An agent plan needs dependencies, not just a numbered list

A numbered plan can make independent work look sequential, while hiding the tasks that really must wait. I would rather have an agent explain what each step needs before it can start. Take a fictional podcast workflow: transcribe an interview, identify topics, write episode notes, choose short clips, and prepare a publication draft. Topic extraction can use the transcript. Clip timestamps need the actual audio alignment. A publication draft needs the final episode title and approved links. Finishing the transcript does not magically satisfy all three dependencies. There is also work that can happen independently, such as preparing an empty notes template while transcription runs. That is different from drafting factual episode notes before the interview has been read. For each task, I would record the required input, the output it produces, and what invalidates that output. If the audio is edited, clip timestamps need another look; a spelling correction in the title should not force retranscription. This is a proposed planning pattern, not a performance benchmark. Its value is making the reason for waiting or repeating work visible, instead of letting "step 4 completed" stand in for having the right inputs.