Capture and refine ideas
The refinement pipeline is how unstructured ideas become scheduled work in Plenar. Instead of dumping half-baked items directly into your schedule, ideas flow through stages where they gain specs, acceptance criteria, estimates, and placement — then get reviewed before entering the plan.
How it works
Every idea starts as a quick capture and progresses through stages until it is either scheduled or rejected:
| Stage | What happens | Who acts |
|---|---|---|
| Captured | Raw idea lands in the inbox. No spec, no estimate. | Anyone (human or agent) |
| Refining | Spec, acceptance criteria, estimate, and placement are filled in. | Refiner (human or agent) |
| Awaiting Review | All artifacts are complete. A reviewer checks quality. | Reviewer |
| Approved / Scheduled | Idea is promoted to a task, milestone, or goal in the plan. | Planner |
| Rejected | Idea is declined with a reason. Can be restored later. | Reviewer |
| Archived | Idea is shelved without rejection. Can be restored. | Anyone |
Ideas can only move forward through allowed transitions — you cannot skip directly from Captured to Awaiting Review without refining first.
Quick Capture
Press c anywhere on the Refine tab (or click the Capture button) to open the capture dialog. Fill in:
For tasks you can also set scope (Must / Nice) and a rough estimate. For goals, pick a priority level.
:::tip Quick Capture is intentionally lightweight. Don’t worry about specs or placement at this point — that happens during refinement. :::
The Refine tab
The Refine tab lives on the Team page and shows all ideas currently in the pipeline. It offers three view modes:
Scope view (default)
A two-panel layout:
- Inbox (left) — unplaced ideas that need a project, goal, or milestone assignment. Drag ideas from the inbox onto the scope tree to place them.
- Scope tree (right) — your project hierarchy (goals, milestones, tasks). Placed ideas appear nested under their target location.
Pipeline view
A Kanban-style board with three swim lanes — Captured, Refining, and Awaiting Review. Cards can be dragged between lanes to advance their stage.
Group by:
- Hierarchy — ideas nested under their parent goal
- Stage — flat columns (Captured | Refining | Awaiting Review)
- Project — grouped by target project
Table view
A structured table showing all ideas with sortable columns and inline status transitions.
Stages in detail
Captured
The inbox. Ideas here have a title and maybe a description — nothing else. Actions available:
Refining
The refiner fills in everything needed to evaluate the idea:
- Spec (problem statement)
- Acceptance criteria
- Effort estimate
- Required skills
- Placement (project, goal, milestone, scope)
Once everything is filled in, submit for review.
:::note Plenar validates that required fields are complete before allowing submission to review. If something is missing, you will see a warning explaining what is needed. :::
Awaiting Review
A reviewer evaluates whether the idea is well-specified and worth scheduling. The actions:
Hierarchical ideas
Ideas can represent different entity types:
- Goal — becomes a goal in the plan when scheduled
- Milestone — becomes a milestone; can be nested under a captured goal
- Task — becomes a task in the plan; can be nested under a captured milestone or goal
When you capture a goal with milestones and tasks nested beneath it, scheduling the goal promotes the entire hierarchy at once.
Promoting ideas to the schedule
When you click Schedule on an approved idea (or a group header when all children are ready):
- Plenar creates the corresponding entities (goals, milestones, tasks) in the plan
- Specs, acceptance criteria, and estimates are copied to the new entities
- A New Plan preview opens — you see exactly how the new work affects your timeline before applying
- The ideas are marked as staged (shown with a dashed border) until you Apply or Discard the preview
:::tip You can schedule an entire goal hierarchy at once. If a goal and all its milestones and tasks are in Awaiting Review, click the Schedule button on the goal header to promote them all together. :::
Archive and restore
Archived ideas are hidden from the main pipeline but not deleted. Expand the Archived section at the bottom of the Pipeline view to see them. Click the restore icon to move an archived idea back to Captured.
Using it with Claude Code
Claude Code can capture and refine ideas through MCP tools. Describe an idea and the agent calls plenar_add_idea to drop it into the inbox, then plenar_refine_item to fill in the spec, acceptance criteria, estimate, and placement:
"Capture an idea: we need a CSV export for the reports page"Available MCP tools for capturing and refining ideas:
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
plenar_add_idea | Capture a new idea into the pipeline |
plenar_refine_item | Fill in spec, AC, estimate, and placement for a captured idea |
plenar_get_refinement_queue | View all ideas currently in the pipeline |
plenar_approve_item | Approve an idea that is awaiting review |
plenar_reject_item | Reject an idea with a reason |
plenar_send_back_item | Return an idea to refining with feedback |
plenar_delegate_idea | Send an idea to another team for refinement |
To inspect the queue, plenar_get_refinement_queue returns every idea currently in the pipeline. Reviewers act with plenar_approve_item, plenar_reject_item, and plenar_send_back_item, and plenar_delegate_idea hands an idea to another team.
:::tip Agents can both capture and refine ideas. A common pattern: you describe a feature need in conversation, Claude Code captures it, fills in the spec and estimate, and submits it for your review — all without leaving your editor. :::
Common questions
Can I skip refinement and schedule a captured idea directly? No. Ideas move forward only through allowed transitions — a captured idea must be refined (spec, acceptance criteria, estimate, and placement filled in) before it can go to Awaiting Review and then be scheduled.
What happens to my plan when I schedule an idea? Scheduling promotes the idea into a goal, milestone, or task and opens a New Plan preview. Nothing changes in your Plan of Record until you Apply; Discard leaves the plan untouched.
Can I promote a whole hierarchy at once? Yes. If a goal and all its nested milestones and tasks are in Awaiting Review, click Schedule on the goal header to promote them together.
What’s the difference between archiving and rejecting an idea? Rejecting declines an idea with a required reason. Archiving shelves it without a rejection. Both can be restored later — archived ideas come back to Captured.
What to do next
- Goals & milestones — structure the outcomes that refined ideas become once scheduled.
- Manage your plan — the edit → preview → apply loop you finish in when a scheduled idea opens a New Plan.
- Track progress with Claude Code — drive capture, refinement, and review from your editor.