planning-with-files

Progress tracking for multi-phase projects across sessions is maintained by persisting plans and notes to disk as markdown files. The skill re-reads these plan files into the attention window before making decisions, preventing context drift and preserving task continuity.

Organizing complex research tasks is best handled with a 3-file pattern that structures work into explicit plan files. This approach stores findings across multiple sources, maintains focus during long workflows, and recovers from context drift by grounding decisions in written plans.

File-based persistence for task planning should be used when tasks have 3 or more phases, require research, span many tool calls, or risk context drift. It is not needed for simple lookups, single-file edits, or questions answerable in one response.

Recovering from context drift during long-running workflows is achieved by re-reading explicit plan files into the attention window before decisions. This grounds actions in written goals and preserves failure traces for error recovery and institutional knowledge.

Markdown files can be used as working memory for complex task breakdowns by creating a task_plan.md to outline goals and phases. This structures tasks into trackable phases, stores research findings, and synthesizes information across multiple sources.

This planning approach does not work efficiently for simple lookups or single-file edits, as these tasks are answerable in a single response. It is designed specifically for complex workflows requiring multi-phase project coordination and persistent notes.