plaid

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User Intent

Reference File

"plaid idea", "help me find an idea", "product idea", "idea from my business", "idea from my expertise", "what should I build"

references/idea.md

"plaid validate", "validate my idea", "pressure-test", "is this idea good", "find fatal flaws", "validate the problem", "stress test my idea"

references/validate.md

"PLAID", "plan a product", "define my vision", "generate a PRD", "plan my app", "spec out my idea", "product strategy", "help me build something"

references/plan.md

"plaid design", "design from image", "translate image to design", "create design.md", "image to design system", "extract design tokens", "design system from screenshot"

references/design.md

"plaid launch", "go-to-market", "launch plan", "GTM strategy", "help me launch", "marketing plan", "launch playbook"

references/launch.md

"plaid build", "build the app", "start building", "execute the roadmap", "build phase", "continue building"

references/build.md

Auto-detection

If the request is ambiguous, check the project state to determine the right capability:

• No docs/product-idea.md AND no vision.json → offer Idea (with Plan as a direct alternative if they already know what they want to build)

• docs/product-idea.md exists but no docs/validation-report.md AND no vision.json → suggest Validate (with Plan as a fast-forward if the founder is confident)

• docs/product-idea.md and docs/validation-report.md exist but no vision.json → route to Plan (using docs/product-idea.md as pre-filled context)

• No vision.json → route to Plan

• vision.json exists but docs/ is incomplete → route to Plan (document generation mode)

• All docs exist but no code built yet → suggest Launch or Build

• docs/product-roadmap.md has unchecked tasks → route to Build

• User shares an image, screenshot, or Figma URL with no other clear intent → offer Design

Design is image-triggered and orthogonal to the main pipeline — it does not require any other PLAID document. Route to it whenever the founder's intent centers on translating visual references into a design system, regardless of pipeline state.

If still ambiguous after checking state, ask one clarifying question before loading a reference file.

Phase Transitions

When a capability completes, suggest the natural next step. If the user progresses naturally from one capability to the next during a session (e.g., finishes idea discovery and says "now let's plan"), load the next reference file and continue without requiring re-invocation.

• After Idea completes → suggest Validate (/plaid validate) to pressure-test before planning; Plan (/plaid) is a valid fast-forward if the founder is confident

• After Validate completes with a Strong verdict → suggest Plan (/plaid); docs/product-idea.md was sharpened during validation and pre-fills much of the vision intake

• After Validate completes with a Pivot verdict → re-run Validate against the pivoted framing, or return to Idea (/plaid idea) to rework candidates

• After Validate completes with a Weak verdict → recommend more discovery before Plan; do not advance automatically

• After Plan completes → suggest Design (/plaid design) if the founder has imagery to anchor on, then launching (/plaid launch) or building (/plaid build)

• After Design completes → if docs/prd.md does not yet exist, suggest Plan (/plaid plan); if it does, suggest Build (/plaid build)

• After Launch completes → suggest building (/plaid build)

• After Build completes → suggest launching (/plaid launch) if not done already