Plan before coding
Have the agent research and write a plan you approve before it edits anything.
Also called Plan mode
Cursor, Anthropic, OpenAI, Harper Reed
The problem
You want to review a change before it touches your files.
For changes you want to review before they touch disk, switch to plan mode. Claude reads files and proposes a plan but makes no edits until you approve.
The most impactful change you can make is planning before coding.
Therefore
Plan mode tells Claude to research and propose changes without making them. Claude reads files, runs shell commands to explore, and writes a plan, but does not edit your source.
For a multi-step task, enter /plan in the app composer when you want Codex to investigate and propose an approach before editing.
In use
Cursor
Most new features at Cursor now begin with Agent writing a plan. We’ve seen this significantly improve the code generated.
Harper Reed
tl:dr; Brainstorm spec, then plan a plan, then execute using LLM codegen.
Where it breaks
A quick or familiar change does not need a plan.
Not every task needs a detailed plan. For quick changes or tasks you've done many times before, jumping straight to the agent is fine.
Sources
- Introducing Plan ModeJai Smith, Cursor, Oct 7, 2025
- Best practices for coding with agentsLee Robinson, Cursor, Jan 9, 2026
- Choose a permission modeAnthropic
- PromptingOpenAI
- Common workflowsAnthropic
For changes you want to review before they touch disk, switch to plan mode.
- My LLM codegen workflow atmHarper Reed, Harper Reed, Feb 16, 2025
Added Nov 14, 2026