The Forge Guide

Plan Forge Manual

From apprentice to master smith. Learn to harden AI-driven development plans into drift-proof execution contracts.

Chaotic code flows through a forge and emerges as organized, validated output

v2.17.0 · 14 chapters · 5 appendices

Act I — Learn the Forge

Chapter 1
What Is Plan Forge?

The problem, the solution, who it's for.
Chapter 2
How It Works

The 7-step pipeline, sessions, guardrails.
Chapter 3
Installation

Zero to pforge smith green in 10 min.

Act II — Build with the Forge

Chapter 4
Your First Plan

Hands-on: specify, harden, execute, ship.
Chapter 5
Writing Plans That Work

Scope, slices, gates, common mistakes.
Chapter 6
The Dashboard

9 tabs: progress, cost, replay, config, traces.

Act III — Master the Forge

Chapter 7
CLI Reference

Every command, every flag.
Chapter 8
Customization

Make it yours: principles, profiles, config.
Chapter 9
Instructions & Agents

Guardrails, reviewers, skills, hooks.
Chapter 10
MCP Server & Tools

19 tools, REST API, WebSocket, telemetry.
Chapter 11
Extensions

Install, create, publish guardrail packs.
Chapter 12
Multi-Agent Setup

Copilot, Claude, Cursor, Codex, Gemini…
Chapter 13
Advanced Execution

Quorum, routing, CI, cost optimization.
Chapter 14
Troubleshooting

Diagnostics, common errors, decision trees.

Appendices

Appendix A
Glossary

Every Plan Forge term defined.
Appendix B
Quick Reference Card

Printable 2-page cheat sheet.
Appendix C
Stack-Specific Notes

Per-preset configs for all 9 stacks.
Appendix D
Grok Image Warnings

MIME mismatch, session crashes, safe workflows.
Appendix E
Sample Project

Build a Tracker app in your stack.
Scott Nichols
About the Author
Scott Nichols — why he built Plan Forge

Plan Forge v2.17.0 · GitHub · Main Site