Product OS Framework

An AI-native product development lifecycle for Cursor. From idea to production with quality gates, slash commands, and real-time visibility.

What It Does

Product OS gives your team a structured workflow for building features:

PM creates & verifies PRD → Dev builds & tests → Team releases & documents

Four slash commands in Cursor:

| Command | Owner | What Happens | |---------|-------|--------------| | /create | PM | Define → Verify → Extract Features → PRD approved | | /verify | PM | Quality check any PRD | | /dev | Developer | Kickoff → Code → Test → PR ready | | /release | Team | Review → Merge → Deploy → Document |

Note: Throughout this README we assume the command names /create, /verify, /dev, and /release.
You can choose different names when you configure them as Cursor slash commands—see CURSOR_SLASH_COMMANDS.md for details.

Plus a CLI dashboard:

$ prd

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
  📊 PRODUCT STORIES DASHBOARD
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Summary:
  Total Stories:     5
  Average Progress:  30%
  Blocked:           0

delivery-api (4 stories)
  US-001  ✅ Done  P0
    Real-time order tracking
    ████████████ 100%

  US-002  🔨 In Dev  P1
    Restaurant menu management
    ██████░░░░░░ 50%

Quick Start

1. Install

If you are non-technical: the command below is run in your Terminal app (macOS: search for "Terminal" in Spotlight).
npm is a standard tool that comes with Node.js. If npm is not recognized, install Node.js first or ask a developer to help with this one-time setup.

npm install -g prd-cli

2. Create Your Workspace

prd init

Answer the prompts:

• Workspace name – the folder that will hold all your product docs (for all projects), e.g. product-docs
• First project name – a single product or codebase inside that workspace, e.g. my-app
• Path to dev repo (optional) – where the code for that first project lives, so Cursor can open docs + code together

This creates your product docs folder, templates, and a .code-workspace file.

3. Open in Cursor

cursor your-workspace.code-workspace

Both your product docs and dev repo are connected automatically.

4. Configure Cursor Slash Commands

Before creating your first story, set up the slash commands in Cursor that trigger each phase (for example /create, /verify, /dev, /release).

Product OS assumes you will trigger each phase from a dedicated slash command in Cursor. These commands are not created automatically by prd-cli — you define them once in Cursor using the prompts in:

• CURSOR_SLASH_COMMANDS.md

After you add them, the slash commands and this framework work together:

• The slash commands drive the conversational workflow in Cursor.
• The CLI (prd) gives you a dashboard and stats across all stories.

5. Create Your First Story

In Cursor chat:

/create "User authentication with OAuth" @my-app/backlog.md

The AI agent walks you through defining requirements, verifying quality, and extracting features.

6. View Dashboard

prd

How It Works

Phase 1 – Create & Verify (PRD)

Goal: go from idea to a clear, verified PRD with extracted features and tasks.

• Start in Cursor with: /create "feature description" @my-app/backlog.md (always tag the backlog file of the specific project you want to create the story in)
• Refine the requirements through a conversation with the agent.
• Run verification to find gaps and either auto-apply or manually fix suggestions.
• Exit when the PRD is approved and the story is tracked in backlog.md.

Phase 2 – Dev (Implementation)

Goal: implement the story according to the PRD and project context, with tests and a ready PR.

• Start or resume with: /dev US-{ID}
• The agent:
  • Loads the PRD, backlog entry, and project context (context/TECH_CONTEXT.md)
  • Proposes a plan and tasks
  • Iterates through: code → tests → AC verification
• Exit when all tasks are done, tests pass, ACs are covered, and a PR is ready.

Phase 3 – Release (Ship & Document)

Goal: review, merge, deploy, and update documentation so the story is fully shipped.

• Start with: /release US-{ID}
• The agent:
  • Reviews AC checklist, tests, and PR status
  • Helps you merge and deploy via your existing pipeline
  • Updates CHANGELOG, PRD status, and backlog
• Exit when the story is live in production and marked done in docs and code.

Workspace Structure

your-product-docs/
├── .prd.config.json          # Workspace config
├── PROCESS.md                # The methodology
├── README.md                 # Project registry
└── my-app/                   # Project folder
    ├── backlog.md            # Story tracking
    ├── context/              # Shared project context
    │   ├── PROJECT_CONTEXT.md  # Product, users, goals
    │   └── TECH_CONTEXT.md     # Tech stack, conventions
    ├── US-001.md             # Story files
    └── US-002.md

Each project folder contains stories (US-*.md) with YAML frontmatter that powers the dashboard and slash commands.

CLI Commands

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | prd init | Create a new product workspace | | prd add-project | Add another project | | prd or prd dashboard | Full stories dashboard | | prd list | Compact list view | | prd stats | Quick statistics | | prd dashboard --status done | Filter by status | | prd dashboard --phase dev | Filter by phase |

Key Concepts

Quality Gates

Every PRD goes through automated verification before development starts. Gaps are identified and suggested fixes offered.

Context Folder

Each project has a context/ folder with two shared files:

• PROJECT_CONTEXT.md — Product description, target users, goals, constraints, common non-goals. Used by /create to skip redundant project-level questions and by all commands for consistent context.
• TECH_CONTEXT.md — Technical stack, patterns, conventions, testing. AI agents read this during /dev to ensure consistent implementation.

YAML Frontmatter

Stories include metadata that powers the dashboard:

---
id: US-001
project: my-app
status: dev
phase: development
progress: 50
priority: P0
---

Global Story IDs

Stories use globally unique IDs (US-001, US-002, ...) across all projects. No conflicts, easy cross-referencing.

Built For

• Cursor IDE - Slash commands powered by AI agents
• Small teams - PMs + Developers working together
• Multiple projects - One workspace, many products
• AI-native development - Quality gates designed for LLM-assisted workflows

Industry Alignment

| Product OS | Maps To | |------------|---------| | /create + /verify | Dual-Track Agile Discovery / Shape Up Shaping | | /dev | Dual-Track Agile Delivery / Shape Up Building | | /release | Lean Measure / Shape Up Shipping |

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

MIT

Product OS Framework - Built by Nimrod Margalit