Plan — Persistent Strategic Plans
The Core Idea
Plans capture strategic direction that must survive across sessions. When you start multi-session work or make architectural decisions, save a plan immediately — the reasoning is fresh now and won't be available later. When work is done, mark the plan complete so future sessions don't waste effort on finished goals. A stale plan actively misleads; it's worse than having no plan at all.
When to Create a Plan
Plans matter most when context needs to survive session boundaries. Without a plan, the next session starts from scratch.
- Starting multi-session work — save a plan with goals and approach so the next session knows where to pick up
- After architectural decisions — capture the direction immediately so future sessions don't re-derive or contradict it
- After brainstorming/design sessions — the approved design should outlive the conversation that produced it
- New features spanning multiple sessions — a plan keeps the thread when context compacts or sessions end
- User describes project direction or roadmap — that strategic context is exactly what plans are for
How to Create a Plan
mcp__goldfish__plan({
action: "save",
title: "Auth System Overhaul",
content: "## Goals\n\n- Migrate from session tokens to JWT...\n\n## Approach\n\n...\n\n## Tasks\n\n- [ ] Task 1\n- [ ] Task 2",
tags: ["feature", "auth"],
activate: true
})Plan Content Structure
Structure your plan content with clear sections:
- Goals — what are we trying to achieve?
- Approach — how are we going to do it?
- Tasks — checklist of deliverables (use
- []/- [x]) - Constraints — anything we need to avoid or work around
Key Parameters
- activate: true — set this so the plan appears at the top of every
recall()response. Without activation, future sessions won't see the plan and the strategic direction is effectively lost. - tags — categorize for search. Use consistent tags across checkpoints and plans.
- id — auto-generated from title. Only override if you need a specific slug.
Managing Plan Lifecycle
Check current plans
mcp__goldfish__plan({ action: "list" })Update a plan (add progress, change scope)
mcp__goldfish__plan({
action: "update",
id: "auth-system-overhaul",
updates: {
content: "## Goals\n\n...(updated content with progress noted)..."
}
})Mark a plan complete
mcp__goldfish__plan({ action: "complete", id: "auth-system-overhaul" })Archive a superseded plan
mcp__goldfish__plan({
action: "update",
id: "old-plan",
updates: { status: "archived" }
})The Active Plan
Only ONE plan can be active per workspace. The active plan:
- Appears at the top of every
recall()response - Guides all work in the project
- Should reflect the current strategic direction
If priorities shift, either update the active plan or archive it and create a new one.
Why These Rules Matter
Plans exist so future sessions know the strategic direction. A plan that isn't activated or maintained actively harms future work — it's worse than having no plan at all.
- Activate plans so they appear in
recall(). An inactive plan is invisible to future sessions, which defeats the purpose of creating it. - Mark plans complete when done. A stale active plan misleads every future session into thinking work is still in progress and wastes effort re-investigating completed goals.
- Complete or archive abandoned plans. Orphaned active plans create confusion about what's actually being worked on.
- Update plans as work progresses. Check off tasks, note scope changes, record decisions — a plan that doesn't reflect reality isn't useful.
- Plans are forward-looking, checkpoints are backward-looking. Plans capture where you're going. Checkpoints capture where you've been. Use both — they serve different purposes.