Project Workflow

Project workflow

One loop for any task bigger than a typo. Plan in a PRD, track in task.md, sync docs when done, write down what went wrong so it does not repeat.

Skip this for one file fixes. A typo, a copy change, a single obvious bug. Just fix those.

The loop

1. Triage. Read the request and the code before touching anything.
2. PRD. Write prds/<slug>.md from the template. Share it if the plan has a real choice in it.
3. Track. Add the work to task.md under ## To Do. Move items as they land.
4. Build. Small commits worth of change at a time. Verify each step.
5. Sync docs. Hand off to the project-docs skill to update task.md, changelog.md, files.md.
6. Learn. If the user corrected the same thing twice, add a line to prds/lessons.md.

Triage

Before writing code, answer these in a few lines:

• What is missing, broken, or incomplete?
• What are two or three likely causes or approaches?
• Which one is most likely, and why?
• What is still unclear enough to ask about?

If the last answer is not empty, ask. One question, not five. Then wait.

For bugs, name the root cause before proposing the fix. A fix without a root cause is a guess.

PRD

Create prds/<feature-or-problem-slug>.md before non trivial work. Use the layout in references/prd-template.md.

Required sections:

• Problem (one paragraph)
• Root cause (bugs only)
• Proposed solution
• Files to change
• Edge cases
• Verification steps
• Task completion log

Metadata at the top, always in UTC:

Copy code
Created: YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm UTC
Last Updated: YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm UTC
Status: Draft | In Progress | Done

Keep it short. A PRD that takes longer to write than the change did is too long. Two screens is plenty for most work.

PRDs are .md files and live in prds/. Old or sensitive PRDs move to prds/archive/.

Task tracking

task.md has three sections: ## To Do, ## In Progress, ## Completed.

• New work goes under To Do with a link to its PRD.
• Only one item In Progress at a time when possible.
• An item moves to Completed after verification, not after the edit.
• Completed entries carry a YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm UTC timestamp, the files touched, and the verification command or outcome.

Good entry:

Copy code
- [x] 2026-09-15 18:40 UTC Fix duplicate heartbeat writes. prds/heartbeat-dedup.md. convex/stats.ts, src/hooks/usePageTracking.ts. Verified: npx convex dev clean, no OCC retries in dashboard for 10 min.

Bad entry:

Copy code
- [x] fixed heartbeat

Docs sync

After each feature or fix, task.md, changelog.md, and files.md have to agree with the code. Load the project-docs skill for the rules. In short:

• changelog.md follows Keep a Changelog. Dates come from git log --date=short, never from memory.
• files.md gets new files added and stale descriptions fixed.
• Claims about what shipped come from the diff, not from the plan.

Execution style

• Keep the change set tight. The request sets the scope. Extra ideas go in the summary, not the diff. Load avoid-feature-creep if scope starts to drift.
• One subagent per research question when the task is large enough to benefit. Do not parallelize edits to the same file.
• Stop and re plan if the work stops making sense. Update the PRD, then continue.
• Before calling it done, ask: would a staff engineer approve this diff as is?

Learning loop

prds/lessons.md is a flat list. One line per lesson, newest at the bottom:

Copy code
- 2026-09-15 Do not add `returns` validators that duplicate the schema doc shape; use a shared validator constant instead.

Add a lesson when:

• the user corrects the same pattern a second time
• a verification step catches something the plan missed
• a tool or API behaved differently from the docs

Read prds/lessons.md at the start of any session in that repo.

Never

• Deploy, publish, commit, or push. The user does those.
• Mark a task done without running the verification step written in the PRD.
• Invent a date. Run git log or use the current UTC time.
• Write a PRD for a one line change.