When should I activate this skill?

It is recommended for any task requiring more than 5 tool calls, research projects involving multiple sources, or complex building tasks that span several phases.

Why use file-based planning instead of standard chat context?

Chat context is volatile and has a limited window. Using files provides a persistent 'source of truth' on your disk that Claude can refer back to, ensuring it doesn't lose track of goals during long or complex operations.

Where are the planning files stored?

The planning files (task_plan.md, findings.md, and progress.md) are created directly in your active project directory so they live alongside your code and remain accessible.

What is the '3-Strike Error Protocol'?

It is a specialized debugging logic where Claude first diagnoses the error, then tries an alternative approach, and finally performs a broader rethink before escalating to the user, preventing repetitive failures.

Agentic Task Planner

Name: Agentic Task Planner
Author: ZhanlinCui

byZhanlinCui

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Productivity & Workflow

Orchestrates complex workflows by maintaining persistent state through structured markdown planning files on your local disk.

The Planning with Files skill implements a high-performance 'Manus-style' workflow that uses your project's filesystem as external working memory. By maintaining persistent task plans, research findings, and progress logs directly in your working directory, this skill overcomes the limitations of LLM context windows and ensures Claude remains focused during long-running or multi-step tasks. It enforces strict protocols like the '2-action rule' for saving findings and a '3-strike' error handling strategy, making it indispensable for deep research, complex code migrations, and any task requiring high reliability across multiple tool calls.

Key Features

0117 GitHub stars

02Context-aware hooks that display the current plan before tool execution

03Persistent 'Disk-as-RAM' memory to prevent context loss during long sessions

042-action rule that mandates saving web or search data immediately to text

053-strike error protocol for systematic debugging and troubleshooting

06Automatic generation of task_plan.md, findings.md, and progress.md templates

Use Cases

01Managing autonomous coding tasks that require state persistence across restarts

02Conducting deep technical research spanning dozens of web searches and documentation pages

03Executing multi-step software migrations or complex refactoring projects

What are Skills?·How to Install

Install with 🐟 Skill.Fish

npx skillfish add zhanlincui/ultimate-agent-skills-collection planning-with-files

For use in Claude.ai and ChatGPT

Download Skill