Work like Manus — the AI agent company Meta acquired for $2 billion.
💬 A Note from the Author
To everyone who starred, forked, and shared this skill — thank you. This project blew up in less than 24 hours, and the support from the community has been incredible.
If this skill helps you work smarter, that's all I wanted.
🌍 What the community shipped
| Fork | Author | What They Built |
|---|---|---|
| devis | @st01cs | Interview-first workflow, /devis:intv and /devis:impl commands, guaranteed activation |
| multi-manus-planning | @kmichels | Multi-project support, SessionStart git sync |
| plan-cascade | @Taoidle | Multi-level task orchestration, parallel execution, multi-agent collaboration |
| agentfund-skill | @RioTheGreat-ai | Crowdfunding for AI agents with milestone-based escrow on Base |
| openclaw-github-repo-commander | @wd041216-bit | 7-stage GitHub repo audit, optimization, and cleanup workflow for OpenClaw |
| Project | What It Is |
|---|---|
| lincolnwan/Planning-with-files-copilot-agent | Entire Copilot agent repo built around the planning-with-files skill |
| cooragent/ClarityFinance | AI finance agent framework — Planning-with-Files approach directly credited |
| oeftimie/vv-claude-harness | Claude Code harness built on Manus-style persistent markdown planning |
| jessepwj/CCteam-creator | Multi-agent team orchestration skill using file-based planning |
| Registry | What It Is |
|---|---|
| buzhangsan/skill-manager | Bilingual (EN/中文) skill hub indexing 31,000+ Claude Code skills — planning-with-files installable one-click. |
Built something? Open an issue to get listed!
🤝 Contributors
See the full list of everyone who made this project better in CONTRIBUTORS.md.
📦 Releases & Session Recovery
| Version | Highlights |
|---|---|
| v2.40.1 | Pi adapter SKILL.md sync gap + npm scope correction (PR #158 by @TomXPRIME): the .pi SKILL.md lagged the canonical Claude Code copy after v2.39.0; v2.40.1 backports Rule 7 (Continue After Completion), the Security Boundary section, the expanded Scripts section covering set-active-plan.sh/resolve-plan-dir.sh/attest-plan.sh plus the parallel task workflow, and the "Write web content to task_plan.md" anti-pattern row. The Pi npm package is renamed from the unscoped pi-planning-with-files to @tomxprime/planning-with-files, matching the package author's namespace; install docs updated accordingly. Author, repository, license, and bugs URLs preserved. |
| v2.40.0 | Slug-mode resolution fixes + perf cache + KV-cache hygiene + Pi false-positive fix (9 items from the v2.40 R&D experiment): hook resolution order inverted so slug-mode wins over legacy root, .active_plan target dir + content validated against a safe-identifier regex, check-complete.sh honors $PLAN_ID and .active_plan, Pi extension isDangerousBashCommand swapped to a word-boundary regex array so benign git push origin <branch> no longer fires the warning, mtime-keyed SHA-256 cache cuts attestation-hook latency on Windows Git Bash, progress.md tail timestamps normalized for KV-cache prefix stability, resolve-plan-dir.sh mtime resolution made portable across GNU/BSD/macOS/Alpine/Git Bash with python+perl fallbacks, attest-plan.sh uses atomic temp-rename with optional flock to close the concurrent-writer race. 130 pass / 2 pre-existing Windows exec-bit fails, +20 new tests. |
| v2.39.0 | Pi Coding Agent full hook parity extension + Codex hooks flag fix (PR #157 by @TomXPRIME, Issue #154 by @DLI1996): the .pi adapter ships a bundled TypeScript extension mapping eight Pi lifecycle events to the same behavior the skill provides on Claude Code, with a four-mode system (auto/parity/cache-safe/notify) that auto-detects DeepSeek and keeps the KV-cache prefix stable. Pi runtime reads the same .attestation file the canonical v2.37 attest-plan.sh writes, so attesting once locks the plan across both runtimes. Four slash commands (/plan-status, /plan-attest, /plan-goal, /plan-loop) mirror their Claude Code counterparts. Separately, docs/codex.md swaps from codex_hooks = true to hooks = true to match the current OpenAI canonical key, with an alias note so users on older configs are not pushed to migrate. |
| v2.38.1 | Description field garbled in Claude Code skill picker (surfaced via Discussion #153 by @bmyury): hook commands embedded '---BEGIN PLAN DATA---' plan-injection delimiters; Claude Code's skill-discovery loader split frontmatter on the first --- and read the truncated value as the description. Swapped to ===BEGIN PLAN DATA=== / ===END PLAN DATA=== across canonical SKILL.md, all five language variants, the .codebuddy/.codex/.cursor adapter mirrors, and clawhub-upload. Hook execution and tamper attestation never affected; only the displayed metadata. |
| v2.38.0 | Claude Code turn-loop integration + OpenCode SQLite fix: new PreCompact hook fires on /compact and autoCompact, surfaces a reminder to flush progress before compaction completes and prints the active Plan-SHA256 when attested. New /plan-goal slash command composes with Claude Code's /goal (v2.1.139, May 12 2026): derives a termination condition from the active plan. New /plan-loop composes with /loop (v2.1.72+): default 10-minute tick re-reads planning files and runs check-complete. New templates/loop.md for the bare /loop planning-aware default. Session-catchup rewritten for OpenCode's SQLite migration. Codex gets a PermissionRequest adapter that surfaces plan context at permission prompts. |
| v2.37.0 | Hash attestation + parity bumper (closes #150, #151): /plan-attest locks task_plan.md with a SHA-256; hooks block injection on tamper. scripts/bump-version.py + parity test kill the "missed one variant" regression class behind v2.34.1, v2.36.0, v2.36.2, and v2.36.3. (thanks @oaabahussain!) |
| v2.36.3 | Parallel planning scripts now ship in the skill: resolve-plan-dir.sh and set-active-plan.sh were missing from the installed skill in v2.36.0; now in canonical + all IDE mirrors + SKILL.md docs updated |
| v2.36.2 | Canonical script sync (PR #149): skills/planning-with-files/scripts/init-session.sh was missing slug mode from v2.36.0; now synced with IDE mirrors + regression test. (thanks @voidborne-d!) |
| v2.36.1 | Security hardening: Stop hook cache search removed, ExecutionPolicy Bypass changed to RemoteSigned, prompt injection delimiters added. (Gen Agent Trust Hub FAIL resolved) |
| v2.36.0 | Parallel plan isolation + Codex session isolation (closes #146, #148): init-session.sh slug mode, set-active-plan.sh, resolve-plan-dir.sh, all Codex hooks route through resolver, session attachment gating. Hermes docs (closes #147): integration notes added to docs/hermes.md. 34 new tests. (thanks @githubYiheng, @09ashishkapoor, @shawnli1874!) |
| v2.35.1 | Shebang portability fix: changed /bin/bash to /usr/bin/env bash in hook scripts, fixing compatibility on NixOS and other systems where bash is not at /bin/bash. (thanks @Emin017!) |
| v2.35.0 | Hermes adapter + NLPM audit hardening: Hermes platform 17 support (thanks @bailob!), NLPM audit fixed Python PATH resolution, session-catchup injection cap, Pi PowerShell syntax (thanks @xiaolai!) |
| v2.34.1 | Stop hook Windows portability fix (closes #133): export SD= failed in Windows Git Bash hook context; fallback path was wrong for plugin cache structure. Fixed across all 13 SKILL.md variants. (thanks @nazeshinjite!) |
| v2.34.0 | Codex hooks fully restored (closes #132): .codex/hooks.json + lifecycle scripts back — SessionStart, UserPromptSubmit, PreToolUse, PostToolUse, Stop. Tessl CI for SKILL.md quality reviews. Exec bit fix. 4 missing contributors added. (thanks @Leon-Algo, @popey!) |
| v2.33.0 | Multi-language expansion: Arabic, German, and Spanish skill variants added (thanks to community contributors!) |
| v2.32.0 | Codex session catchup rewrite (thanks @ebrevdo!), Loaditout A-grade security badge, Stop hook Git Bash fix |
| v2.31.0 | Codex hooks.json integration with full lifecycle hooks (thanks @Leon-Algo!) |
| v2.30.1 | Fix: Codex script executable bits restored (thanks @Leon-Algo!) |
| v2.30.0 | CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR variable, IDE configs moved to per-IDE branches, plugin.json bumped from 2.23.0 |
| v2.29.0 | Analytics workflow template: --template analytics flag for data exploration sessions (thanks @mvanhorn!) |
| v2.28.0 | Traditional Chinese (zh-TW) skill variant (thanks @waynelee2048!) |
| v2.26.2 | Fix: --- in hook commands broke YAML frontmatter parsing, hooks now register correctly |
| v2.26.1 | Fix: session catchup after /clear, path sanitization on Windows + content injection (thanks @tony-stark-eth!) |
| v2.26.0 | IDE audit: Factory hooks, Copilot errorOccurred hook, Gemini hooks, bug fixes |
| v2.18.2 | Mastra Code hooks fix (hooks.json + docs accuracy) |
| v2.18.1 | Copilot garbled characters complete fix |
| v2.18.0 | BoxLite sandbox runtime integration |
| v2.17.0 | Mastra Code support + all IDE SKILL.md spec fixes |
| v2.16.1 | Copilot garbled characters fix: PS1 UTF-8 encoding + bash ensure_ascii (thanks @Hexiaopi!) |
| v2.16.0 | GitHub Copilot hooks support (thanks @lincolnwan!) |
| v2.27.0 | Kiro Agent Skill layout (thanks @EListenX!) |
| v2.15.1 | Session catchup false-positive fix (thanks @gydx6!) |
| v2.15.0 | /plan:status command, OpenCode compatibility fix |
| v2.14.0 | Pi Agent support, OpenClaw docs update, Codex path fix |
| v2.11.0 | /plan command for easier autocomplete |
| v2.10.0 | Kiro steering files support |
| v2.7.0 | Gemini CLI support |
| v2.2.0 | Session recovery, Windows PowerShell, OS-aware hooks |
Parallel plan isolation (
.planning/YYYY-MM-DD-slug/directories) and Codex session isolation shipped in v2.36.0. Theexperimental/isolated-planningbranch was the earlier prototype; master is now the canonical location.
When your context fills up and you run /clear, this skill automatically recovers your previous session.
How it works:
- Checks for previous session data in the active IDE's session store (
~/.claude/projects/for Claude Code,~/.codex/sessions/for Codex) - Finds when planning files were last updated
- Extracts conversation that happened after (potentially lost context)
- Shows a catchup report so you can sync
Pro tip: Disable auto-compact to maximize context before clearing:
{ "autoCompact": false }🛠️ Supported IDEs (17+ Platforms)
These IDEs have dedicated hook configurations that automatically re-read your plan before tool use, remind you to update progress, and verify completion before stopping:
| IDE | Installation Guide | Integration |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | Installation | Plugin + SKILL.md + Hooks |
| Cursor | Cursor Setup | Skills + hooks.json |
| GitHub Copilot | Copilot Setup | Hooks (incl. errorOccurred) |
| Mastra Code | Mastra Setup | Skills + Hooks |
| Gemini CLI | Gemini Setup | Skills + Hooks |
| Kiro | Kiro Setup | Agent Skills |
| Codex | Codex Setup | Skills + Hooks |
| Hermes Agent | Hermes Setup | Skill + Project Plugin |
| CodeBuddy | CodeBuddy Setup | Skills + Hooks |
| FactoryAI Droid | Factory Setup | Skills + Hooks |
| OpenCode | OpenCode Setup | Skills + Custom session storage |
These IDEs implement the Agent Skills open specification. Install with npx skills add — the installer places the skill in each IDE's discovery path automatically:
| IDE | Installation Guide | Skill Discovery Path |
|---|---|---|
| Continue | Continue Setup | .continue/skills/ + .prompt files |
| Pi Agent | Pi Agent Setup | .pi/skills/ (npm package) |
| OpenClaw | OpenClaw Setup | .openclaw/skills/ (docs) |
| Antigravity | Antigravity Setup | .agent/skills/ (docs) |
| Kilocode | Kilocode Setup | .kilocode/skills/ (docs) |
| AdaL CLI (Sylph AI) | AdaL Setup | .adal/skills/ (docs) |
Note: If your IDE uses the legacy Rules system instead of Skills, see the
legacy-rules-supportbranch.
🧱 Sandbox Runtimes (1 Platform)
| Runtime | Status | Guide | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| BoxLite | ✅ Documented | BoxLite Setup | Run Claude Code + planning-with-files inside hardware-isolated micro-VMs |
Note: BoxLite is a sandbox runtime, not an IDE. Skills load via ClaudeBox — BoxLite’s official Claude Code integration layer.
A Claude Code plugin that transforms your workflow to use persistent markdown files for planning, progress tracking, and knowledge storage — the exact pattern that made Manus worth billions.
npx skills add OthmanAdi/planning-with-files --skill planning-with-files -g🌐 Available in 5 other languages
🇸🇦 العربية / Arabic
npx skills add OthmanAdi/planning-with-files --skill planning-with-files-ar -g🇩🇪 Deutsch / German
npx skills add OthmanAdi/planning-with-files --skill planning-with-files-de -g🇪🇸 Español / Spanish
npx skills add OthmanAdi/planning-with-files --skill planning-with-files-es -g🇨🇳 中文版 / Chinese (Simplified)
npx skills add OthmanAdi/planning-with-files --skill planning-with-files-zh -g🇹🇼 正體中文版 / Chinese (Traditional)
npx skills add OthmanAdi/planning-with-files --skill planning-with-files-zht -gWorks with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI, and 40+ agents supporting the Agent Skills spec.
🔧 Claude Code Plugin (Advanced Features)
For Claude Code-specific features like /plan autocomplete commands:
/plugin marketplace add OthmanAdi/planning-with-files
/plugin install planning-with-files@planning-with-files
That's it! Now use one of these commands in Claude Code:
| Command | Autocomplete | Description |
|---|---|---|
/planning-with-files:plan |
Type /plan |
Start planning session (v2.11.0+) |
/planning-with-files:status |
Type /plan:status |
Show planning progress at a glance (v2.15.0+) |
/planning-with-files:start |
Type /planning |
Original start command |
Alternative: If you want /planning-with-files (without prefix), copy skills to your local folder:
macOS/Linux:
cp -r ~/.claude/plugins/cache/planning-with-files/planning-with-files/*/skills/planning-with-files ~/.claude/skills/Windows (PowerShell):
Copy-Item -Recurse -Path "$env:USERPROFILE\.claude\plugins\cache\planning-with-files\planning-with-files\*\skills\planning-with-files" -Destination "$env:USERPROFILE\.claude\skills\"See docs/installation.md for all installation methods.
On December 29, 2025, Meta acquired Manus for $2 billion. In just 8 months, Manus went from launch to $100M+ revenue. Their secret? Context engineering.
"Markdown is my 'working memory' on disk. Since I process information iteratively and my active context has limits, Markdown files serve as scratch pads for notes, checkpoints for progress, building blocks for final deliverables." — Manus AI
Claude Code (and most AI agents) suffer from:
- Volatile memory — TodoWrite tool disappears on context reset
- Goal drift — After 50+ tool calls, original goals get forgotten
- Hidden errors — Failures aren't tracked, so the same mistakes repeat
- Context stuffing — Everything crammed into context instead of stored
For every complex task, create THREE files:
task_plan.md → Track phases and progress
findings.md → Store research and findings
progress.md → Session log and test results
Context Window = RAM (volatile, limited)
Filesystem = Disk (persistent, unlimited)
→ Anything important gets written to disk.
| Principle | Implementation |
|---|---|
| Filesystem as memory | Store in files, not context |
| Attention manipulation | Re-read plan before decisions (hooks) |
| Error persistence | Log failures in plan file |
| Goal tracking | Checkboxes show progress |
| Completion verification | Stop hook checks all phases |
Once installed, the AI agent will:
- Ask for your task if no description is provided
- Create
task_plan.md,findings.md, andprogress.mdin your project directory - Re-read plan before major decisions (via PreToolUse hook)
- Remind you to update status after file writes (via PostToolUse hook)
- Store findings in
findings.mdinstead of stuffing context - Log errors for future reference
- Verify completion before stopping (via Stop hook)
Invoke with:
/planning-with-files:plan- Type/planto find in autocomplete (v2.11.0+)/planning-with-files:start- Type/planningto find in autocomplete/planning-with-files- Only if you copied skills to~/.claude/skills/
See docs/quickstart.md for the full 5-step guide.
Formally evaluated using Anthropic's skill-creator framework (v2.22.0). 10 parallel subagents, 5 task types, 30 objectively verifiable assertions, 3 blind A/B comparisons.
| Test | with_skill | without_skill |
|---|---|---|
| Pass rate (30 assertions) | 96.7% (29/30) | 6.7% (2/30) |
| 3-file pattern followed | 5/5 evals | 0/5 evals |
| Blind A/B wins | 3/3 (100%) | 0/3 |
| Avg rubric score | 10.0/10 | 6.8/10 |
Full methodology and results · Technical write-up
- Create Plan First — Never start without
task_plan.md - The 2-Action Rule — Save findings after every 2 view/browser operations
- Log ALL Errors — They help avoid repetition
- Never Repeat Failures — Track attempts, mutate approach
Use this pattern for:
- Multi-step tasks (3+ steps)
- Research tasks
- Building/creating projects
- Tasks spanning many tool calls
Skip for:
- Simple questions
- Single-file edits
- Quick lookups
planning-with-files/
├── commands/ # Plugin commands
│ ├── plan.md # /planning-with-files:plan command (v2.11.0+)
│ ├── plan-ar.md # Arabic /plan command (v2.33.0+)
│ ├── plan-de.md # German /plan command (v2.33.0+)
│ ├── plan-es.md # Spanish /plan command (v2.33.0+)
│ └── start.md # /planning-with-files:start command
├── templates/ # Root-level templates (for CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT)
├── scripts/ # Root-level scripts (for CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT)
├── docs/ # Documentation
│ ├── installation.md
│ ├── quickstart.md
│ ├── workflow.md
│ ├── troubleshooting.md
│ ├── gemini.md # Gemini CLI setup
│ ├── cursor.md
│ ├── windows.md
│ ├── kilocode.md
│ ├── codex.md
│ ├── opencode.md
│ ├── mastra.md # Mastra Code setup
│ └── boxlite.md # BoxLite sandbox setup
├── examples/ # Integration examples
│ └── boxlite/ # BoxLite quickstart
│ ├── README.md
│ └── quickstart.py
├── planning-with-files/ # Plugin skill folder
│ ├── SKILL.md
│ ├── templates/
│ └── scripts/
├── skills/ # Skill variants
│ ├── planning-with-files/ # English (default)
│ │ ├── SKILL.md
│ │ ├── examples.md
│ │ ├── reference.md
│ │ ├── templates/
│ │ └── scripts/
│ │ ├── init-session.sh
│ │ ├── check-complete.sh
│ │ ├── init-session.ps1 # Windows PowerShell
│ │ └── check-complete.ps1 # Windows PowerShell
│ ├── planning-with-files-ar/ # Arabic (v2.33.0+)
│ │ ├── SKILL.md
│ │ ├── templates/
│ │ └── scripts/
│ ├── planning-with-files-de/ # German (v2.33.0+)
│ │ ├── SKILL.md
│ │ ├── templates/
│ │ └── scripts/
│ ├── planning-with-files-es/ # Spanish (v2.33.0+)
│ │ ├── SKILL.md
│ │ ├── templates/
│ │ └── scripts/
│ ├── planning-with-files-zh/ # Chinese Simplified (v2.25.0+)
│ └── planning-with-files-zht/ # Chinese Traditional (v2.28.0+)
├── .gemini/ # Gemini CLI skills + hooks
│ ├── settings.json # Hook configuration (v2.26.0)
│ ├── hooks/ # Hook scripts (SessionStart, BeforeTool, AfterTool, BeforeModel, SessionEnd)
│ └── skills/
│ └── planning-with-files/
├── .codex/ # Codex CLI skills + hooks
│ └── skills/
├── .opencode/ # OpenCode skills (custom session storage)
│ └── skills/
├── .claude-plugin/ # Plugin manifest
├── .cursor/ # Cursor skills + hooks
│ ├── hooks.json # Hook configuration
│ ├── hooks/ # Hook scripts (bash + PowerShell)
│ └── skills/
├── .codebuddy/ # CodeBuddy skills + hooks
│ └── skills/
├── .factory/ # FactoryAI Droid skills + hooks (v2.26.0)
│ └── skills/
├── .pi/ # Pi Agent skills (npm package)
│ └── skills/
│ └── planning-with-files/
├── .continue/ # Continue.dev skills + prompt files
│ ├── prompts/ # .prompt file for slash commands
│ └── skills/
├── .github/ # GitHub Copilot hooks (incl. errorOccurred)
│ └── hooks/
│ ├── planning-with-files.json # Hook configuration
│ └── scripts/ # Hook scripts (bash + PowerShell)
├── .mastracode/ # Mastra Code skills + hooks
│ └── skills/
├── .kiro/ # Kiro Agent Skills (v2.27.0+)
│ └── skills/
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── CITATION.cff
├── LICENSE
└── README.md
All platform setup guides and documentation are in the docs/ folder.
- Manus AI — For pioneering context engineering patterns
- Anthropic — For Claude Code, Agent Skills, and the Plugin system
- Lance Martin — For the detailed Manus architecture analysis
- Based on Context Engineering for AI Agents
Contributions welcome! Please:
- Fork the repository
- Create a feature branch
- Submit a pull request
MIT License — feel free to use, modify, and distribute.
Author: Ahmad Othman Ammar Adi