Before the system does substantial work on the actor’s behalf, it states what it intends to do — the steps, what they touch, and what they will cost — as something the actor can read, correct, or refuse.
Forms
Recurring forms across the catalogues: a step list before execution, a sample of the output before the full run, a scope statement (“this will modify 14 files”), and a dry-run preview of side effects.
Consequences
- the agent's intention is now a reviewable object — steps, targets, expected effects — so misreadings surface while they are still cheap, and the preview becomes the thing an approval can act on
- the plan and the execution can drift apart, so the preview only means something while the system is held to what it showed
- every preview spends actor attention; asked to review too often, the actor stops reading plans and the preview becomes ritual
Resources & references
- Shape of AI — Action plan, Sample response
- AI UX Playground — Plan & Execute, Sandbox Preview, Blast Radius Visualization
- aiuxdesign.guide — Intent Preview, Plan Summary
Appears in
The encounter
- Checking before the act, step 1 — Preview the substantial work
Governing autonomy
- Checking costly actions, step 2 — Preview the work before it runs
Related patterns
Precedes
- Approval gate — the agent's intention is now a reviewable object — steps, targets, expected effects — so misreadings surface while they are still cheap, and the preview becomes the thing an approval can act on
Serves
- Delegation — plan preview covers delegation's set-up station — surfacing what the agent intends before authority transfers
Enacts
- Agency — the actor judges the intention rather than the fait accompli
Complements
- Dry run — plan preview shows the system's own plan before a one-off job, dry run shows what the actor's own artifact would do; the direction of authorship is reversed
- Transparent reasoning — the plan before execution; the reasoning trail during and after it
- Cost transparency — cost estimates are the spend half of a previewed plan — what it will do and what it will cost
Related to
- Change review — the plan is the intention before the work; the change review is the delta after it
- Action consequences — the severity framework that decides when intended work warrants a preview at all
Preceded by
- Open request — a complex request is the situation a plan makes reviewable before work starts