Treating Cline Like an Engineering Team: PRD-Driven Development of an Open-Source Project
PSXP2W · reddit · 2026-10-18
A developer shares his workflow for building Lumen—an open-source web reader controlled by webcam hand gestures—entirely with the free, open-source coding agent Cline.
Key practices:
- PRD before code: He uses Plan mode to co-write a product requirements doc defining scope, phases, and per-phase completion checklists with testable steps; no phase advances until the list is done.
- Tests for hard-to-eyeball features: e.g., verifying gesture recognition is dependable rather than working once by luck.
- Context management: The PRD lives in the project and is injected into Cline's context so every task starts with the goal, current phase, and boundaries; Cline rules require updating the PRD first whenever requirements change, keeping the doc the single source of truth.
He reports this eliminates re-explaining the project each session and prevents the agent from building unplanned features.
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