# Plan with Project Architect

Canonical HTML: [https://collty.com/help/projects/plan-with-project-architect](https://collty.com/help/projects/plan-with-project-architect)
Audience: Project owners and delivery leads
Reading time: 18 min
Updated: 2026-07-15T00:00:00.000Z

Generate, edit, staff, analyze and activate a dependency-aware delivery plan from a real project brief.

## From brief to working plan

Project Architect turns project context into an editable delivery structure. It can start a new draft or load an existing project, generate phases and tasks, connect the right teams, model dependencies and show the plan as a board, timeline or predictive dashboard.

The generated result is a starting structure, not an automatic commitment. Every phase, task, role, duration, dependency and expense remains reviewable before the draft is activated.

## Give Architect enough project context

1. **Choose the project source:** Start a new draft or continue an existing project from Project source.
2. **Select a direction:** Choose Marketing, Design, Development, Consulting, Strategy, Research, Operations, Mixed or let Architect infer the direction.
3. **Add industry and goal:** Describe the intended outcome, market context, constraints and what must be true when the project succeeds.
4. **Choose a start date:** The date anchors the generated schedule. It does not replace the project's sprint cadence or total duration.
5. **Set collaboration context:** Choose the appropriate team setup and answer clarifying questions when the brief leaves important delivery decisions open.
6. **Generate structure:** Architect creates typed phases, tasks, roles, dependencies and, where relevant, expenses for review on the board.

## Edit the plan on the Board

- Drag a task between phases or reorder it inside a phase; dependency lines update with the board.
- Select a phase to edit its title, description and duration or to add a task or expense.
- Select a task to edit its outcome, description, duration, phase, specialists, role hours and dependencies.
- Use Board tools to add phases, tasks, expenses and dependencies or to apply Auto layout.
- Use zoom controls for the board itself; opening or closing side panels does not change the plan data.
- Save draft preserves the editable plan without making it an active delivery commitment.

## Use the three views for different decisions

| View | Best for | What to check |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Board | Editing structure and ownership | Phases, task detail, roles, expenses and dependencies |
| Timeline | Reviewing sequence and schedule | Start date, phase ranges, task order and dependency pressure |
| Dashboard | Reviewing plan readiness | Delivery confidence, staffing fit, timeline pressure, coverage, risk and commercial logic |

## Plan with real team capacity

Find teams proposes staffing options from the brief. You can choose a ready option, attach one or several teams, inspect their members and then assign only relevant specialists or roles to each task.

When the project tracks hours or costs, the inspector shows the planned workload and modeled cost. When those capabilities are off, Architect removes those controls instead of inventing commercial data.

1. **Review Team options:** Compare the proposed staffing paths before attaching a team.
2. **Attach the required teams:** Teams on this project remain visible and can be expanded without breaking completed work.
3. **Assign tasks deliberately:** Choose a specialist or role for each task and check workload concentration in Dashboard.
4. **Confirm or request participation:** Own teams can be confirmed; external teams receive the appropriate project request before activation.

## Correct a plan without starting over

Correct draft opens a controlled revision workflow. Add the change you need, define the target budget when commercial data is available, and generate targeted clarification questions for ambiguous corrections.

The revision keeps the existing project context. Review the changed board, timeline and Dashboard before saving or activating it.

## Move from draft to delivery

1. **Review Board metrics:** Check task count, phase structure, role coverage, duration and any modeled hours or costs.
2. **Resolve critical risks:** Fix missing ownership, impossible dependency sequences and overloaded roles before sending requests.
3. **Save the draft:** Give the draft a clear project title and preserve the reviewed structure.
4. **Confirm teams or send requests:** Participation state remains visible in the project editor.
5. **Activate deliberately:** Activation creates the working project boundary. Continue daily execution in Project Workspace.

## How AI planning stays controllable

### Inside Collty: Structured generation with an editable contract

The planning model produces typed project structures rather than a formatted paragraph. Validation and normalization protect the board from incomplete model output, while the user remains responsible for the final delivery commitment.

- Generation has an explicit server timeout suitable for complex plans.
- Dependencies and dates are validated before the board renders them.
- Revisions preserve project context instead of starting from a blank prompt.

## Related guides

- [Work In Project Workspace](https://collty.com/help/projects/work-in-project-workspace)
- [Map Work In Creative Canvas](https://collty.com/help/projects/map-work-in-creative-canvas)
- [Control Agents With Operating Rules](https://collty.com/help/ai-agents/control-agents-with-operating-rules)