Plan Mode

Plan mode lets you ask questions, brainstorm, and plan your work with Replit Agent before implementation begins.

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What is Plan Mode?

Plan mode enables you to:

• Brainstorm ideas and explore different approaches to your project
• Plan development work with structured task lists
• Collaborate with AI on project architecture and feature planning
• Get strategic guidance and ask questions without modifying your project’s code or data
• Transition seamlessly to building when you’re ready to implement

With the Plan toggle off, Agent builds directly—also called Build mode. Plan mode focuses on planning and ideation before writing code.

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Getting Started

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Accessing Plan Mode

Plan mode is available while building a Replit App with Agent. It isn’t available directly from Conversations. To access it:

1. Open your Replit App in the Project Editor
2. Start or continue building with Agent
3. Select the Plan toggle at the bottom right of the chat input box

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Key Features

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Task Planning

Plan mode excels at breaking down complex projects into manageable tasks. Provide Agent with your requirements, and it will generate an ordered task list of the development work necessary to complete your request.

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Collaborative Brainstorming

Work together with AI to explore different approaches:

• Multiple solution paths for complex problems
• Pros and cons analysis of different approaches
• Risk assessment and mitigation strategies

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Workflow: From Planning to Building

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1. Planning Phase (Plan Mode)

Start your development process in Plan mode:

• Define your project scope and objectives
• Break down requirements into specific features
• Plan your architecture and technology stack
• Create a development roadmap with milestones

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2. Task approval and building

When Agent creates a task plan:

• Review the proposed plan
• Select Revise to keep refining it, or Cancel to discard it
• Select Build here to approve the plan and implement it in the current Agent session
• Select Build in background to approve the plan and run it as a separate task

After approval, Agent begins implementing the plan. Track progress in the current session or the background task. By default, background tasks wait for you to review and apply their changes. You can enable Automatically apply changes in the background build options. Plan mode usage follows the same effort-based pricing as other Agent interactions. You are charged for all Agent work in Plan mode, including answering questions, providing guidance, and generating task lists. Charges scale up for more complex requests, or requests in longer context conversations. All Agent interactions are billable - whether Agent responds with text guidance or makes code changes, there is always a charge, though smaller requests cost less.

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Use Cases

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Feature Planning

Ideal for adding new functionality:

• Break down complex features into implementable tasks
• Plan database changes and API modifications
• Design user interface and user experience flows
• Consider edge cases and error handling

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Learning and Exploration

Excellent for educational purposes:

• Understand different approaches to solving problems
• Learn about new technologies and frameworks
• Explore design patterns and best practices
• Get guidance on development methodologies

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Best Practices

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Effective Prompting

To get the most out of Plan mode:

• Be specific about your project requirements
• Ask follow-up questions to clarify AI suggestions
• Request examples when discussing complex concepts
• Discuss trade-offs between different approaches
• Iterate on ideas before committing to implementation
• Save important decisions by referencing them in follow-up conversations