planning-with-files

Persistent markdown planning maintains task progress across multiple sessions by creating and syncing task_plan.md, findings.md, and progress.md files. These files capture goals, decisions, and session logs to enable automatic recovery after interruptions like /clear commands.

File-based task planning organizes complex multi-step work through persistent markdown notebooks tracking phases, research findings, and progress. You need it for multi-step projects, research tasks, and ongoing work requiring multiple tool calls and session recovery.

Session recovery after clearing commands works by reading persistent progress.md and task_plan.md files to reconstruct your project state. The planning files record phase progress and findings, allowing you to resume exactly where you left off.

Yes, you can use markdown templates for multi-step project planning without external dependencies. The system creates structured planning files in your project root directory and requires no additional packages, relying solely on markdown files for task management.

Tracking research findings during long-running projects is best handled by maintaining a dedicated findings.md file alongside task_plan.md and progress.md. This structured approach keeps findings centralized and synchronized with your overall task phases.

Multi-step task workflows lose context between tool calls when planning is not persisted to files. Creating persistent task_plan.md and progress.md files with templates and hooks enforces file-based planning requirements, refreshing context before each tool use to prevent loss.