planning-with-files

Persistent planning files keep complex research goals visible across long workflows. By maintaining on-disk artifacts like task_plan.md, findings.md, and progress.md, you can track multi-step tasks without relying on memory or risking context window overflow.

Tracking project findings over many tool calls requires structured markdown files. You can log discoveries in findings.md and update status in progress.md, ensuring iterative decisions are based on re-read, persistent data rather than volatile memory.

Setting up a structured project management workflow involves initializing markdown templates in your project directory. You create task_plan.md, findings.md, and progress.md from provided templates to guide phases, track status, and structure iterative decisions.

Yes, you can enforce task completion checks using hooks. The setup includes PreToolUse and Stop hooks that validate completion, requiring you to re-read the plan and log progress before finalizing multi-step workflows.

File-based planning is designed specifically for tasks requiring heavy iterative decisions. By re-reading the persistent task plan before taking action, you refresh goals and ensure that every iterative decision aligns with the original project scope.