Plan threads

A plan thread is one of the four fray thread profiles, alongside the implementation thread (build-the-decided-thing), the research thread (find-out-what's-true → wiki/research/), and the audit thread (verify-parity → wiki/research/, see the audit-thread skill). Its deliverable is a settled design / approach — not code, not findings, not a gap catalog. It is the thread you open when how to do something is the open question.

The defining property: the deliverable is the DESIGN

A plan thread's work IS the thinking. You'd staff it with the human and/or a Plan/architect agent (Claude Code's Plan agent type) — never an implementer, because there's nothing settled to implement yet. Its ## Open questions are the live work; its ## Decisions accrete as questions resolve. When the design locks, the plan thread's job is done and an implementation thread takes over.

Status lifecycle (fray)

• A plan thread carries status: planning (the fray status for "design-in-progress"; see the fray skill for the vocab). It is non-terminal but parked — it is NOT auto-surfaced in the per-turn / stop-hook nag (only enqueued/active/blocked nag the orchestrator). You pull a plan thread up deliberately via the fray board when you choose to work it — it does not chase you. (Legacy plan/todo/needs-decision are still accepted as read-aliases — plan/todo→planned, needs-decision→blocked — but write only the canonical words.)
• THE TRANSITION RULE (load-bearing): a plan thread flips to planned the moment the design is LOCKED — open questions resolved, approach decided, only implementation remaining. Planning ends by promoting to planned (or straight to active if you dispatch the implementer that turn). A plan thread that has no open design questions left but is still status: planning is mis-statused — promote it.
• Distinguish from blocked: that's waiting on ONE specific human yes/no. planning is the broader ongoing design with multiple open questions being worked collaboratively.

How to run a plan thread

1. Create the thread FIRST (per fray: the .fray/<slug>.md exists before any dispatch), status: planning. Write the Goal (the objective + why) and seed ## Open questions with the real unknowns.
2. Work the open questions — with the human (a plan thread routinely carries human-owned decisions: defaults, product behavior, API/config surface, architecture) and/or by dispatching a Plan/architect agent or a focused research/audit sub-thread to get the facts a decision needs. Ground every design claim in code or an experiment, never memory (the probing-methodology discipline).
3. Move each answered question to ## Decisions the instant it's settled — a decided thing lives under Decisions, never lingering in Open questions. The thread always reads as current truth (no changelog).
4. Lock the design + hand off: when the approach is settled, record the final design in ## Decisions, write the implementation handoff in ## Next step (what an implementer should build), and flip the status to planned (or dispatch the implementer and go active). The implementation thread inherits the locked design.

Boundaries with the other profiles

• A plan thread that needs a FACT to decide → spin a research or audit sub-effort, fold the result back, keep deciding. The plan thread owns the decision; the research/audit owns the fact.
• A plan thread does NOT land code. The instant code should be written, the design is locked → it becomes a planned/implementation thread.
• Don't let a plan thread become a place to park indefinite "someday" design — if it's not being actively worked toward a lock, it's either planned (scoped, awaiting actioning) or should be dismissed.

Anti-redundancy with planned

planning and planned are NOT the same parked state: planning = the design itself is still the work (you'd dispatch an architect or talk to the human); planned = the design is DONE and the next dispatch is an implementer. The whole point of the split is to tell, at a glance, whether a parked thread needs thinking or building. Keep the boundary crisp by always promoting planning→planned at design-lock.