Start with a feature your team is about to build and the ticket, brief, or message that describes it. The engineer's coding agent drafts a proposal from that request and the repository. In Pathmode, the person responsible for the product reviews what the agent understood and decides whether it is the right thing to build.
You can do both jobs yourself. When two people share the work, the product manager can review without operating the coding agent.
Connect your team and repository
Create your account, confirm your email if you use an email link, and name your workspace. At How would you like to start?, choose Connect my coding agent if you run the agent yourself. If an engineer runs it, choose Invite a teammate to connect the repository: they handle setup, and you review what their agent proposes. Prepare a product brief lets you describe the change first and connect a repository later.
The person connecting the repository follows the setup page and runs its one-time command from the project root. If you already have an account, use the repository connection page. If a teammate invited you, accept their invitation to join the existing workspace.
For a workflow entirely inside your repository without an account, use the local first-intent guide.
Have the agent propose the change
Give the coding agent the original request and ask it to draft an IntentSpec from the request and the codebase, with assumptions labeled. Ask it to attach the original request to the connected proposal so the reviewer can compare the two.
The proposal is the spec you will review. You do not need to rewrite it into a separate document first. Keep useful research or support evidence available, but you do not need to build an evidence collection before reviewing a real request.
Compare the proposal with your request
Open the proposal in Pathmode. Read the attached request and What the agent understood. Check whether the proposed behavior solves the problem you meant, including what happens at the boundaries.
If the request is missing, choose Attach the request. Add where it came from, paste the original wording, and optionally add its link. A summary written by the agent is not a substitute for the words it was asked to interpret.
For example, a request for a Cancel plan button might become a proposal that ends access immediately. Both add the button; only one resolves when the customer loses access.
Correct a consequential misunderstanding
Pathmode can surface a review question and a recommendation. Read its reasoning before choosing Use this recommendation or Correct it. You can also choose Correct beside a particular behavior, or Discuss this to talk it through.
State what should happen and why. For the FN-412 example:
End access at the end of the paid period. Keep access active through the period the customer already paid for.
Review and submit the correction. Choosing a recommendation prepares the correction; it does not authorize implementation. A failed analysis is also not a finding that the proposal is correct: you can still compare the request and proposed behaviors yourself.
Answer the product choices
When the request leaves a consequential decision open, the agent records it as a product choice instead of guessing. The proposal lists them under Product choices, with a count of how many need your answer. Each one shows the question, the agent's recommendation, its rationale, the trade-off, and the alternative.
For each choice, pick Accept recommendation, Suggest a change, or Leave undecided. Choose Discuss this choice when you need to talk it through before answering. Proceed without this behavior removes the behavior from scope and records the risk you accept, which is different from accepting the recommendation.
Leaving a choice undecided does not make it go away. It stays open, and an open choice blocks authorization.
Review the agent's revision
The repository agent needs to pick up your corrections and answers and update the proposal: answer choices, the agent revises the proposal, you review the revision, then you authorize. A waiting status means the change has not been applied yet. If the agent cannot apply it, read the reported reason and resolve it with the engineer.
When you return after it is applied, Pathmode identifies the changed behavior. Compare it with your correction, then review the rest of the proposal: outcomes, scope, hard constraints, edge cases, and verification. A correction to one line is not a review of the whole spec.
When the proposal expresses the intended behavior, use the implementation authorization action above the review. This records your decision for the whole proposal at that revision. You need signed-in workspace access with permission to authorize; a guest comment cannot grant it.
Pathmode refuses authorization while any product choice is still open, including one left undecided or one whose answer the agent has not applied yet. Settle or exclude every choice first.
Readiness and authorization answer different questions. Readiness checks whether the spec is concrete enough to build and verify. Authorization records your permission to implement that revision. Neither replaces the other.
Check what was built
The engineer's agent implements from the authorized repository intent and runs the applicable verification checks. Review the result against the agreed behavior. For FN-412, cancel with time left in the paid period and check that access continues until period close, then ends as specified.
If implementation uncovers a false assumption, bring the finding back into the proposal and review the changed decision. Passing code checks alone does not establish that the feature met the user's need.
For a complete example, follow Review and correct an agent's proposal before it builds. For agent setup details, see Wire Pathmode Into Your Coding Agent.