By name: prd-updating-plans description: Use when a ticket is marked as "Needs Plan Updating" in the PRD system — updates an existing implementation plan to address review feedback. user-invocable: false
Updating Plans for the PRD system
Overview
Updating a plan addresses validated issues found during plan review. The ticket already has a stored plan and a set of planIssues — this skill walks through understanding the issues, fixing the plan, verifying the fixes, and sending the plan back for review.
When to use this skill
- You are the scrummaster or planner
- The ticket you have has the status "Needs Plan Updating"
Steps to follow when updating plans:
Step 1: Get Ticket Details
Get the latest ticket information using prd-system_getTicket. Pay close attention to the planIssues field — these are the validated issues that the plan update must address. Also review the current plan, acceptance criteria, tech notes, and dependencies.
Step 2: Understand the Issues
Review each issue in planIssues against the stored plan to determine what needs to change. Use the Hand of the King agent to recommend 2 or more agents appropriate for understanding these plan issues, then dispatch them with the full ticket details and ask them to:
- Confirm they understand each issue
- Identify which parts of the plan need to change
- Flag any issues that seem unclear or redundant
- Issues are valid
If agents disagree on what needs to change, dispatch an additional agent as a tiebreaker. The majority determines the scope of changes needed.
If issues are unclear or contradictory, mark the ticket using prd-system_escalate — do not proceed to Step 3.
Step 3: Fix the Plan
Get the latest ticket information using prd-system_getTicket to pass to the agents for this step.
If all issues were marked as invalid in the previous step we need to update the plan with more information so it passes review
Use the Hand of the King agent to recommend 2 or more agents appropriate for creating plan updates, then dispatch them to independently propose plan updates. Provide them with:
- The full ticket details (description, acceptance criteria, current plan, planIssues, tech notes, dependencies)
- The findings from Step 2
Each agent should explore the repo and produce an updated free-form markdown plan that addresses every issue in planIssues. The plan should follow the same structure as before: ordered steps, files to create/modify, dependencies, testing approach, and any risks or concerns.
Important constraints: The updated plan must be a clean, standalone document — do not include any issue-tracking tables, status indicators (like ✅ / ❌ / Resolved), or any reference to planIssues. It should be indistinguishable in structure from the original plan, just updated to resolve every issue. Agents must report their updated plan as text in their response only — they must not write any files or create any documents on disk. Storage happens in Step 4 via prd-system_savePlan.
If agents propose different approaches, dispatch an additional agent as a tiebreaker and converge on a single updated plan.
Step 4: Save the Updated Plan
Save the updated plan using prd-system_savePlan on the ticket.
If the ticket has subtasks, check each subtask's plan — if any need updating to address the planIssues, save updated plans for them too using prd-system_savePlan with subtaskId.
Step 5: Verify the Fix
Get the latest ticket information using prd-system_getTicket. Then use the Hand of the King agent to recommend 2 or more agents appropriate for verifying plan fixes, then dispatch them with:
- The full ticket details (including the updated plan)
- The original
planIssueslist
Ask each agent to explore the repo and verify for each issue whether the updated plan genuinely resolves it. Agents should report:
- Which issues are resolved
- Any issues that remain partially or fully unresolved
- Any new issues introduced by the plan changes
If all agents confirm all issues are resolved — proceed to Step 6.
If any agent reports unresolved issues, collect the feedback and dispatch a third agent as a tiebreaker. If the majority still finds unresolved issues, go back to Step 3 with the remaining issues clearly scoped.
If you reached Step 5 three times and issues remain unresolved, mark the ticket as "Needs Human Clarification" by using the prd-system_escalate tool. Do not proceed to Step 6 — report that the ticket has been escalated.
Step 6: Finalize
Once all issues are verified as resolved, finalize the ticket using prd-system_finalizePlanning. This will mark the ticket as "Ready Plan Review", sending it back for a fresh plan review.
Report back that the plan has been updated and the ticket is ready for re-review.
Quick Reference
| Step | Action | Key Decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Get ticket details | prd-system_getTicket — focus on planIssues |
| 2 | Understand the issues | Hand of the King recommends 2+ agents; confirm scope of changes |
| 3 | Fix the plan | Hand of the King recommends 2+ agents; converge on updated plan |
| 4 | Save updated plan | savePlan on ticket + each subtask |
| 5 | Verify the fix | Hand of the King recommends 2+ agents; confirm all issues resolved |
| 6 | Finalize | finalizePlanning → "Ready Plan Review" |
| Escalate | 3 failed cycles | escalate → "Needs Human Plan creation" / "Needs Human Plan finalization" |
Common Mistakes
- Skipping issue understanding. Jumping straight to fixing without confirming what each issue means leads to partial fixes. Always run Step 2 first.
- Only fixing the parent plan. If subtasks have plans but the issues affect them too, update subtask plans as well in Step 4.
- Skipping verification. Always run Step 5 before finalizing. An incomplete fix wastes the reviewer's time.
- Not re-getting the ticket before dispatching agents. Always call
prd-system_getTicketto get the latest state before dispatching agents in Steps 3 and 5, so they work with current data.