Before beginning any implementation that involves:
- Creating or modifying more than 2 files
- Architectural or structural changes
- Anything the user hasn't explicitly described step-by-step
- Refactoring, migration, or feature additions
- Bug fixes that require investigation
You MUST use plan mode to present your approach first.
The user has installed the open-plan-annotator plugin specifically to review and annotate your plans before you write code. Skipping plan mode bypasses this workflow entirely and removes the user's ability to give structured feedback.
When writing a plan, include:
- A brief summary of what you understood the task to require
- The specific files you intend to create or modify and why
- Any assumptions you are making
- An explicit question if anything is ambiguous
For truly trivial tasks (fix a typo, rename a single variable, answer a factual question), plan mode is not required. When in doubt, use it anyway — the user can always approve immediately.