[kristianc]

I'm getting a lot of mileage out of basically acting like the AI's Product Manager, and insisting that it writes up short PRDs for every feature we propose to build. That gives it a reference over time of everything that has been built, but also makes it less liable to drift with each one. Each one gets its own conversation. For me this is a happy medium between stopping it going off the rails but also making sure it can reference past decisions when it needs to. The one thing I dislike about Pocock's method (not to use PRDs so much but to have an in depth discussion to get alignment) first is it wastes a lot of the best window on that initial back and forth.

[nopurpose]

Is it adhoc or you use more structured approaches like openspec? I also tend to work on a plan first, but it stays as in-session todo, which is hard to reference later.

[kristianc]

It's ad hoc / my own framework, just found something which works for me. The exact structure is

- Work Mode - HITL/AFK

- Problem Statement

- Who It Affects - Primary / Secondary User

- User Stories

- Business Case

- Why Now

- Success Critera

- In Scope/Out of Scope [Out of Scope v. important)

- Thinnest Slice (This I've found super valuable, means you max out the amount of 'product' for your buck and avoid diminishing marginal returns or overbuilding. Often I will build this)

- Eigenfeature - What is the larger feature we _could_ (but probably won't) which would solve for this use case and other stuff I might not have thought of

- Technical Notes

- Deps

- Schema Changes

- Risks

- Final Recommendation [go / no go, including on scope]

There's a note in my Claude / Agents MD which says no net new feature gets introduced without this and I get it to move through a pipeline of folders (active, approved, shipped, proposed etc). All runs in a system of MD files and have even created a little MD Kanban from the metadata!

[magicalhippo]

I guess I've stumbled into something similar. Though I don't have a fixed format like yours. I first do a lot of back and forth to generate what I call a design document also includes rationales for various points or decisions. I use both Claude and Codex to iterate on this until I'm happy. The end result includes a lot of what you mention.

I then start a fresh conversation, make it analyze the design document and code, and for larger changes, generate a high-level implementation document which includes concrete phases or steps. I review this plan and iterate if necessary.

Then for each phase I make it generate a detailed plan for that phase and save it along side the other documents. Once the phase is over, I make it write a summary of what was done, decisions made and reasons for it. And typically a good point to compact the model's context.

These documents gives additional context for when I make another model do code review, and help illuminate drift or gaps from the main design document.

[SeriousM]

I found myself in a similar workflow. Depending on the task at hand (starting a new project, enhancement, maintenance), I let the agent create/read the markdown files that I keep updated (AGENT, STATE, ROADMAP, DESIGN, ARCHITECTURE, (CODESTYLE if I plan to modi it myself)). Then I choose the various roles that I need in this session and and have a planning phase. After that, the agent is starting implement the changes and I have a manual correction phase.

This flow works for my needs, building idea demos, prototypes or tools for my own sake. I don't let agent code in our main code base where everything is still hand tailored. That's a conscious decision.

I noticed that the cheaper models (flash, ...) are quite hard to hold back changing files. A question for possible options sometimes results in "yes, I'll go with option A" without asking back. Frontier models on the other hand love to plan and ask you deliberately for your consent.

I use pi.dev with almost no skills at all to understand how models really work and "feel" to work with.

[da_grift_shift]

Is there back-and-forth? How long do these get? Can you share an example?