PRD Template

A reusable PRD template that produces artifacts agents and reviewers can execute against reliably.

Strong PRDs reduce ambiguity before a loop ever starts. They are also what the four PRD judges (prd-auditor, prd-dependency-judge, prd-scope-judge, prd-testability-judge) evaluate against.

Inputs you need

problem statement
user impact
constraints (tech, policy, business)
measurable success criteria
known risks

Template

# <Feature name>

## Problem
What's broken, missing, or underserved today? Keep it one or two paragraphs.

## Desired Outcome
What does the world look like once this ships? State the behavior change, not the implementation.

## User Stories
- As a <role>, I want to <action> so that <outcome>.
- As a <role>, I want to <action> so that <outcome>.

Keep this list at or below eight stories per PRD. The scope judge enforces this.

## Constraints
- Technical constraints (existing stack, API contracts, migration budgets)
- Policy / compliance constraints
- Business constraints (deadlines, cost ceilings)

## Success Criteria
Each criterion must be independently measurable.
- Metric: <what you will measure>. Target: <threshold>.
- Behavior: <observable behavior>. Target: <true/false>.

## Out of Scope
What you are explicitly deciding not to build in this PRD.

## Dependencies
- Upstream: <other work that must land first>
- Downstream: <work that will depend on this>
- External: <third-party services, APIs, vendors>

## Risks and Mitigations
- Risk: <summary>. Mitigation: <plan>.

## Kill Criteria
What would cause you to stop this work mid-flight?

Why this shape

Every section maps to one or more judges:

Problem + Desired Outcome → prd-auditor checks structural completeness.
Success Criteria → prd-testability-judge checks that every criterion is measurable.
User Stories → prd-scope-judge enforces the ≤ 8 stories check.
Dependencies → prd-dependency-judge checks for integration risk.

If your PRD passes all four, you will start planning from an artifact that the orchestrator can faithfully execute against.

Implementation plan template

The next artifact in the workflow.

PRD to plan to execution

How a PRD becomes a shipped PR.

Judges

The PRD judges that score this template.