Planning Fundamentals
Master how AI agents break down complex goals into executable steps
Your Progress
0 / 5 completedModule Complete! 🎉
You've mastered the fundamentals of AI agent planning! You now understand how to decompose complex goals, choose planning strategies, and handle constraints effectively.
What You Learned
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Planning Basics
• Why agents need structured planning
• Reactive vs planned approaches
• Planning stages and lifecycle
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Task Decomposition
• Breaking complex goals hierarchically
• Identifying task dependencies
• Top-down decomposition principles
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Planning Strategies
• Forward, backward, and hierarchical
• When to use each approach
• Hybrid and advanced techniques
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Constraints & Goals
• Hard vs soft constraints
• Constraint satisfaction techniques
• Multi-objective optimization
Planning Best Practices Checklist
Review these 15 essential principles. Check off each one as you internalize it.
0 of 15 reviewed
Always define clear, measurable goals before planning
Goal Setting
Break complex tasks into 2-5 subtasks per level (avoid cognitive overload)
Decomposition
Identify task dependencies early to determine execution order
Decomposition
Use forward planning when starting state is well-defined
Strategy
Use backward planning for goal-focused, efficiency-critical tasks
Strategy
Apply hierarchical planning to large, complex, multi-step problems
Strategy
Distinguish hard constraints (must satisfy) from soft constraints (preferences)
Constraints
Define optimization objective: minimize cost, time, or maximize quality
Optimization
Use constraint propagation to prune infeasible options early
Constraints
Build replanning capability for dynamic environments
Execution
Monitor execution progress and detect plan failures quickly
Execution
Balance planning depth vs execution speed (don't over-plan)
Tradeoffs
Consider hybrid approaches: combine multiple strategies
Advanced
Document assumptions and preconditions for each plan step
Best Practice
Test plans with edge cases and constraint violations
Best Practice
Quick Reference Guide
Planning Decision Tree
1. Is goal well-defined? → Yes: Continue | No: Clarify goal first
2. Is task simple? → Yes: Direct execution | No: Plan it
3. Known start state? → Yes: Forward | No: Backward planning
4. Complex dependencies? → Yes: Hierarchical | No: Linear
5. Dynamic environment? → Yes: Add replanning | No: Static plan OK
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
- ❌ Over-planning: Spending more time planning than executing
- ❌ Under-decomposition: Tasks still too complex to execute atomically
- ❌ Ignoring constraints: Creating infeasible plans
- ❌ No monitoring: Failing to detect when plan goes off track
- ❌ Rigid plans: Not adapting to unexpected changes
Continue Your Journey
You've completed Planning Fundamentals! Ready to build on this foundation?
Next Module
Task Decomposition
Continue learning agentic AI patterns
Practice Ideas
- • Build a task planner for daily activities using hierarchical planning
- • Implement a constraint solver for scheduling problems
- • Create a travel planning agent that handles time/budget constraints
- • Design a code review agent that decomposes analysis tasks