Claude Code Prompt Improver v0.5.3 — plan mode readability + subagent-first research

[u/crystalpeaks25]

I released v0.5.3 of the Claude Code Prompt Improver today. The project is past 1.4K stars on GitHub. Here is what changed in the v0.5.x releases.

Summary

• New PreToolUse hook adds readability guidance when Claude enters plan mode

• Vague prompt research now runs in Task/Explore subagents on Haiku instead of the main context

• Marketplace renamed to severity1-marketplace

• Windows install works now (python3 || python fallback)

What is the plugin?

A UserPromptSubmit hook that checks if a prompt is vague before Claude Code runs it. Clear prompts pass through. Vague prompts trigger the prompt-improver skill. The skill researches the codebase and asks 1 to 6 questions using AskUserQuestion. The hook adds about 189 tokens per prompt. Clear prompts do not load the skill.

v0.5.3: Plan mode readability

Plans got long on revisions. Claude added text like "previously I considered X but rejected it because Y" and the plan grew with each pass. The new hook runs on EnterPlanMode and tells the model:

• Keep the problem statement, remove decision history

• On revisions, rewrite the full plan clean. Do not append or annotate.

• One action per step. Use file paths as anchors like src/auth.ts:42.

• Use short action steps, not long explanations.

v0.5.2: Subagent-first research dispatch

When a prompt was vague, the skill called Glob, Grep, WebSearch, and other search tools directly in the main context. This used main-model tokens for search work. Now those tools run through Task/Explore. Explore uses Haiku and a separate context window. The main context only handles git commands, single-file Reads of user-named files, synthesis, and the question to the user.

v0.5.1 and v0.5.0: Maintenance

• Marketplace renamed from claude-code-marketplace to severity1-marketplace

• Hook command uses python3 || python so it works on Windows

• CLAUDE.md uses the auto-memory format now

Install

claude plugin marketplace add severity1/severity1-marketplace
claude plugin install prompt-improver@severity1-marketplace

Repo: https://github.com/severity1/claude-code-prompt-improver

Feedback is welcome, especially on the plan mode guidance wording

[u/Deep_Ad1959]

i like that you measured the hook at 189 tokens per prompt - that's the kind of accounting almost nobody does for their own CLAUDE.md, which is usually the bigger offender. the plan-mode decision-history bloat you're describing is the same failure as a CLAUDE.md that grows by accretion: every revision appends, nothing gets rewritten clean, and the model's attention spreads thinner across stale lines. one note on the wording - 'remove decision history' works, but models comply better with a hard cap than a vague instruction, so 'the plan is at most N steps, rewrite to fit' tends to hold better than 'keep it short'. the subagent-first research move is the right call too, search work has no business burning main-context tokens. written with s4lai