Core agents
What is Planning?
Planning is producing an inspectable next-step list or plan artifact.
A plan is an output. This site does not treat hidden token sequences as a visualized plan.
Visual
Planning flow
Plan is an artifact that can be reviewed before execution.
Why it matters
Planning makes agent behavior predictable and debuggable. When an agent produces a plan artifact — a list of steps, dependencies, and expected outputs — you can review it before execution, catch errors early, and understand why the agent made each decision.
Without explicit planning, the agent's reasoning is hidden in the token stream. You can see what it did, but not why.
Planning as an artifact
On this site, a plan is an output — not a hidden thought process. It should be inspectable, editable, and logged. The model generates a plan, the controller can validate it, and a human can approve or modify it before tools are called.
This is fundamentally different from chain-of-thought reasoning, which happens inside the model and is not reliably controllable.
Key takeaways
- 1Plans should be explicit artifacts, not hidden reasoning.
- 2A human or automated check can review the plan before execution.
- 3Planning adds latency but catches errors early.
Common mistakes
- ✕Confusing chain-of-thought with planning — they are different mechanisms.
- ✕Generating plans that are too detailed to be useful or too vague to be actionable.
Related terms
Concept neighborhood
Terms linked from Planning in the glossary graph.
- Planning
- Agentic Workflow
- Reflection