Skillintermediate

Merge deepen-plan into ce:plan as automatic confidence check

Absorb the deepen-plan skill's confidence-gap evaluation and targeted research agent dispatching into ce:plan as an automatic post-write phase. Remove deepen-plan as a standalone skill. The user no longer decides whether to deepen — the agent evaluates and reports what it's strengthening.

Claude Code Knowledge Pack7/10/2026

Overview

Merge deepen-plan into ce:plan as automatic confidence check

Overview

Problem Frame

The ce:plan and deepen-plan skills form a sequential workflow where the user is offered a choice ("want to deepen?") that they can't evaluate better than the agent can. When deepen-plan runs, it already self-gates (skips Lightweight, scores confidence gaps before acting). The user decision adds friction without adding value. (see origin: docs/brainstorms/2026-03-26-merge-deepen-into-plan-requirements.md)

Requirements Trace

R1. ce:plan automatically evaluates and deepens its own output after the initial plan is written, without asking the user for approval
R2. When deepening runs, ce:plan reports what sections it's strengthening and why (transparency without requiring a decision)
R3. Deepening is skipped for Lightweight plans unless high-risk topics are detected
R4. For Standard and Deep plans, ce:plan scores confidence gaps using checklist-first, risk-weighted scoring; if no gaps exceed threshold, reports "confidence check passed" and moves on
R5. When gaps are found, ce:plan dispatches targeted research agents to strengthen only the weak sections
R6. deepen-plan is removed as standalone command; re-deepening is handled through ce:plan resume mode with the same confidence-gap evaluation (doesn't force deepening unless user explicitly requests it)
R7. The "Run deepen-plan" post-generation option is removed; post-generation options become simpler

Scope Boundaries

This does not change what deepening does — only where it lives and who decides to run it
Deepen-plan's separate-file -deepened option is dropped — ce:plan always writes in-place, and automatic deepening has no reason to create a separate file
The confidence scoring checklist, agent mapping table, and synthesis rules are transplanted from deepen-plan, not rewritten
No changes to ce:brainstorm or ce:work
The planning boundary (no code, no commands) is preserved
Historical docs referencing deepen-plan are not updated — they are historical records

Context & Research

Relevant Code and Patterns

plugins/compound-engineering/skills/ce-plan/SKILL.md — 6 phases (0-5). Phase 5 has sub-phases: 5.1 (Review), 5.2 (Write), 5.3 (Post-gen options). The new confidence check inserts between 5.2 and 5.3
plugins/compound-engineering/skills/deepen-plan/SKILL.md — 409 lines, 7 phases (0-6). Phases 0-5 contain the logic to absorb; Phase 6 and Post-Enhancement Options are replaced by ce:plan's own post-gen flow
plugins/compound-engineering/skills/lfg/SKILL.md — Step 3 conditionally invokes deepen-plan. Must be removed
plugins/compound-engineering/skills/slfg/SKILL.md — Step 3 conditionally invokes deepen-plan. Must be removed
Skills are auto-discovered from filesystem (no registry in plugin.json). Deleting the directory removes the skill
The deepened: YYYY-MM-DD frontmatter field in plan templates signals that a plan was substantively strengthened

Institutional Learnings

docs/solutions/skill-design/beta-skills-framework.md — The workflow chain is ce:brainstorm -> ce:plan -> deepen-plan -> ce:work, orchestrated by lfg and slfg. When removing a skill, all callers must be updated atomically in one PR
docs/solutions/skill-design/beta-promotion-orchestration-contract.md — Treat the merge as an orchestration contract change. Update every workflow that invokes deepen-plan in the same PR to avoid a broken intermediate state
docs/solutions/plugin-versioning-requirements.md — Do not manually bump versions. Update README counts and tables. Run bun run release:validate

Key Technical Decisions

New Phase 5.3 (Confidence Check and Deepening): Insert between current 5.2 (Write Plan File) and current 5.3 (Post-Generation Options, renumbered to 5.4). This is the minimal structural change — only one sub-phase renumbers. Rationale: deepening operates on the written plan, so it must follow 5.2, and the user should see post-gen options only after deepening completes or is skipped
Resume mode fast path for re-deepening: When ce:plan detects an existing complete plan and the user's request is specifically about deepening, it short-circuits to Phase 5.3 directly (skipping Phases 1-4). Rationale: re-running the full planning workflow to re-deepen would be 3-5x more expensive than the old standalone deepen-plan. The fast path preserves efficiency
Pipeline mode behavior: Deepening runs in pipeline/disable-model-invocation mode using the same gate logic (Standard/Deep AND high-risk or confidence gaps). Rationale: lfg/slfg step 3 already had equivalent conditional logic; this preserves the same behavior internally
Remove ultrathink auto-deepen clause: Line 625 of ce:plan currently auto-runs deepen-plan on ultrathink. This becomes redundant since every plan run now auto-evaluates deepening. Removing it prevents double-deepening
Scratch space: Artifact-backed research uses .context/compound-engineering/ce-plan/deepen/ with per-run subdirectory. Rationale: follows AGENTS.md namespace convention for ce-plan

Open Questions

Resolved During Planning

Where does the confidence check phase land? As Phase 5.3, between Write (5.2) and Post-gen Options (renumbered 5.4). Minimal structural change
How does resume mode distinguish incomplete plan from re-deepen request? Fast path: if the plan appears complete (all sections present, units defined, status: active) and the user's request is specifically about deepening, skip to Phase 5.3. Otherwise resume normal editing
Does deepening run in pipeline mode? Yes, with the same gate logic. Pipeline mode already skips interactive questions; deepening doesn't ask questions, only reports
What replaces deepen-plan in post-gen options? Nothing — the list shrinks by one. If auto-evaluation passed, the plan is adequately grounded. Users who disagree can re-invoke ce:plan with explicit deepening instructions
What about failed or empty agent results during deepening? Preserve deepen-plan's Phase 4.2 fallback: "if an artifact is missing or clearly malformed, re-run that agent or fall back to direct-mode reasoning"

Deferred to Implementation

Exact wording of the transparency status message (R2) — best determined when writing the actual Phase 5.3 content
Whether the deepen-plan Introduction section's distinction between document-review and deepen-plan should be preserved somewhere in ce:plan — likely as a brief note in Phase 5.3

Implementation Units

Unit 1: Modify ce:plan SKILL.md — add Phase 5.3, update Phase 0.1, update post-gen options, update template

Goal: Absorb deepen-plan's confidence-gap evaluation and targeted research into ce:plan as the new Phase 5.3. Update Phase 0.1 for re-deepen fast path. Renumber current Phase 5.3 to 5.4 and simplify it. Update plan template frontmatter comment.

Requirements: R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7

Dependencies: None

Files:
- Modify: plugins/compound-engineering/skills/ce-plan/SKILL.md
Approach:

Phase 5.3 (Confidence Check and Deepening):
- Insert new sub-phase between current 5.2 and 5.3
- Transplant from deepen-plan (not rewrite):
  - Phase 0.2-0.3 gating logic (Lightweight skip, risk profile assessment) → becomes the gate at the top of 5.3
  - Phase 1 plan structure parsing → becomes a step within 5.3 (lighter version since ce:plan already knows its own structure)
  - Phase 2 confidence scoring (the full checklist from deepen-plan lines 119-200) → transplanted wholesale
  - Phase 3 deterministic section-to-agent mapping (lines 208-248) → transplanted wholesale
  - Phase 3.2 agent prompt shape → transplanted
  - Phase 3.3 execution mode decision (direct vs artifact-backed) → transplanted
  - Phase 4 research execution (direct and artifact-backed modes) → transplanted
  - Phase 5 synthesis and rewrite rules → transplanted
  - Phase 6 final checks → merged into ce:plan's existing Phase 5.1 review logic
- Add transparency reporting (R2): before dispatching agents, report what sections are being strengthened and why. Example: "Strengthening [Key Technical Decisions, System-Wide Impact] — decision rationale is thin and cross-boundary effects aren't mapped"
- Add "confidence check passed" path (R4): when no gaps exceed threshold, report and proceed to 5.4
- Add pipeline mode note: deepening runs in pipeline mode using the same gate logic, no user interaction needed
- Update scratch space path to .context/compound-engineering/ce-plan/deepen/
- Transplant scratch cleanup logic from deepen-plan Phase 6 (lines 383-385): after the plan is safely written, clean up the temporary scratch directory. This is especially important since auto-deepening means users may never be aware artifacts were created
Phase 0.1 (Resume mode fast path):
- Add: when ce:plan detects an existing complete plan and the user's request is specifically about deepening or strengthening, short-circuit to Phase 5.3 directly
- "Complete plan" detection: all major sections present, implementation units defined, status: active
- Deepen-request detection: user's input contains signal words like "deepen", "strengthen", "confidence", "gaps", or explicitly says to re-deepen the plan. Normal editing requests (e.g., "update the test scenarios") should NOT trigger the fast path
- Preserve existing resume behavior for incomplete plans
- If plan already has deepened: YYYY-MM-DD and no explicit user request to re-deepen, apply the same confidence-gap evaluation (R6 — doesn't force deepening)
Phase 5.4 (Post-Generation Options, was 5.3):
- Remove option 2 ("Run /deepen-plan") and its handler
- Remove the ultrathink auto-deepen clause (line 625)
- Renumber remaining options (1-6 instead of 1-7)
Plan template frontmatter:
- Change comment on deepened: line from "set later by deepen-plan" to "set when confidence check substantively strengthens the plan"
Patterns to follow:
- deepen-plan SKILL.md is the source of truth for all transplanted content
- ce:plan's existing sub-phase structure (numbered sub-phases within Phase 5)
- ce:plan's existing pipeline mode handling (line 589)
Test scenarios:
- Fresh Lightweight plan → Phase 5.3 gates and skips deepening, reports "confidence check passed"
- Fresh Standard plan with thin decisions → Phase 5.3 identifies gaps, reports what it's strengthening, dispatches agents, updates plan
- Fresh Standard plan with strong confidence → Phase 5.3 evaluates and reports "confidence check passed"
- Pipeline mode (lfg/slfg) → deepening runs automatically with same gate logic, no interactive questions
- Resume mode with explicit deepen request → fast-paths to Phase 5.3
- Resume mode without deepen request → normal plan editing flow
Verification:
- Phase 5.3 contains the complete confidence scoring checklist from deepen-plan
- Phase 5.3 contains the complete section-to-agent mapping from deepen-plan
- Phase 0.1 has the re-deepen fast path
- No references to /deepen-plan remain in ce:plan SKILL.md
- The ultrathink clause is gone
- Plan template frontmatter comment is updated

Unit 2: Delete deepen-plan skill directory

Goal: Remove the deepen-plan skill from the plugin

Requirements: R6

Dependencies: Unit 1 (ce:plan must absorb the logic before it's deleted)

Files:
- Delete: plugins/compound-engineering/skills/deepen-plan/SKILL.md (entire deepen-plan/ directory)
Approach:
- Delete the directory plugins/compound-engineering/skills/deepen-plan/
- Skills are auto-discovered from filesystem, so no registry update needed
Verification:
- plugins/compound-engineering/skills/deepen-plan/ no longer exists
- No deepen-plan skill appears when listing skills

Unit 3: Update lfg and slfg orchestrators

Goal: Remove deepen-plan step from both orchestration skills since ce:plan now handles it internally

Requirements: R1, R6

Dependencies: Unit 1

Files:
- Modify: plugins/compound-engineering/skills/lfg/SKILL.md
- Modify: plugins/compound-engineering/skills/slfg/SKILL.md
Approach:

lfg:
- Remove step 3 (lines 16-20: conditional deepen-plan invocation and its GATE)
- Renumber steps 4-9 to 3-8
- Update the opening instruction to remove reference to step 3 plan verification
- Keep step 2 (/ce:plan) and its GATE unchanged — ce:plan now handles deepening internally
slfg:
- Remove step 3 (lines 14-17: conditional deepen-plan invocation)
- Renumber step 4 to 3 (/ce:work)
- Renumber steps 5-10 to 4-9
- Keep step 2 (/ce:plan) unchanged
Patterns to follow:
- lfg's existing step structure with GATE markers
- slfg's existing phase structure (Sequential, Parallel, Autofix, Finalize)
Verification:
- No references to deepen-plan or deepen in lfg or slfg
- Step numbers are sequential with no gaps
- lfg flow is: optional ralph-loop → ce:plan (with GATE) → ce:work (with GATE) → ce:review mode:autofix → todo-resolve → test-browser → feature-video → DONE. Preserve the existing GATE after ce:work
- slfg flow is: optional ralph-loop → ce:plan → ce:work (swarm) → parallel ce:review mode:report-only + test-browser → ce:review mode:autofix → todo-resolve → feature-video → DONE

Unit 4: Update peripheral references

Goal: Remove stale deepen-plan references from README, AGENTS.md, learnings-researcher, and document-review

Requirements: R6, R7

Dependencies: Unit 2

Files:
- Modify: plugins/compound-engineering/README.md
- Modify: plugins/compound-engineering/AGENTS.md
- Modify: plugins/compound-engineering/agents/research/ce-learnings-researcher.agent.md
- Modify: plugins/compound-engineering/skills/document-review/SKILL.md
Approach:

README.md:
- Remove /deepen-plan row from the Core Workflow table
- Update the /ce:plan description to mention that it includes automatic confidence checking
- Verify skill count in the Components table still says "40+" (removing 1 skill, adding 0)
AGENTS.md:
- Line 116: Replace /deepen-plan example with another valid skill (e.g., /ce:compound or /changelog)
learnings-researcher.md:
- Remove the /deepen-plan integration point line. The deepening behavior is