.36 kB	0 B
./bundle/sandbox-macos-restrictive-proxied.sb	3.56 kB	0 B
./bundle/sandbox-macos-strict-open.sb	4.82 kB	0 B
./bundle/sandbox-macos-strict-proxied.sb	5.02 kB	0 B

_{compressed-size-action}