plan-and-delegate

plan-and-delegate

A Claude Code skill that turns a vague "build me X" into a disciplined workflow:
plan once at high reasoning, then delegate the implementation to subagents — each step on the model that fits it.

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Big or fuzzy coding tasks fail in two predictable ways — you start coding before you understand the problem, or you burn an expensive reasoning model on mechanical work a faster one would have nailed. This skill avoids both.

Contents

• How it works
• Picking the model per step
• Install
• Usage
• Example
• Composing with other skills
• License

How it works

The session you're talking to becomes the orchestrator. It stays in the loop end to end and runs four phases:

Phase	What happens	Model
1. Plan	Clarify intent, constraints, and approach. Decompose the work into discrete, dependency-annotated steps.	Opus (high reasoning)
2. Spec	Write a self-contained implementation brief for each step — goal, context, exact deliverable, constraints, definition of done.	Opus
3. Delegate	Hand each step to an implementation subagent, choosing the model per step. Independent steps run in parallel; dependent ones in order.	Sonnet or Opus
4. Review	Read results against the brief, verify for real (build/tests), integrate, re-delegate anything that missed.	Opus

Picking the model per step

The core idea: spend reasoning where it pays off, move fast where it doesn't.

• Sonnet — the step is well-specified and the path is clear: boilerplate, scaffolding, CRUD that follows a pattern, tests against a decided interface, mechanical refactors, high-volume repetitive edits. Faster and cheaper, and excellent on a tight brief.
• Opus — real judgment remains: API/schema/architecture design, tricky algorithms, concurrency, security-sensitive code, debugging an unknown failure, cross-cutting changes. Worth the cost when getting it subtly wrong is expensive.

Rule of thumb: if the spec made the step unambiguous → Sonnet. If real judgment remains → Opus.

Install

A) As a Claude Code plugin (recommended)

In Claude Code, add this repo as a plugin marketplace and install it:

/plugin marketplace add DanielFrengl/plan-and-delegate
/plugin install plan-and-delegate@plan-and-delegate

Then restart Claude Code. Updates are a /plugin marketplace update away.

B) As a plain personal skill

Clone the repo and copy the skill into your personal skills directory:

git clone https://github.com/DanielFrengl/plan-and-delegate.git
cp -r plan-and-delegate/skills/plan-and-delegate ~/.claude/skills/

Restart Claude Code so it picks up the new skill. (Skills are discovered at startup, so a running session won't see it until you relaunch.)

Heads up: Claude Code only scans ~/.claude/skills/ and a project's .claude/skills/. If you install skills with another tool that writes to ~/.agents/skills/, symlink them into ~/.claude/skills/ so Claude Code can find them.

Usage

You don't invoke it manually — it triggers itself. Just ask for something substantial:

• "Build a REST API for a todo app with auth and Postgres."
• "Add a billing module to this project with Stripe webhooks."
• "Refactor the data layer to use the repository pattern."

The orchestrator will plan with you, confirm the plan, then delegate the steps — telling you which step goes to which model and why, so the process stays legible rather than a black box.

For one-line, low-risk changes it deliberately stays out of the way and just makes the edit — the planning apparatus is reserved for work that warrants it.

Example

A run for "Build a REST API for a todo app with auth and Postgres" looks like:

Plan (Opus, with you)
  └─ write a spec for each step
       ├─ Step 1: DB schema + migrations   → Opus   (foundational, judgment-heavy)
       ├─ Step 2: auth middleware + JWT     → Opus   (security-sensitive)
       ├─ Step 3: CRUD endpoints            → Sonnet ┐
       ├─ Step 4: request/response schemas  → Sonnet ┤ parallel, depend on Steps 1–2
       └─ Step 5: endpoint tests            → Sonnet ┘
  └─ review every result, run the tests, integrate

Foundational, judgment-heavy steps go first on Opus; the well-specified work that builds on them fans out in parallel on Sonnet.

Composing with other skills