Team

Writing a Product Requirements Document that explains to the squad WHAT is being built and WHY: problem, explicit scope in/out, functional requirements, and testable acceptance criteria. Gate 1 of ring:using-pm-team; runs after ring:researching-features and stays technology-free (no architecture, frameworks, or schemas). Use when starting a new feature or asked to plan or produce requirements. Skip when a validated PRD exists, for pure technical changes, or bug fixes.

Writing a Technical Requirements Document that designs the technical architecture of the system or feature: components and boundaries, data flow, integration points, failure modes, and the mandatory program structure (DDD/hexagonal source tree) — in technology-agnostic patterns (code structure excepted), plus auth/pagination and BFF contracts for fullstack. Gate 3 of ring:planning-large-features (after ring:mapping-feature-relationships, before ring:designing-api-contracts) and Gate 2 of ring:planning-small-features (after ring:writing-prds, before ring:writing-plans). Use when the PRD passed validation. Skip when the PRD is unvalidated or the architecture is already documented.

Routing feature planning through the ring-pm-team pre-dev workflow: choosing the Small Track (4 gates, <2 days) or Large Track (8 gates, 2+ days) and entering via ring:planning-small-features or ring:planning-large-features. Indexes pre-dev gates, standalone utilities, and research agents. Use when starting a feature that needs systematic planning. Skip for quick exploratory work, known-solution bug fixes, or trivial changes.

Designing the physical data model as a real stack-native schema (schema.sql with CREATE TABLE DDL, indexes, and constraints for Postgres/Go; schema.prisma for Prisma/TS; Postgres schema.sql as fallback) from the Gate 4 OpenAPI spec and TRD. Gate 5 of ring:planning-large-features; runs after ring:designing-api-contracts, before ring:pinning-dependency-versions. Use when the system stores persistent data. Skip for Small Track, no persistent data, or an unvalidated API contract.

Researching the product/feature in depth before any planning document is written: the product itself, technical approach, third-party integrations, prior art, and existing codebase grounding (file:line refs) via parallel repo/web/docs agents using firecrawl and exa. Gate 0 of ring:using-pm-team (both tracks); runs before ring:writing-prds. Use before pre-dev planning a new feature or modification. Skip for trivial changes or when a recent research.md already exists.

Designing the API contract as a real OpenAPI 3.1 specification (openapi.yaml with full paths, operations, schemas, components, Lerian error envelope, and auth schemes) from the validated TRD. Gate 4 of ring:planning-large-features, Large Track only; runs after ring:writing-trds, before ring:designing-data-model. Use when a system exposes APIs that components or clients consume. Skip for Small Track, a system with no API surface, or an unvalidated TRD.

Planning the 8-gate Large Track pre-dev workflow (research, PRD, feature map, TRD, API contract, data model, dependency map, plan) with per-gate human approval. Use for features 2+ days that add dependencies, data models, multi-service integration, or new architecture. Skip for small features (use ring:planning-small-features). Plans only — no edits.

Planning the lightweight 4-gate Small Track pre-dev workflow (research, PRD, TRD, plan) with human approval and state tracking at each gate. Use for features under 2 days that reuse existing patterns and add no new dependencies, data models, or services. Skip for larger or complex features — use ring:planning-large-features instead. Plans only — no edits.

Reconciling pre-dev artifacts (research.md, prd.md, feature-map.md, trd.md, openapi.yaml, schema file, dependencies.md, plan.md) against each other to surface contradictions and gaps that break implementation, then applying approved corrections before ring:running-dev-cycle. Use after ring:planning-small-features or ring:planning-large-features. Skip for end-user docs (use ring:reviewing-docs), code review (use ring:reviewing-code), or before the docs exist.

Mapping the eventable points in a Lerian Go service where lib-streaming should emit past-tense, durable, tenant-scoped business events, producing a PM-validated event catalog and instrumentation-map.json for ring:instrumenting-streaming-events. Three-pass discovery (Survey, Slice, Mark) with a scope fence and delivery postures. Use to inventory eventable points. Skip on non-Go, infra-only, or consumer-only services.

Validating that UX specifications are complete before technical design: a read-only checklist over wireframes, states, responsive behavior, accessibility, and component-library alignment, emitting a DESIGN VALIDATED / NEEDS REVISION verdict to design-validation.md. Standalone utility — run after a product-designer pass and before the TRD when the feature has UI; the pre-dev orchestrators recommend it when the feature has UI. Use to check UI design completeness. Skip for backend-only, API-only, or no-UI work.

Authoring Grafana dashboards for Go services instrumented with lib-observability telemetry (tracing, metrics, log), plus a reference mode for RED/USE panel patterns and Grafonnet templates. Sweep mode inventories telemetry, runs PM deliberation on themes/SLIs/alerts, authors Grafonnet libsonnet compiled to JSON, and installs a CI drift gate. Use when scaffolding dashboards. Skip when the service is non-Go or emits no telemetry.

Pinning an explicit versioned dependency manifest (dependencies.md plus PROJECT_RULES.md): exact package versions, CVE and license checks, compatibility matrices, and per-component cost analysis against Ring Standards. Gate 6 of ring:planning-large-features; runs after ring:designing-data-model, before ring:writing-plans. Use when the schema is validated and you are about to lock products and versions. Skip for Small Track or when versions are already locked.

Mapping how features relate and phasing the work: categorizing PRD features, grouping them into domains, charting cross-feature journeys, dependencies, and integration points, and defining the binding Phases that plan.md mirrors one-to-one at Gate 7. Gate 2 of ring:planning-large-features; runs after ring:writing-prds, before ring:writing-trds. Use for Large Track features with multiple interacting parts. Skip for Small Track or a single simple feature.