AutoDream — Structured Planning Artifacts
AutoDream is a discovery tool that generates structured planning artifacts — architecture docs, task breakdowns, risk assessments — from a natural language description of what you want to build. It is the pre-session stage before you open a Claude Code session or spawn an agent team.
Quick Reference
- →AutoDream is a discovery tool, not an execution tool — it generates plans, not code
- →Outputs: component diagrams, dependency graphs, task lists with effort estimates, risk areas, suggested CLAUDE.md rules
- →Use AutoDream before greenfield projects or large agent team runs
- →AutoDream artifacts become the context: blocks in AGENT.md definitions
- →Shipped in Q1 2026 alongside Remote Control, Dispatch, and Channels
- →AutoDream also refers to the background memory consolidation system (distinct from planning)
- →Differs from Plan Mode: Plan Mode scopes a known task; AutoDream discovers what to build
- →Differs from /ultraplan: /ultraplan refines a plan collaboratively; AutoDream generates it from scratch
What AutoDream Does
AutoDream refers to two related but distinct features that shipped in Q1 2026: (1) the Structured Planning Artifact generator, which produces architecture docs and task breakdowns from natural language; and (2) the background Memory Consolidation system, which runs like REM sleep to prune and refresh Claude's memory files. This article covers both.
The planning artifact generator answers the question: 'I know what I want to build — how should I decompose it and who should build what?' You give AutoDream a natural language description of intent, and it produces the documents you would normally write by hand before opening a development session.
| Tool | Stage | Input | Output |
|---|---|---|---|
| AutoDream | Pre-session discovery | Natural language intent description | Architecture docs, task breakdown, risk assessment, CLAUDE.md suggestions |
| Plan Mode | In-session scoping | Task with existing codebase context | Implementation plan for a known task |
| /ultraplan | Pre-execution refinement | Drafted plan needing human review | Annotated, approved plan ready for execution |