PATTERN Cited by 1 source

Plan-execute separation

Pattern

Plan-execute separation decouples the "decide what plan to follow" phase from the "execute the plan" phase into distinct components with different cadences, interfaces, and optimization objectives.

Structure

• Planner: Evaluates available strategies, selects one, and persists the decision. Runs infrequently (batch cadence). Optimizes long-term objectives.
• Executor: Consumes the persisted plan and takes concrete actions in real time. Runs on every opportunity. Optimizes immediate relevance within plan constraints.
• State bridge: A durable, low-latency store (e.g., feature store, config service) that transmits decisions from planner to executor asynchronously.

Benefits

• Planner changes don't require executor redeployment and vice versa.
• Each component has a clean, narrow optimization objective.
• Enables independent A/B testing of strategies vs. tactics.
• Similar to plan-then-act architectures in robotics, autonomous driving, and LLM agent systems.

Seen in

• sources/2026-06-19-netflix-thinking-fast-slow-for-a-personalized-notification-system — Netflix Slow Policy (planner) writes pacing decisions to a feature store; Fast Policy (executor) reads them at send time. The two layers are independently evolvable.