capacity-plan
anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins
Analyze team capacity and forecast resource allocation for quarterly planning and hiring decisions.
What is capacity-plan?
Capacity-plan analyzes your team's available hours, current workload, and upcoming projects to identify bottlenecks and utilization gaps. Use it when planning quarters, deciding whether to hire or reprioritize, or validating whether new work fits your current headcount.
- Calculate current utilization by person and role against realistic targets (75-80% for ICs, 60-70% for managers, 50-60% for on-call)
- Identify overallocated people and time periods where demand exceeds capacity
- Project upcoming resource needs against available capacity for planned initiatives
- Surface skill and role bottlenecks that constrain delivery
- Model scenarios (hire X, deprioritize Y, do nothing) to show impact on capacity
How to install capacity-plan
npx skills add https://github.com/anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins --skill capacity-plan- Team size and role breakdown
- Current workload or project assignments (from tracker or description)
- Upcoming projects or initiatives for the planning period
- Known constraints (budget, hiring timeline, skill gaps)
How to use capacity-plan
- 1.Provide your team size, roles, and current workload (upload from project tracker or describe)
- 2.List upcoming projects and initiatives for the next quarter with estimated resource needs
- 3.Specify any constraints: budget limits, hiring timeline, required skills, PTO/holidays
- 4.Review the utilization table and capacity summary to identify gaps and overallocated people
- 5.Examine bottlenecks and recommendations, then model scenarios (hire, deprioritize, delay) to decide next steps
Use cases
- Quarterly planning: determine if your team can deliver the roadmap or if you need to cut scope
- Hiring decisions: quantify the capacity gap and show how many headcount you need to close it
- Overallocation diagnosis: pinpoint which people and roles are underwater and why
- Project feasibility: stress-test whether a new initiative fits without breaking existing commitments
- Budget planning: align headcount and contractor spend with forecasted demand
- Engineering managers and team leads planning resource allocation
- Product managers validating project feasibility against team capacity
- Finance and people ops forecasting hiring needs and budget
- Directors and VPs making hiring vs. deprioritization trade-offs
capacity-plan FAQ
Target 75-80% for individual contributors and specialists, 60-70% for managers, and 50-60% for on-call/support roles. Planning to 100% leaves no buffer for surprises, meetings, or reactive work.
The skill will identify which people and roles are over 100% and show scenarios for hiring, contracting, or deprioritizing work. Use this to make the case for headcount or scope cuts.
Review and update monthly, especially after sprint planning or when new work arrives. Capacity plans go stale quickly as priorities shift and people take time off.
You should include all work—BAU, projects, support, and meetings—when estimating current allocation. The skill helps you see the full picture, but you provide the input.
Yes. The output includes a scenarios table where you can compare outcomes: do nothing, hire X people, deprioritize Y project, or delay Z initiative.
Full instructions (SKILL.md)
Source of truth, from anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins.
name: capacity-plan description: Plan resource capacity — workload analysis and utilization forecasting. Use when heading into quarterly planning, the team feels overallocated and you need the numbers, deciding whether to hire or deprioritize, or stress-testing whether upcoming projects fit the people you have. argument-hint: "<team or project scope>"
/capacity-plan
If you see unfamiliar placeholders or need to check which tools are connected, see CONNECTORS.md.
Analyze team capacity and plan resource allocation.
Usage
/capacity-plan $ARGUMENTS
What I Need From You
- Team size and roles: Who do you have?
- Current workload: What are they working on? (Upload from project tracker or describe)
- Upcoming work: What's coming next quarter?
- Constraints: Budget, hiring timeline, skill requirements
Planning Dimensions
People
- Available headcount and skills
- Current allocation and utilization
- Planned hires and timeline
- Contractor and vendor capacity
Budget
- Operating budget by category
- Project-specific budgets
- Variance tracking
- Forecast vs. actual
Time
- Project timelines and dependencies
- Critical path analysis
- Buffer and contingency planning
- Deadline management
Utilization Targets
| Role Type | Target Utilization | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| IC / Specialist | 75-80% | Leave room for reactive work and growth |
| Manager | 60-70% | Management overhead, meetings, 1:1s |
| On-call / Support | 50-60% | Interrupt-driven work is unpredictable |
Common Pitfalls
- Planning to 100% utilization (no buffer for surprises)
- Ignoring meeting load and context-switching costs
- Not accounting for vacation, holidays, and sick time
- Treating all hours as equal (creative work ≠ admin work)
Output
## Capacity Plan: [Team/Project]
**Period:** [Date range] | **Team Size:** [X]
### Current Utilization
| Person/Role | Capacity | Allocated | Available | Utilization |
|-------------|----------|-----------|-----------|-------------|
| [Name/Role] | [hrs/wk] | [hrs/wk] | [hrs/wk] | [X]% |
### Capacity Summary
- **Total capacity**: [X] hours/week
- **Currently allocated**: [X] hours/week ([X]%)
- **Available**: [X] hours/week ([X]%)
- **Overallocated**: [X people above 100%]
### Upcoming Demand
| Project/Initiative | Start | End | Resources Needed | Gap |
|--------------------|-------|-----|-----------------|-----|
| [Project] | [Date] | [Date] | [X FTEs] | [Covered/Gap] |
### Bottlenecks
- [Skill or role that's oversubscribed]
- [Time period with a crunch]
### Recommendations
1. [Hire / Contract / Reprioritize / Delay]
2. [Specific action]
### Scenarios
| Scenario | Outcome |
|----------|---------|
| Do nothing | [What happens] |
| Hire [X] | [What changes] |
| Deprioritize [Y] | [What frees up] |
If Connectors Available
If ~~project tracker is connected:
- Pull current workload and ticket assignments automatically
- Show upcoming sprint or quarter commitments per person
If ~~calendar is connected:
- Factor in PTO, holidays, and recurring meeting load
- Calculate actual available hours per person
Tips
- Include all work — BAU, projects, support, meetings. People aren't 100% available for project work.
- Plan for buffer — Target 80% utilization. 100% means no room for surprises.
- Update regularly — Capacity plans go stale fast. Review monthly.
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