Generate a PRD from an idea

pks prd generate writes a new docs/PRD.md from a single sentence describing your project. It fills the standard headings, adds a few sample requirements, and drops in one or two user stories, giving you a document to edit rather than a blank page.

1. Prerequisites

• A working directory you want the PRD in. The default output is ./docs/PRD.md, and docs/ is created when it does not exist.
• A terminal, if you plan to use --interactive or overwrite an existing file. Both paths open console prompts.
• Nothing else. This subcommand needs no login, no API key, and no environment variables.

2. Write the idea sentence

The idea description is a required positional argument. Quote it.

pks prd generate "A mobile app for task management"

The file lands at docs/PRD.md and the console confirms the path.

Word choice in that sentence matters more than it looks. Requirement and user-story seeding is keyword matching over the idea text, checking for the literal words web or website, user or customer, data or information, and manage or create. An idea sentence containing none of them produces near-empty Requirements and User Stories sections.

Note. No language model runs here. The branch description says "AI-powered generation"; the implementation is string matching plus templating.

3. Add the surrounding context

Each of these flags fills a section of the generated document.

pks prd generate "An internal approval workflow for finance" \
  --name ApprovalFlow \
  --target-audience "Finance operations team" \
  --business-context "Manual approvals take four days on average" \
  --stakeholders "CFO,Head of Ops,Platform team" \
  --technical-constraints "Must run on-premises,No new database"

--stakeholders and --technical-constraints are comma-separated lists. --name defaults to the current directory's folder name when omitted.

4. Choose a template and an output path

pks prd generate "A partner-facing REST service" -t api -o docs/partner-api-prd.md

Accepted --template values are standard, technical, mobile, web, api, minimal, and enterprise, matched case-insensitively. An unrecognized value exits 1. Here the template selects the section shape and labels; it does not change how content is seeded.

5. Overwrite safely

Without -f, an existing file at the output path triggers an interactive confirmation. Declining prints Operation cancelled and exits 0.

pks prd generate "A partner-facing REST service" -t api -f

In scripts and CI, always pass -f. A non-interactive shell has nothing to answer the prompt with.

6. Verify

pks prd validate docs/PRD.md

A freshly generated file passes the non-strict checks and prints a completeness score. Adding -v to the generate call runs the same validation pass automatically and prints the score table right after writing the file.

Options

Troubleshooting

The command exits 1 immediately. The idea description is missing or empty, or --template carries a value outside the seven archetypes. Both exit 1 before anything is written.

The Requirements section is nearly empty. The idea sentence contains none of the trigger words. Rewrite it to name what the system manages or creates, and for whom.

The run hangs or errors in CI. A file already exists at the output path and the confirmation prompt has no terminal. Add -f.

--interactive asks for the template even though -t was passed. The template selection prompt always runs in interactive mode; the other fields are prompted only when still empty. Pick the archetype again at the prompt, or drop --interactive.

See also

• PRD templates — deterministic skeletons with no keyword seeding
• Validate a PRD — check what the generated file is still missing
• pks prd CLI reference — the full flag surface for all six subcommands
• pks prd — how the six subcommands fit together