PDLC Plugin

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Author: kanfu-panda
Repo: github.com/kanfu-panda/pdlc-skills
License: MIT

PDLC is a Claude Code plugin that gives Claude a complete Product Development Life Cycle workflow — 33 standardized stages exposed as slash commands /pdlc-feature, /pdlc-prd, /pdlc-tdd, /pdlc-implement, /pdlc-review, /pdlc-ship, etc.

Each stage enforces hard contracts (artifacts persisted to docs/, per-feature state machine, tests-before-code, mandatory self-check, single-shot auto-repair) so AI-driven engineering produces real, auditable files instead of chat-only output.

Currently Claude Code only. The plugin lives at ~/.claude/plugins/pdlc/ after install.

Why PDLC

Without this plugin, an AI assistant working on a feature typically:

• Says it built the feature, but the PRD lives only in the chat transcript.
• Writes code without writing tests first.
• Skips the design step, which means architectural drift accumulates silently.
• Has no memory between sessions of which stage a feature is in.

PDLC turns those soft conventions into hard contracts:

Quick demo

A typical end-to-end flow looks like this:

$ # In Claude Code:
$ /pdlc-feature add phone-number verification to user login

→ Allocating feature ID F20260502-01 (user-auth-phone)
→ Stage 1: writing PRD
   ✓ docs/01_requirements/prd/F20260502-01-user-auth-phone-prd.md
   ✓ self-check 8/8 passed
→ Stage 2: technical design
   ✓ docs/02_design/api/F20260502-01-user-auth-phone-api.md
   ✓ docs/02_design/database/F20260502-01-user-auth-phone-db.md
→ Stage 3: TDD red light
   ✓ 14 tests written, all failing as expected
→ Stage 4: implementation
   ✓ 14/14 tests now passing
→ Stage 5: code review + auto-repair
   ✓ 3 lint issues auto-fixed
   ✓ docs/07_reviews/code/F20260502-01-user-auth-phone-review.md
→ Stage 6: handoff
   📦 docs/.pdlc-state/F20260502-01.json updated
   👉 Next: /pdlc-ship

Every artifact above is a real file you can git diff. Run /pdlc-status any time to see where each feature stands. (Output above is illustrative — actual Claude Code output is markdown, not ASCII.)

Install

One-liner — no clone needed. Pulls the latest published release from GitHub.

# Global (~/.claude/plugins/pdlc/)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kanfu-panda/pdlc-skills/main/install.sh \
  | bash -s -- --global

# Project-scoped (<project>/.claude/plugins/pdlc/)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kanfu-panda/pdlc-skills/main/install.sh \
  | bash -s -- --project /path/to/my-project

That's it. The installer downloads the matching release tarball, extracts it, and copies only the plugin files to your .claude/plugins/pdlc/ directory.

Upgrade

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kanfu-panda/pdlc-skills/main/install.sh \
  | bash -s -- --upgrade --global

Uninstall

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kanfu-panda/pdlc-skills/main/install.sh \
  | bash -s -- --uninstall --global

Check your version

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kanfu-panda/pdlc-skills/main/install.sh \
  | bash -s -- --version

Equivalent native commands

If you'd rather call Claude Code's plugin CLI directly:

claude plugin marketplace add kanfu-panda/pdlc-skills
claude plugin install pdlc@pdlc-skills

For contributors / template customization

git clone https://github.com/kanfu-panda/pdlc-skills.git
cd pdlc-skills
# edit references/templates/*.md or skills/pdlc-*/SKILL.md
bash install.sh --global   # installs from your local clone

Verify the install

claude plugin list | grep pdlc
# expected: pdlc@pdlc-skills  Version: 1.1.0  Status: ✔ enabled

In Claude Code (after restarting the session), type / and start typing pdlc- — you should see all 33 sub-commands (/pdlc-feature, /pdlc-prd, /pdlc-tdd, ...) in autocomplete.

Stage catalog (three layers)

Layer 1 · Entry points (3)

One-sentence prompts drive the whole chain.

Layer 2 · Stages (11)

Use when you want fine-grained control over one stage.

Layer 3 · Tools (19)

Specialized stages you can invoke explicitly.

• 🎨 Design (4): /pdlc-ui-design · /pdlc-ui-design-pro · /pdlc-db-design · /pdlc-arch
• 🔍 Quality (3): /pdlc-lint · /pdlc-perf · /pdlc-security
• 🔧 Engineering (7): /pdlc-code-gen · /pdlc-add-service · /pdlc-add-app · /pdlc-api-mock · /pdlc-db-migrate · /pdlc-i18n · /pdlc-changelog
• 🔗 Governance (2): /pdlc-standard · /pdlc-relate
• 🏗️ Project lifecycle (3): /pdlc-bootstrap · /pdlc-adopt · /pdlc-onboard

3-step quick start

1. Install (one-line, no clone):

   curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kanfu-panda/pdlc-skills/main/install.sh | bash -s -- --global
   

2. Ship a feature: in Claude Code, run /pdlc-feature add a captcha to login
3. Fix a bug: /pdlc-fix the pagination crash on empty lists

Check progress anytime: /pdlc-status.

Target-project contract

When a stage runs, it reads and writes these paths in your project:

docs/ARCHITECTURE.md                                        # surface · whole-system overview (pdlc-arch, in-place)
docs/GLOSSARY.md                                            # surface · project vocabulary
docs/00_standards/                                          # surface · team conventions (pdlc-standard; read by prd / implement / tdd / code-gen / onboard)
docs/01_requirements/prd/                                   # PRDs
docs/02_design/{api,database,architecture,ui-ux}/           # technical design
docs/03_development/                                        # developer manuals (onboard writes here)
docs/04_testing/{unit-tests,e2e-tests,defects,security,perf}/   # tests & defects
docs/05_deployment/                                         # deployment docs
docs/06_tasks/                                              # in-stage task tracking
docs/07_reviews/{doc,code,design,retro}/                    # review records
docs/.pdlc-state/<feature-id>.json                          # state machine + relations (one per feature, e.g. F20260419-01.json)
docs/.pdlc-state/_relations.json                            # auto · reverse index of feature relations (pdlc-relate)
docs/.pdlc-state/_graph.md                                  # auto · mermaid relation graph

Document templates

references/templates/ ships 11 standard document templates that Claude fills in per feature:

• prd-template.md — Product Requirements Document
• api-design-template.md — API design
• arch-design-template.md — Architecture design (per-feature, ledger)
• architecture-overview-template.md — Whole-system architecture overview (surface)
• db-design-template.md — Database schema design
• db-migrate-template.md — DB migration script
• test-plan-template.md — Test plan
• deploy-doc-template.md — Deployment manual
• changelog-template.md — Changelog entry
• glossary-template.md — Project glossary (surface)
• adopt-report-template.md — Legacy-project adoption report

The Iron Law

Every Layer 1 / Layer 2 stage that produces artifacts enforces five invariants. Read-only stages (such as /pdlc-status) are exempt.

1. Persist to disk — every artifact is a real file, not just chat output
2. Update the state machine — every completed stage writes docs/.pdlc-state/<feature-id>.json
3. Tests first — code cannot be implemented until a failing test exists (TDD red light)
4. Self-check — every stage runs a self-audit before handing off
5. One-shot repair — auto-fix loops run at most once; stubborn failures get flagged for humans

Questions / discussion

For usage questions, design discussions, or "is this a bug or am I holding it wrong" — please use GitHub Discussions rather than opening an Issue.

For confirmed bugs and feature requests, open an Issue with the bundled templates.

For private security concerns, see SECURITY.md.

Development

Run the tests locally:

bash tests/frontmatter-check.sh   # validate every sub-skill's frontmatter
bash tests/install-smoke.sh       # end-to-end install + layout checks

See CONTRIBUTING.md for PR workflow and coding conventions.

User manual: docs/usage-guide.md · Release notes: CHANGELOG.md.

💖 Support this project

PDLC is built and maintained in spare time. If it saves you hours (or sanity), consider supporting its development.

Donation channels:

• 🇨🇳 Afdian (爱发电) — for users in China; Alipay / WeChat Pay; native support for monthly tiers and one-time tips.
• 🌍 PayPal — for international users; any amount, one-time.

Tiers (Afdian — choose monthly or one-time at the same amount):

If you donate via PayPal, please drop your GitHub handle in a SPONSORS issue so we can add you to the list. The list is updated monthly — see SPONSORS.md.

License

MIT — use it, fork it, ship it.