For complex tasks, Ori can create execution plans — structured, multi-phase work breakdowns that track progress across your conversation.
How it works
When you ask Ori to tackle something substantial — a multi-step refactor, a research project, a migration — it can break the work into phases with substeps:
Help me migrate our API from Express to Hono. Plan it out first.
- Audit current routes — list all Express endpoints, middleware, and patterns
- Set up Hono — install dependencies, create the app skeleton
- Migrate routes — convert each endpoint to Hono syntax
- Update middleware — adapt auth, logging, and error handling
- Test and verify — run the test suite, fix regressions
Each phase can have substeps, and Ori tracks the status of each one as work progresses.
Plan cards
Plans appear inline in your chat as timeline cards. Each card shows:
- Plan title — what the overall plan is about
- Phase list — each phase with its status indicator
- Progress — visual indication of completed, in-progress, and pending phases
Statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|
| Pending | Not started yet |
| In Progress | Currently being worked on |
| Done | Completed |
| Blocked | Waiting on something else |
| Skipped | Decided to skip this phase |
Managing plans
Click the ListTodo icon in the activity bar to open the Plans panel. From there you can:
- View all plans — see every plan across your conversations
- Click to preview — opens the plan detail view in the right panel
- Track progress — see which phases are complete at a glance
Detail panel
Click any plan in the sidebar list to open its detail view. This shows the full plan with all phases, substeps, and notes.
Editing plans
Plans aren’t static. As Ori works through each phase, it can:
- Update phase statuses — mark phases as complete, blocked, or skipped
- Propose edits — suggest changes to the plan as new information comes to light
You can also ask Ori to modify the plan at any time:
Actually, let's skip the middleware migration for now. Focus on routes first.
Plans are especially useful for long-running tasks that span multiple messages. Even if you close and reopen the conversation, the plan’s state is preserved.
When to use plans
Plans work best for:
- Multi-step refactors — migrating frameworks, restructuring code
- Research projects — investigating a topic with multiple angles
- Release checklists — tracking all the steps needed for a deployment
- Learning paths — working through a tutorial or concept step by step
For simple, single-step tasks, Ori handles them directly without creating a plan. 
