A draft can describe the happy path clearly and still leave an agent guessing about failures. Review those gaps before implementation, while changing the behavior costs a decision rather than a rewrite.
The input
A draft proposal and its original request. If you only have a PRD or ticket, give the relevant text to your coding agent and ask it to propose the behavior, with assumptions and unanswered questions visible.
For example, a password-reset request might say:
Allow a user to request a reset email and set a new password from its link.That leaves several decisions open: how long the link lasts, whether it can be used twice, and what happens to sessions on other devices.
The flow
1. Compare the request and proposed behavior. Open the proposal in Pathmode. Identify where the agent chose a behavior the request did not specify. If the request is missing, attach its original wording before judging the interpretation.
2. Walk the failure cases. Ask what happens when the request is repeated, the link expires, the network fails, or two actions happen at once. These are prompts for review, not claims that every feature needs the same rules.
3. Request the behavior you want. Correct a proposed behavior or answer an open question. Explain what the user should experience and why. Keep decisions you cannot make visible instead of accepting a convenient guess.
4. Review the revision. The repository agent applies the correction or reports why it cannot. Check that the new behavior appears in the proposal and agrees with the outcomes and constraints.
5. Name the checks before approval. For the reset example, test expired links, repeated use, and the agreed session behavior. Review readiness gaps and the rest of the proposal before approving the revision with Authorize implementation.
The output
- Failure cases with an explicit expected behavior.
- Assumptions separated from decisions the team has made.
- Checks that can show whether the implementation handles those cases.
- Unresolved questions still visible to the reviewer and agent.
A readiness score can help locate gaps. It cannot decide your password policy or approve the implementation for you.
Try it with your next proposal
Pick one happy-path outcome. Describe a repeated action, an expired input, and a failed request. Compare the proposal with the behavior you want in each case, then request the missing correction.
Related
Bring this workflow to your team.
Keep the evidence, decisions, and follow-up work together in your product.
Start with Pathmode