Planning Patterns
definition
Planning patterns address how agents decompose complex goals into sequences of concrete steps before executing them, rather than reacting one step at a time. Approaches range from simple plan-then-execute (generate a full plan upfront, then follow it) to iterative replanning (adjust the plan after each step based on results), to hierarchical planning (decompose into subgoals, then subgoals into tasks).
Planning patterns address how agents decompose complex goals into sequences of concrete steps before executing them, rather than reacting one step at a time. Approaches range from simple plan-then-execute (generate a full plan upfront, then follow it) to iterative replanning (adjust the plan after each step based on results), to hierarchical planning (decompose into subgoals, then subgoals into tasks). The key architectural insight is that planning separates the "what should I do" reasoning from the "how do I do it" execution, which improves both reliability and debuggability because you can inspect and validate the plan before any actions are taken. However, static plans become stale when early steps produce unexpected results, so the best production systems combine upfront planning with the flexibility to replan. This concept connects to spec-driven development for the human equivalent of upfront planning, the orchestrator pattern for how plans are delegated to workers, and the ReAct pattern for the alternative approach of step-by-step reactive execution.