alt Hacker NewsI guess I've stumbled into something similar. Though I don't have a fixed format like yours. I first do a lot of back and forth to generate what I call a design document also includes rationales for various points or decisions. I use both Claude and Codex to iterate on this until I'm happy. The end result includes a lot of what you mention.
I then start a fresh conversation, make it analyze the design document and code, and for larger changes, generate a high-level implementation document which includes concrete phases or steps. I review this plan and iterate if necessary.
Then for each phase I make it generate a detailed plan for that phase and save it along side the other documents. Once the phase is over, I make it write a summary of what was done, decisions made and reasons for it. And typically a good point to compact the model's context.
These documents gives additional context for when I make another model do code review, and help illuminate drift or gaps from the main design document.
I found myself in a similar workflow. Depending on the task at hand (starting a new project, enhancement, maintenance), I let the agent create/read the markdown files that I keep updated (AGENT, STATE, ROADMAP, DESIGN, ARCHITECTURE, (CODESTYLE if I plan to modi it myself)). Then I choose the various roles that I need in this session and and have a planning phase. After that, the agent is starting implement the changes and I have a manual correction phase.
This flow works for my needs, building idea demos, prototypes or tools for my own sake. I don't let agent code in our main code base where everything is still hand tailored. That's a conscious decision.
I noticed that the cheaper models (flash, ...) are quite hard to hold back changing files. A question for possible options sometimes results in "yes, I'll go with option A" without asking back. Frontier models on the other hand love to plan and ask you deliberately for your consent.
I use pi.dev with almost no skills at all to understand how models really work and "feel" to work with.