Plan Mode

Also: Claude Code plan mode, planning mode

Plan Mode is a read-only execution mode in Claude Code — it analyzes your codebase and produces a plan of action without editing any files. Press Shift+Tab to cycle through modes (approval → auto-accept → plan mode). In plan mode, Claude reads files, runs web searches, and asks clarifying questions, then returns a structured plan you can review before a single line of code changes. You can approve the plan, ask it to revise specific parts, or ask questions before committing. Why it matters: most people jump straight to "write the code" and spend more time course-correcting than they would have spent planning. Plan mode is where it costs nothing to change direction. Once Claude starts editing files, every mistake requires a fix. Three situations where plan mode is the right default: (1) multi-step feature changes that touch more than a few files, (2) anything that involves dependencies or architectural decisions, (3) code review — restrict Claude to read-only tools and ask it to review without editing. The explore subagent does something similar (codebase exploration without planning), but plan mode is specifically scoped to a task you're about to implement. Running /compact after plan approval also helps — the exploration context is summarized before the coding phase begins, freeing up space for the actual work.

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