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Staged Workflow

Staged workflow separates planning from execution. The agent first produces a plan artifact and waits. No file writes are permitted until the plan is approved.

Staged workflow plan review in BMO
A BMO TUI capture-style artifact showing the staged plan gate before execution is unlocked.

The agent stores the plan with set_plan_artifact. There is no submit_plan tool. In the TUI, the plan appears in the dedicated Plan panel and the status bar.

[options.staged_workflow]
enabled = true
require_approval_before_execute = true
  1. Agent receives your request and enters plan phase
  2. Agent produces a structured plan (no writes allowed)
  3. You review the plan in the TUI
  4. Type /approve to advance to execute phase — agent carries out the plan
  5. Or type /plan to send the agent back to revise

With require_approval_before_execute: false, the agent moves to execute automatically once a plan exists (useful for headless/autopilot runs).

Maintained review prompts are workspace-meta artifacts at the agent-cli workspace root (docs/prompts/), not inside the BMO git tree. From a checkout of agent-cli/bmo/, browse them at ../docs/prompts/. Load bodies with view (pointing at the workspace path) or open the file in the TUI, then submit the text under Execute intent. Use /intent discuss … to explore a prompt without running mutating tools. Commands and recipes still use /run, run_recipe, or run_custom_command. Note: the prompt corpus is not part of the published BMO repository — it lives in the maintainer’s local agent-cli/ workspace.

OptionDefaultDescription
enabledfalseEnable staged workflow
require_approval_before_executetrueBlock execution until /approve is typed
CommandDescription
/approveApprove the current plan and advance to execute
/planReturn to plan phase to revise

Use staged workflow when you want to review what the agent intends to do before it touches any files. Good for:

  • Large refactors
  • Multi-file feature additions
  • Any task where reviewing intent upfront saves debugging later

For different models for plan vs execute (similar to other tools’ “architect mode”), enable Phase model routing alongside staged workflow: [options.phase_model] sets planning_model and execution_model. Copy-paste preset: Architect / editor preset.