Prompt file imported from drewsephski/compound-engineering (.windsurf/workflows/deepen-plan.md). Copyright stays with the author.

/deepen-plan Workflow

Enhance an existing plan with additional research and detail.

When to Use

When a plan feels too shallow, or for complex features that need more investigation:

• After initial /plan for high-stakes features
• When the plan has gaps or unanswered questions
• Before implementing something novel or complex
• When you want multiple perspectives on the approach

What It Does

1. Takes existing plan - Uses your current plan as foundation
2. Launches additional research - Parallel investigation across multiple dimensions
3. Adds depth - More detail on edge cases, alternatives, tradeoffs
4. Considers best practices - Framework-specific patterns and community standards
5. Analyzes risks - What could go wrong and how to mitigate
6. Returns enhanced plan - More comprehensive, more detailed, more robust

Research Dimensions

Framework Deep-Dive

• Official documentation for specific features
• Advanced patterns and techniques
• Common pitfalls and how to avoid them
• Performance considerations

Community Patterns

• How others have solved similar problems
• Open-source examples and implementations
• Blog posts and case studies
• Stack Overflow discussions

Codebase Analysis

• More thorough exploration of existing patterns
• Find similar implementations you might have missed
• Identify integration points
• Discover reusable components

Git History Deep-Dive

• Understand evolution of related code
• See previous attempts and why they succeeded/failed
• Learn from past decisions
• Avoid repeated mistakes

Edge Case Analysis

• Systematic exploration of what could go wrong
• Error scenarios and handling
• Scale and performance boundaries
• Security implications

Output Format

The enhanced plan includes additional sections:

# Enhanced Plan: [Feature Name]

## Original Approach (from initial plan)
[Summary of initial plan]

## Additional Research Findings

### Framework Best Practices
[Specific patterns and recommendations from docs]

### Community Patterns
[How others have solved this - examples]

### Edge Cases Identified
- [Edge case 1] → [Handling strategy]
- [Edge case 2] → [Handling strategy]

### Tradeoffs and Alternatives
| Approach | Pros | Cons | Recommendation |
|----------|------|------|----------------|
| Option A | ... | ... | ... |
| Option B | ... | ... | ... |

### Risk Analysis
| Risk | Likelihood | Impact | Mitigation |
|------|------------|--------|------------|
| [Risk 1] | High/Low | High/Low | [Strategy] |

### Implementation Details
[More specific technical details]

## Refined Plan
[Updated plan with all findings incorporated]

When to Use /deepen-plan vs /plan_review

Use /deepen-plan when:

• You want more detail on a single plan
• The plan has gaps you want filled
• You want deeper research on a specific approach

Use /plan_review when:

• You want multiple agents to critique the plan
• You want different perspectives on the approach
• You're deciding between alternatives

Integration with Ultra-Think

When you run /plan with "ultra-think" mode, it automatically runs /deepen-plan after the initial plan is created.

This gives you:

1. Initial plan with basic research
2. Automatically enhanced plan with deep research
3. Comprehensive plan ready for implementation

Tips

• Use for complex features where mistakes are expensive
• Not necessary for routine features - trust your initial plan
• The deeper plan takes more time but reduces risk
• Consider running /plan_review after deepening for high-stakes changes
• Deepened plans compound - save them for similar future features