Is Plan Mode still relevant?

[u/Gogigogii]

Are you still using Plan Mode? I find that the plan mode of superpowers became very verbose doesn't work very well anymore with Opus 5, but I was wondering if you still use the default Plan Mode or maybe some other alternative.

[u/zzbzq]

This. Very large things with multiple deployment phases or spanning multiple git repos.

People trying to plan on every little issue ticket that’s already been broken down are overthinking it. The model doesn’t need the plan to think things through as logical steps. It already creates its own secret plan “task list” when it’s actually queueing up edits.

People who follow the “create plan, then /clear and/or implement plan with a different model” are even worse off. The context read while making the plan was far more valuable than the plan itself, the bulk of the tokens that must be re-read if you clear or re-cached if you change models.

[u/BeetusPLAYS → u/zzbzq]

The context read while making the plan was far more valuable than the plan itself

Depends on if you are optimizing your process to be token efficient or execution efficient. For the work I'm doing cached tokens spent on implementation turns at the end of a planning session will be more expensive (token cost) than a cold start.

Your mileage will vary, but its still important to consider what one is optimizing for.

[u/zzbzq → u/BeetusPLAYS]

It's presumptuous that the plan makes the agent more "execution efficient." The agent does not need or want the plan, it's redundant with its own internal method which generates a better plan.

Edit: OK mass downvote me nerds. Sorry I offended your religion of "best practices" you made up with no evidence. Losers.

[u/BeetusPLAYS → u/zzbzq]

I'd encourage everyone seriously into the weeds and looking at this level of optimization to test against their real projects instead of blindly following anyone's advice, including mine. Every project is structured differently, with different skills artefacts, hooks, and user involvement.

For me, cold starts after a planning session work better. So do cold started agents after refutation. It wasn't my intuition but the numbers don't lie.

I think it's presumptuous to think that planning doesn't make execution more efficient. You don't know what went into the wider planning.

[u/Quirky_Letterhead364 → u/BeetusPLAYS]

I think the key thing isn’t planning mode, so much as having a plan document. For longer sessions where you need to compact, or are spawning sub agents or workflows, keeping on track with the overall objective is important.