kandev/docs/decisions/2026-07-23-planner-direct-small-work.md

Planner Direct Small Work

Status: superseded by Single-Session Model Switching Date: 2026-07-23 Area: workflow

Context

Delegating every action reloads context and adds coordination/token cost, even when one planner can safely complete a localized change faster.

Decision

The planner is the default product and technical architect. It directly handles one clear concern with a few localized files, no meaningful isolation or parallelism benefit, and quick targeted verification. It delegates broad or unknown exploration, substantial plan tasks, large/cross-component work, parallel packets, long/noisy E2E or debugging, exceptional specialist review, and final Spark verify; long PR monitoring stays with cheap pr-poller. Architect is only a user-requested independent second opinion.

Spark verify defaults to changed-scope suites selected from the diff; GitHub PR CI is the authoritative full matrix. Full local verification remains for explicit requests, releases/shared toolchain changes, ambiguous impact, broad cross-component work, or delivery without PR CI.

Consequences

Small work avoids avoidable context reload while retaining skills, TDD, dirty-worktree safety, focused checks, and final Spark verification for code/test/config changes. Delegated workers retain one-packet/no-subagent isolation. No product spec applies.

Alternatives Considered

• Delegate everything: rejected for routine context and coordination cost.
• Planner does everything: rejected because independent evidence and long noisy work still benefit from specialization.
• Always run full local verification: rejected for routine cost; retained for broad/ambiguous or no-CI delivery.