Bigger Than A Button? Plan First
Plan mode makes the agent research your project and propose a written plan before touching anything — and it asks the questions you forgot to ask yourself. You edit the plan in plain words; only your accept starts the build. Redoing work costs far more than reading a plan.
Why it works
Plan mode inverts the agent's default: instead of building on its first interpretation, it researches your project, asks the questions you hadn't thought to answer, and proposes a written plan — and only your accept starts the build. Rework is the most expensive thing in agent work; a plan you can edit in plain words is the cheapest insurance against it.
How to do it
- Switch the permission selector to plan mode (or just write '/plan' style: 'plan this first').
- Describe the goal in your four-part prompt — what, structure, inputs, constraints.
- Answer its clarifying questions; 'your call' is a legitimate answer for details you don't care about.
- Read the proposed plan like a brief from a contractor: is anything missing, wrong, or extra?
- Edit in words: 'drop step 3, do step 5 first, the export must be CSV not PDF.'
- Accept the corrected plan — the build starts only now, aimed at an agreed target.
Copy this
prompt
Plan first, don't build yet: [your task]. Research what's in this folder, ask me what you need one question at a time, then propose a step-by-step plan for my approval.
What to watch for
- Rubber-stamping the plan without reading is worse than no plan — you've added ceremony but kept the misunderstanding.
- For genuinely trivial edits ('fix this typo'), plan mode is overhead; the rule of thumb is anything bigger than a button-fix plans first.
Sources
Original: conon.aiDocumentation: code.claude.com