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Stop Prompting Directly to Claude Code/Codex — I Built a PRD Generator That Forces First Principles

#vibecoding #claudecode #codex

Most PRD templates feel like they’re designed for PMs in enterprise companies:

  • 10 sections of background context nobody reads

  • endless “stakeholder sign-offs”

  • multiple roadmap tables that will be outdated in two weeks

As an indie dev, I don’t have time for that. I just want a lean spec I can build in a week.

So I built Indie10k PRD Generator — an opinionated tool that takes your idea, runs a first-principles analysis, and spits out a one-page PRD you can actually ship.

How it works under the hood

The generator runs in two steps:

  1. Analysis pass (First Principles) 
-   Extracts facts vs. assumptions from your description.

-   Identifies constraints (time, skills, budget).

-   Reformulates the problem into its simplest “job-to-be-done.”

-   Produces a candidate scope that fits into one week.
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  1. Synthesis pass (Lean PRD) 
-   Assembles a Markdown doc with these sections:

    -   Problem

    -   User & Job

    -   Non-goals

    -   Success metric (with a 7-day window)

    -   Lean solution & scope v1

    -   Risks & kill/iterate rules
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That’s it. No dashboards. No Jira integrations. Just a text box, two clicks, and you’ve got a shippable plan.

Why first principles?

I stole this habit from how I already work. Before delegating anything to Claude or ChatGPT for coding, I reduce the idea down to its irreducible truths:

  • What problem am I solving?

  • Who’s the exact user, and what job are they trying to get done?

  • What’s the minimum I can build in a week?

  • How will I know if it worked?

By structuring every project this way, I avoid rabbit holes and have a natural “kill/iterate” checkpoint. The generator just automates that ritual.

Example: Adding “team invites”

Let’s say your idea is “Add team collaboration to my app.”

The generator doesn’t give you a 10-page doc. It gives you:

  • Problem: Users want to share access with others.

  • User & Job: Solo dev → invite 1–3 collaborators.

  • Non-goals: Not building full organizations, not billing logic yet.

  • Metric (7 days): 10% of active users generate 1 invite link.

  • Scope v1: Share-by-link, toggle viewer/editor, cap at 3.

  • Risks: Abuse/spam, feature not used.

  • Decision rule: If <5% adoption → kill or revisit later.

That’s lean enough to code in two days, test in five, and decide next week.

Why I’m sharing this

This tool started as my internal process. But I think other indie devs could benefit from it too:

  • It enforces scope discipline automatically.

  • It produces repeatable Markdown docs you can track in git.

  • It’s fast enough to use for every side idea you have.

Try it here: 👉 Indie10k PRD Generator

Discussion

Curious what other devs think:

  • Do you already write lean PRDs before prompting to Codex/Claude code?

  • Would you trust a generator to enforce “first principles” on your behalf?

  • What’s missing that would make this useful in your workflow?

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