Guides

Autonomous Mode

Autonomous mode lets PP Core work through your remaining phases without stopping for confirmation, running each one through the full discuss, plan, execute, and verify loop on its own. This guide covers how the loop runs, the guardrails around it, and when reaching for it is the right call.

Running the loop

/pp-autonomous

With no arguments, this picks up where the roadmap left off and drives every remaining phase to completion hands-free. PP Core does not pause for approval between phases, so the command is best pointed at work you already trust the plan for.

You can bound the run:

For example, to run phases three through five in order:

/pp-autonomous --from 3 --to 5

Tuning the loop with config

Two settings in .planning/config.json shape how autonomous runs behave.

Auto-advance chains discussion into planning into execution with no pauses between steps:

{
  "workflow": {
    "auto_advance": true
  }
}

Skip-discuss bypasses the discussion step entirely and synthesizes a minimal CONTEXT.md straight from the roadmap:

{
  "workflow": {
    "skip_discuss": true
  }
}

Note that skip_discuss only applies to /pp-autonomous. It does not affect direct calls to /pp-discuss-phase.

The manager alternative

When you want oversight rather than full automation, use the dashboard instead:

/pp-manager

Manager mode shows the status of every phase in one terminal and lets you dispatch work phase by phase rather than letting the whole roadmap run unattended. Discussion steps run inline so you can answer directly, while plan and execute run as background agents marked with [checkpoint] indicators. You can set per-step flags through config:

{
  "manager": {
    "flags": {
      "discuss": "--auto",
      "plan": "--skip-research",
      "execute": "--validate"
    }
  }
}

To adjust these toggles interactively, reach for /pp-settings or /pp-config.

When to go autonomous

Autonomous mode shines when the work is predictable and your judgment is not needed mid-flight. Good fits include:

• Requirements that are stable and unlikely to shift under you.
• Familiar domains where the patterns are well understood.
• Overnight or unattended runs where speed matters more than supervision.
• Throwaway prototypes where you want momentum over precision.

Stay in interactive mode when:

• The architecture is novel and decisions carry weight.
• Open questions remain that genuinely need human judgment.
• The phase touches significant infrastructure.
• You plan to gather cross-AI review on the plans before building.

The one guardrail to respect

Autonomous mode runs every remaining phase without asking for confirmation at any point. The roadmap and requirements you set up become the only steering it has. Before turning a project loose in fully autonomous mode for the first time, read through ROADMAP.md and REQUIREMENTS.md carefully. Once you trust those, the loop will faithfully build what they describe, which is exactly why getting them right matters.