Plan mode still matters: a practitioner's take on agent workflows vs skills
zeeg · x · 2026-10-13
Developer zeeg pushes back on the "just talk to the agent, skip plan mode" crowd:
- Plan mode's core value was certainty—the agent wouldn't start (creating re-work) until you were comfortable. Agents follow directions better now, so it's less critical, but the idea remains sound, perhaps with different UX.
- Skills' real use cases are building reference knowledge and complex workflows; for simple one-liners they arguably waste tokens. Ironically, plan-mode skeptics often recommend skills for things you could just say directly.
Related event: Zed CEO Criticizes Skills Overuse, Sparking Debate on Plan Mode(2 posts)→
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