prd creator writes full code into task details

[kaktus42]

Great stuff, thanks! I adopted it for python and testing it out a bit.

One thing I noticed: The prd creator skill write whole code verbatim int the details section of the task. I don't believe that is intended. Any thought on this? Updating the skill or fixing this in the task review phase?

Example:

{
  "id": "TASK-024",
  "title": "Configure URL patterns for todos app",
  "category": "setup",
  "description": "Define all URL patterns in todos/urls.py and include them in the main testapp/urls.py. Use the app_name 'todos' for namespacing.",
  "acceptanceCriteria": [
    "todos/urls.py has app_name = 'todos'",
    "All views are accessible at their expected URLs",
    "Main urls.py includes todos.urls with no prefix (or / prefix)",
    "Login URL is /login/, logout is /logout/, dashboard is /",
    "Running `python manage.py check` shows no URL errors"
  ],
  "steps": [
    {
      "step": 1,
      "description": "Populate todos/urls.py",
      "details": "In todos/urls.py:\n\nfrom django.urls import path\nfrom . import views\n\napp_name = 'todos'\n\nurlpatterns = [\n    path('', views.dashboard, name='dashboard'),\n    path('login/', views.login_view, name='login'),\n    path('logout/', views.logout_view, name='logout'),\n    path('categories/new/', views.category_create, name='category_create'),\n    path('categories/<int:pk>/', views.category_detail, name='category_detail'),\n    path('categories/<int:pk>/edit/', views.category_edit, name='category_edit'),\n    path('categories/<int:pk>/delete/', views.category_delete, name='category_delete'),\n    path('categories/<int:pk>/share/', views.category_share, name='category_share'),\n    path('categories/<int:pk>/share/remove/<int:member_pk>/', views.category_remove_member, name='category_remove_member'),\n    path('categories/<int:category_pk>/todos/add/', views.todo_add, name='todo_add'),\n    path('todos/<int:pk>/toggle/', views.todo_toggle, name='todo_toggle'),\n    path('todos/<int:pk>/edit/', views.todo_edit, name='todo_edit'),\n    path('todos/<int:pk>/delete/', views.todo_delete, name='todo_delete'),\n]",
      "pass": false
    },
    {
      "step": 2,
      "description": "Include todos URLs in main urls.py",
      "details": "In testapp/urls.py, add:\n\nfrom django.urls import path, include\n\nurlpatterns = [\n    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),\n    path('', include('todos.urls')),\n]",
      "pass": false
    },
    {
      "step": 3,
      "description": "Set LOGIN_URL in settings",
      "details": "In settings.py add: LOGIN_URL = '/login/' so that @login_required redirects to the custom login page.",
      "pass": false
    }
  ],
  "dependencies": ["TASK-022", "TASK-020"],
  "estimatedComplexity": "low"
}
``

[danmindru]

hi there!

Thanks for opening this.
It is intentional as part of writing good steps in the skill, but will have less of a positive effect on new codebases.

I have found that in existing codebases this helps with code quality as it points the agent to an existing pattern, so it usually increases consistency and reduces duplication.
Each iteration starts with a fresh context so this encourages exploring existing code instead of writing new code (as LLMs love to do 😃).

That being said I could definitely tweak it so it doesn't run on init, just when tasks are appended later on.

Was this for an existing codebase?

Have you found any downsides to including these steps?

[kaktus42]

I see. It was on a new codebase, I was testing the system with a fresh ToDo-App. I will try how it behaves on an existing codebase.
On that note: How do you proceed on an existing codebase? Do you create a completely new PRD-File, Summary, finished tasks? Do you keep any files in the .agent directory from previous runs? e.g. Log-Files? Any experience there?

[danmindru]

Good q!
I start from scratch and create a new PRD, tasks and summary.
Then I go through tasks.json and set passes to true for the relevant tasks.

As long as you do a good job describing the current state of things this is quite accurate.
If you miss some and it starts implementing I find that it's pretty good at finding what's already there went it starts on the task, so no big deal.

The summary and structure will be created with the first task so no worries about those either.

Once you set up the loop and it's all up to speed, you can add more tasks (or even bug fixes) using this prompt:

I would like to expand the PRD / tasks with these tasks:

- there is a bug in X that should be fixed by doing Y
- create a new feature that implement Z

etc.