Task Planning Philosophy

Why Structured Task Planning

Complex work fails not from bad code but from bad decomposition. A task that's too large causes context overload — the agent loses track of what it's doing. A task that's too vague invites scope creep — the agent adds things nobody asked for.

Structured planning turns ambiguous work into a sequence of atomic steps, each with clear inputs, outputs, and success criteria. The discipline is in the decomposition, not the execution.

Why Atomic Tasks

Small tasks create tight feedback loops. When a task is small enough to complete and validate in one pass, errors are caught immediately and course corrections are cheap. Large tasks accumulate hidden errors that compound — by the time you discover the problem, you've built on top of it.

Why Sequential Execution

Parallel work on interdependent tasks creates merge conflicts, duplicated effort, and inconsistent assumptions. Sequential execution with approval gates ensures each step is validated before the next begins. The slowdown is the feature — it prevents rework.

Why Checkpoints

Without explicit approval gates, agents optimize for completion rather than correctness. Checkpoints force a pause where work is reviewed against the original intent. Drift is caught early, before it becomes expensive to fix.