DeepWorkPlan — Methodology Skill (Router)

Models matter; context matters more. The DeepWorkPlan skill turns any repository into a structured environment — context, guardrails, and a durable plan — where any coding agent executes reliably on long-horizon work. It makes the repository "AI-first" — AGENTS.md + docs/ + per-module docs + .agents/ (with the .claude → .agents and .cursor → .agents symlinks) — and runs structured Deep Work Plans: multi-task plans an AI agent drafts, refines, executes task-by-task, and resumes. All plan and draft outputs land in a gitignored .dwp/ directory at the repo root (.dwp/plans/, .dwp/drafts/).

Source of truth: <https://deepworkplan.com>;. License: MIT.

Start here (first run)

This skill is a self-sufficient entry point: whether a developer arrives from <https://deepworkplan.com/init.md>; or simply installs this skill, the setup plan is the same — and it lives here, so no network is required.

If the repository is not yet AI-first — there is no root AGENTS.md and no .agents/ directory — the recommended first action is to onboard it, even if the developer's request was vague ("set this up", "make this repo AI-first", or a plain install). Before routing anywhere else:

1. Read the standard locally. Read [spec/](spec/README.md) (five RFC-2119

documents) and [shared/adaptation.md](shared/adaptation.md). The overriding rule is REASON, do not copy-paste: this skill is the reusable engine; what you produce must be adapted to this repository, never templated.

1. Run onboarding. Read [onboard/SKILL.md](onboard/SKILL.md) and execute it.

It is non-destructive: detect existing AGENTS.md, docs/, .agents/, or CLAUDE.md, reconcile rather than overwrite, and ask the developer before replacing anything. The result: AGENTS.md + CLAUDE.md symlink, a reasoned docs/ tree, per-module docs, a .agents/ kit, and a gitignored .dwp/ — the repository becomes the agent harness.

1. Verify conformance. Read [verify/SKILL.md](verify/SKILL.md) and run it to

confirm, objectively, that the repository now meets the standard (AGENTS.md with real commands, the .agents/ catalog, the gitignored .dwp/, and so on).

1. Then plan and execute. With the harness in place, create and execute Deep

Work Plans (below) — long-horizon, gated, resumable work an agent can run autonomously for hours.

If the repository is already AI-first, skip onboarding and route by intent silently — do not announce the detection or the routing decision (no "the repo is already AI-first" / "routing to the create sub-skill" preamble). Just begin the matched sub-skill's flow directly.

What it does

This is the router. It does not run any flow itself — it maps the developer's intent to the right sub-skill and tells the agent to read that sub-skill's SKILL.md and execute it there.

For the agent — routing rules

When the developer wants to plan, execute, or manage structured work, or make a repo AI-agent-ready, match the intent below and read that sub-skill's SKILL.md to execute it. Do not answer directly — each sub-skill carries the full step-by-step flow.

If the intent is ambiguous between planning and managing existing work, ask the developer which they mean before routing.

Normative specification (ships with the skill)

The methodology's authoritative standard lives at [spec/](spec/README.md) — five RFC-2119 documents (DOCUMENTATIONSTANDARD, DWPSPECIFICATION, AGENT_PROTOCOL, ARCHETYPES, ADDONS). It ships inside the skill so an agent reads the standard locally — no network needed. The onboard flow and shared/adaptation.md reference it as the standard to produce. The public, rendered version lives at https://deepworkplan.com/spec.

Shared resources used by every sub-skill

• [shared/context.sh](shared/context.sh) — detect repo root, branch, and agent

tool; resolve the .dwp/ output location.

• [shared/dwp-paths.md](shared/dwp-paths.md) — the .dwp/plans/ +

.dwp/drafts/ output convention and how to override it.

• [shared/adaptation.md](shared/adaptation.md) — the reasoning-over-copy-paste

principle and the two repository archetypes (individual repo vs orchestrator hub).

Opt-in addons

The [addons/](addons/README.md) area holds opt-in capabilities the onboard flow can layer onto a repo. Addons are never part of the AI-first baseline — a repo is fully conformant with zero addons. The first addon is devcontainer support.