Plan Compliance Review
Purpose
Verify that an implementation matches its plan of record. Flag deviations, missing phases, unimplemented acceptance criteria, and scope drift.
This skill is used as a review lens inside Review Council and can also be invoked standalone.
Plan Source Detection
Locate the plan of record using this priority order:
- Explicit argument: If a path is provided as the argument, use that file directly.
- CLI mode: Search
docs/plans/active/ then docs/plans/ for plan files. Match plans to the changed files by:
- File references in the plan body that overlap with the diff's changed files.
- Title keywords that match the branch name or commit message subjects.
- Most recently modified plan when multiple candidates match.
- PR mode: Extract plan references from:
- PR description body (links or file paths mentioning plans).
- Linked issues and their descriptions.
- Fall back to
docs/plans/.
If no plan is found after exhausting all sources, report a single finding:
- Title: "No plan of record found for this change"
- Severity: p3
- Confidence: low
- Category: plan-compliance
- Recommended fix: "Create a plan in docs/plans/ or link an existing plan in the PR description."
Review Lenses
Once the plan is located, review the implementation against these lenses:
Phase Completeness
- Are all phases defined in the plan implemented?
- Are any phases skipped or only partially completed?
- If the plan defines an implementation sequence, is the sequence respected?
Acceptance Criteria
- Are all acceptance criteria from the plan met in the implementation?
- For each criterion, identify the specific code, test, or artifact that satisfies it.
- Flag any acceptance criteria with no corresponding implementation evidence.
Scope Compliance
- Does the implementation stay within the plan's defined scope?
- Flag missing items: things the plan describes that are not implemented.
- Flag scope creep: things implemented that the plan does not describe. Not all scope creep is negative — distinguish intentional extensions from drift.
Architecture Alignment
- Does the implementation follow the architecture direction stated in the plan?
- If the plan specifies API boundaries, module structure, or data model choices, verify the implementation honors them.
- Defer deep architecture analysis to the architecture-review skill — focus here on what the plan explicitly states.
Verification Coverage
- Does the implementation include the verification evidence the plan requires?
- If the plan defines specific test scenarios, validation commands, or proof strategies, verify they are present.
- Flag verification gaps where the plan requires proof but the implementation provides none.
Output
Present findings as a markdown checklist with severity and confidence for each item:
- Missing acceptance criteria: p1 high
- Skipped phases: p1 or p2 depending on impact
- Scope creep without justification: p2 medium
- Missing verification: p2 medium
- No plan found: p3 low