Plan mode
What changes#
Instead of editing immediately, the agent:
- Researches your codebase to find the files a change would touch
- Asks clarifying questions about requirements it cannot infer
- Produces a detailed implementation plan
- Waits for your approval before building
When to use it#
Plan mode earns its extra step when a task spans multiple files, requires research before the approach is clear, or touches something where a wrong direction is expensive to unwind.
For a one-line fix it is overhead. For a change that reaches across a service boundary it saves a review cycle, because disagreements surface in the plan rather than in a large diff.
Reading the plan critically#
The plan is where your judgment has the most leverage. Check that it names the files you expect. A plan that misses a module you know is involved signals the agent has the wrong mental model, and approving it produces a confidently wrong change.
Answer the clarifying questions properly. They are the agent's attempt to resolve genuine ambiguity, and a vague answer propagates into the implementation.
Related#
- Quickstart — where plan mode first appears
- Agent overview — the default non-planning loop
- Rules — encode standing constraints so plans respect them