ppm — Project & Product Manager CLI

ppm manages the markdown memory system for a PM / Product-Owner agent: a directory-per-project tree of typed entries (decisions, questions, tasks, notes, conversations) plus per-project index / summary / focus singletons. Every mutation also appends a dated line to the project's log.md — a store-maintained chronological history (read it with ppm read <project> --type log; it cannot be written directly).

The format is plain Markdown with YAML frontmatter — drop the memory/ folder into Obsidian and it renders. The anti-dumping-ground guarantee is structural: every entry has a type from a closed set and there is no free-form "write any file" command. See plans/memory-format.md for the full format spec.

Output is JSON by default (the CLI is meant to be driven by an agent); pass -o text (or --pretty) for human-readable output.

Install

go build -o ppm .
# or with a version stamp:
go build -ldflags "-X github.com/ipedrazas/ppm/cmd.version=v0.1.0" -o ppm .

Memory root resolution

The memory root is chosen in this order:

1. --root <dir> flag
2. $PPM_MEMORY_ROOT
3. the nearest ancestor of the cwd containing an existing memory/ directory
4. default ./memory

Quick start

ppm init                                   # scaffold the workspace
ppm project create onboarding --title "Onboarding drop-off"

ppm decision add onboarding --content "Email nudge first; cheap and testable."
ppm question add onboarding --name funnel --content "Do funnel analytics exist?"
ppm question resolve onboarding funnel --content "Yes — no new instrumentation."
ppm task add onboarding --ref ENG-123 --url https://linear.app/acme/issue/ENG-123 \
    --content "Onboarding email nudge. Scope: email only."

ppm summary set onboarding --content "Reduce onboarding drop-off via nudges."
ppm focus   set onboarding --content "Shipping the email nudge (ENG-123)."

ppm project show onboarding                 # shape: inventory without content
ppm search "funnel"                         # full-text search with provenance
ppm context onboarding                      # the shape-aware injected slice

Content input

Commands that take a body accept --content (primary) or --file <path> (fallback). Exactly one must be given.

Commands

Command	Purpose
ppm init	Scaffold index.md, preferences.md, glossary.md, projects/
ppm project create <slug> --title T	Create a project (scaffolds index/summary/focus)
ppm project list	List all projects
ppm project show <slug>	Project shape (entry inventory, no content)
ppm project update <slug> [--status|--title|--tracker-*|--tag|--untag]	Edit index frontmatter / tags
ppm read [project] [--type T] [--name N]	Full content (no project → workspace index)
ppm search <query>	Full-text search across all memory
ppm context <project> [--recent N]	Emit the injected context slice
ppm decision add <project> [--name]	Record a dated decision + rationale
ppm decision list <project> [--recent N]	List decisions (newest first)
ppm question add <project> [--name]	Record an open question
ppm question resolve <project> <name>	Flip a question to resolved
ppm question list <project> [--open]	List questions
ppm task add <project> --ref R [--url]	Add a task reference + rationale
ppm task list <project>	List tasks
ppm note add <project> [--name]	Add a note
ppm conversation add <project> [--name]	Add a conversation (alias conv)
ppm summary set <project>	Replace the project summary
ppm focus set <project>	Replace the project focus
ppm standard add <id> --check C --applies-to S	Declare a cross-cutting invariant
ppm standard list / show <id> / retire <id>	Manage standards
ppm initiative add <id> --applies-to S	Declare a cross-project campaign
ppm initiative bind <id> <project> --ref R	Bind a project (scaffolds a backlinked task)
ppm initiative list / show <id> / update <id> --status	Manage initiatives + rollup
ppm verdict <standard-id> <project> --status pass|fail	Resolve a manual standard
ppm waive <concern-id> <project> --content R	Record a reasoned exception
ppm audit [--standard ID|--initiative ID|--check C] [--tag T|--project P] [--strict]	Cross-project compliance matrix

Global flags: --root, -o/--output json|text, --pretty, --version.

Cross-cutting concerns

ppm manages independent projects, but also lets you enforce consistency across them. Tag projects, then either declare standards (an invariant every in-scope project must satisfy) or initiatives (a campaign that needs work in each member project), and audit to get a compliance matrix back. See plans/cross-cutting-concerns.md for the full design.

ppm project update billing --tag backend --tag customer-facing

# standards: a structural one (auto-evaluated) and a manual one (agent-judged)
ppm standard add has-summary --applies-to tag:backend --check has-summary --severity warn
ppm standard add target-metric --applies-to all --check manual --severity block \
    --content "Summary must name a measurable target metric."

# initiatives: a campaign, bound per project to a backlinked tracker task
ppm initiative add gdpr-2026 --applies-to tag:customer-facing --content "Data-handling review."
ppm initiative bind gdpr-2026 onboarding --ref ENG-411 --url https://linear.app/x/411
ppm initiative show gdpr-2026          # rollup: bound 1/2 members …

ppm audit                              # every active standard + initiative over its scope
ppm audit --initiative gdpr-2026       # one concern
ppm audit --check no-stale-questions:14d --tag backend   # ad-hoc check, no concern

# resolve a manual standard's 'unknown'; record a reasoned exception
ppm verdict target-metric onboarding --status pass --content "Names DAU lift target."
ppm waive has-summary billing --content "Legacy service; summary lives in the wiki."

Each cell gets a status — pass/fail/waived/unknown/n/a — with a reason, and a rollup closes the report. A manual standard reports unknown until a verdict records a pass/fail judgement; an initiative member passes once a task backlinks to it (bind scaffolds that). Everything else is evaluated for free from existing data. A waiver turns an actionable fail/unknown into a reasoned waived (it never masks a pass or an out-of-scope n/a), so the matrix stays free of alert fatigue. Pass --strict to exit non-zero when any cell fails, for CI gating.

ppm context <project> injects the concerns whose scope includes that project — with their current status — as a cross-cutting obligations section, so the agent sees what consistency it must maintain every turn, not only on demand.

Built-in checks: has-summary, has-focus, decisions-link-tasks, active-has-tracker, no-stale-questions:Nd, freshness:Nd. Standard scope (--applies-to) and the audit project axis (--tag/--project) both accept all, tag:<t>, or a comma-separated slug list.

Output contract

Every command emits a uniform envelope. JSON:

{ "ok": true, "message": "…", "data": { /* structured payload */ } }

Errors set "ok": false with an "error" field and a non-zero exit code. In JSON mode the error envelope is written to stdout (uniform parsing); in text mode it is written to stderr.

Design notes

• Type in frontmatter is canonical; folders and filenames are convention.
• ts ordering uses UUIDv7 — time-sortable and monotonic across separate CLI invocations, so rapid writes stay correctly ordered.
• Frontmatter is real YAML (key order and nested tracker preserved).
• Shape vs content: the entry inventory is first-class signal, readable without opening any entry; context injects full content only for the cheap, high-value entries and shape-only for the rest.

Development

go build ./...
go vet ./...
go test ./...