Planning & Collaboration

Cortex provides a structured workflow for moving from ideation to execution using collaboration skills, task tracking, and optional plan files.

The Workflow 

/collaboration:brainstorming → /collaboration:writing-plans → /collaboration:executing-plans
  1. Brainstorm goals, constraints, and options
  2. Write the plan with workstreams and validation criteria
  3. Execute with task tracking and quality gates

/collaboration:brainstorming

Structured ideation before writing code. Captures goals, success signals, and solution options.

When to use:

  • Before touching code – align on the problem first
  • After major context shifts (new stakeholder, dependency change)
  • When stuck – broaden the solution space

Output format:

### Problem / Goal
### Success Signals
### Constraints / Risks
### Existing Assets
### Options
- Option A (pros/cons/risks)
- Option B (pros/cons/risks)
- Option C (pros/cons/risks)
### Chosen Direction & Next Steps

The command generates at least three distinct approaches with trade-off analysis, then selects a candidate direction.

/collaboration:writing-plans

Transforms brainstorm output into a concrete execution plan with workstreams and tasks.

Inputs: The brainstorm summary from the previous step.

Output format:

## Objective
One paragraph with constraints and scope.

## Workstreams
### Stream 1 -- Backend API
- Task: Implement auth endpoints (agent: rest-expert, validation: tests pass)
- Task: Add rate limiting (agent: security-auditor, validation: load test)

### Stream 2 -- Frontend
- Task: Build login form (agent: react-specialist, validation: a11y check)

## Risks & Mitigations
- Risk: Token refresh race condition → Mitigation: add mutex

Each task includes:

  • Definition of Done
  • Suggested agent
  • Validation criteria

Plans can stay in the conversation, or you can save plan documents and inspect them later with the cortex plan command group.

/collaboration:executing-plans

Drives plan execution through task tracking and verification.

Prerequisites: A plan from /collaboration:writing-plans in the conversation.

Workflow:

  1. Create tasks in the Task view (press T in TUI, then A to add)
  2. Activate relevant agents
  3. Work through tasks – pick a task, do the work, update its status
  4. Verify each task against its Definition of Done
  5. Capture learnings when complete

Integration points:

  • Tasks sync to tasks/current/active_agents.json
  • Status updates include completed tasks, blockers, and verification evidence
  • Quality gate hooks run automatically during development

Plan Files

Use the CLI to inspect saved plans:

cortex plan list
cortex plan view <plan-name>
cortex plan edit <plan-name>
cortex plan path

Putting It Together

A typical feature development session:

# 1. Ideate
/collaboration:brainstorming
> "Build a user settings page with profile editing and notification preferences"

# 2. Plan
/collaboration:writing-plans
> Creates 3 workstreams: API, Frontend, Tests

# 3. Execute
/collaboration:executing-plans
> Tracks tasks, runs quality gates

# 4. Build
/ctx:agent-loops
/ctx:test-generation
/ctx:requesting-code-review
/ctx:git-ops

TUI Task View

Press T in the TUI to manage tasks created by the planning workflow:

Key Action
T Open Task view
A Add new task
E Edit task

Tasks are organized by category and workstream, matching the structure from /collaboration:writing-plans.

Skill Auto-Suggester

The collaboration commands are automatically suggested by the skill auto-suggester hook when it detects relevant keywords in your prompts. For example, typing “let’s brainstorm” triggers a suggestion for the brainstorming skill.

Keyword mappings are defined in skills/skill-rules.json.