PM GitHub Workflow Repo

Practice repo from the Product Growth newsletter (GitHub for PMs: Version Control for Everything You Build With AI).

Fork it, customize it, use it.

Reading this on your phone? Open github.com in a mobile browser to read the files and per-file history (tap a file, then the History/clock icon) - that's the Four Workflows. The GitHub mobile app is best for PRs and notifications. Cloning, activating skills, and running claude all need a desktop terminal.

Before you start (first time only)

If you've never used Git or Claude Code, do this once:

1. Install Git. git-scm.com/downloads. On Windows, this gives you Git Bash - run all commands below in Git Bash, not PowerShell, so the Unix-style commands work. (If you ever see warning: LF will be replaced by CRLF when committing on Windows, it's harmless - .gitattributes keeps the stored files consistent.)
2. Install Claude Code. code.claude.com/docs.
3. Tell Git who you are (otherwise your first commit aborts with "Author identity unknown"):

   git config --global user.name "Your Name"
   git config --global user.email "you@example.com"

New to Git entirely? Hannah's GitHub 101 walks through setup with screenshots.

Quick Start

Windows users: run every command below in Git Bash (installed with Git), not PowerShell - the cp, mkdir -p, and && syntax here is Unix-style.

First, open a terminal: macOS - press Cmd+Space, type "Terminal"; Windows - open Git Bash. It starts in your home folder, and git clone drops the repo wherever you are - cd ~/Desktop first if you want it on your Desktop.

1. Fork. Click "Fork" in the top right corner.

2. Clone your fork. HTTPS works out of the box - no SSH key needed. Replace YOUR-USERNAME with your own GitHub username - the one now in the forked repo's URL in your browser bar (not the original owner's):

git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/pm-github-workflow-repo.git
cd pm-github-workflow-repo

(Prefer SSH? git clone git@github.com:YOUR-USERNAME/pm-github-workflow-repo.git - but only if you've already added an SSH key to GitHub.) If you see destination path ... already exists, you've cloned before - just cd pm-github-workflow-repo, or clone into a new folder name.

3. Explore the history. This is the whole point - the history is the lesson:

git log --oneline

This opens a scrollable view (the less pager) - use Space or the arrow keys to scroll, and press q to return to your terminal. (Same for any git log command below, including git log -p.)

You'll see a PRD (Product Requirements Document) reviewer skill evolving v1 → v7 (then hardened with later fixes), a CLAUDE.md growing then getting pruned, eval criteria tightening, and a full autoresearch run (41% → 90%, with one failed experiment reverted). Plain git log also includes the repo's own maintenance commits - to read each story cleanly, one file at a time, use the per-file commands in The Four Workflows below.

4. Activate a skill (required before Claude will use it). Claude Code auto-loads skills from .claude/skills/, but they ship in skills/ so they're easy to read and version. Copy one over:

mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills/prd-reviewer .claude/skills/
ls .claude/skills            # confirm you see: prd-reviewer

Without this copy, asking Claude to "review this PRD" just gets a generic answer - the skill never fires. IMPORTANT: always edit and commit the source in skills/, never the .claude/skills/ copy. That copy is a one-time, git-ignored snapshot - editing the source does nothing until you re-run the cp command above, and editing the copy will never show in git status or a commit. (Windows PowerShell, if you're not in Git Bash: New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force .claude/skills; Copy-Item -Recurse -Force skills/prd-reviewer .claude/skills/ - re-run that exact line after editing the source to refresh the copy.)

5. Open in Claude Code.

claude

At the Claude prompt (the > you now see - this goes to Claude, not the shell), type review the PRD in examples/sample-prd.md and press Enter. To leave Claude and return to your terminal, type /exit (or press Ctrl+C twice). If claude won't start - command not found: claude, or on Windows claude is not recognized... - close and reopen your terminal so PATH refreshes, then retry; or see code.claude.com/docs.

What's Inside

├── CLAUDE.md                              ← PM workspace config (customize)
├── skills/
│   ├── prd-reviewer/SKILL.md              ← PRD review, v1→v7 plus later fixes in git
│   ├── competitor-scan/SKILL.md           ← Competitor analysis
│   └── feedback-synthesizer/SKILL.md      ← User feedback synthesis
├── evals/
│   ├── support-chatbot-criteria.md        ← Worked eval, versioned in git
│   ├── calendar-integration-criteria.md   ← Second worked eval (used by the project-level CLAUDE.md)
│   └── how-to-write-eval-criteria.md      ← Write your own
├── autoresearch/                          ← Sample optimization run (read the git log)
│   ├── README.md                          ← Start here: how to read the run
│   ├── launch-announcement-writer.md      ← The prompt the loop optimized
│   ├── eval-criteria.md                   ← What it scored against
│   └── run-log.md                         ← 41% → 90%, one reverted experiment
├── examples/
│   ├── claude-md-filled-example.md        ← Filled-in CLAUDE.md
│   ├── project-level-claude-md.md         ← Project-specific CLAUDE.md
│   ├── good-vs-bad-commits.md             ← Commit message examples
│   └── sample-prd.md                      ← Incomplete PRD to test prd-reviewer on
├── decisions/
│   └── decision-2026-04-10-google-calendar-only-v1.md   ← Team OS decision-log example
├── docs/
│   └── which-repo-decision-guide.md       ← Printable decision guide
├── .github/
│   ├── PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md           ← auto-fills the Exercise PR
│   ├── CODEOWNERS                         ← review gating (replace @YOUR-USERNAME)
│   └── workflows/gitleaks.yml             ← secret scanning on push/PR
├── .gitignore                             ← PM-configured (secrets + PII: personally identifiable info)
├── .gitattributes                         ← LF line endings (cross-platform diffs)
├── LICENSE                                ← MIT
└── CONTRIBUTING.md                        ← PR templates

The Four Workflows

1. Skill Versioning: git log --oneline -- skills/prd-reviewer/SKILL.md

2. CLAUDE.md Pruning: git log -p -- CLAUDE.md - watch a project-specific rule get added, then pruned back out in the very next commit that touches the file.

3. Autoresearch Tracking: git log --oneline -- autoresearch/launch-announcement-writer.md - the seed plus five optimization rounds against the prompt itself, scores in each message, including the experiment it reverted. (Scope to the prompt file so later doc edits don't clutter the run.)

4. Eval Versioning: git log --oneline -- evals/support-chatbot-criteria.md - baseline → new criterion → raised target, each dated.

Coming From PM OS?

Windows: run these in Git Bash too - or replace cp ... . with Copy-Item ... . and run the && lines separately in PowerShell.

cd ~/your-pm-os-folder
cp YOUR-CLONE-PATH/.gitignore .   # YOUR-CLONE-PATH = run `pwd` inside the pm-github-workflow-repo you cloned, paste what it prints (e.g. ~/Downloads/pm-github-workflow-repo)
git init && git branch -M main
git add . && git status --ignored          # check nothing you wanted is being ignored; git add -f <file> to override
git commit -m "initial commit: existing PM OS setup"
# create an empty repo on github.com first, then:
git remote add origin https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/your-pm-os.git
git push -u origin main

Copy the .gitignore in before git add . - otherwise a stray .env or data export can land in your first commit. Note this .gitignore is tuned to this repo's layout (it re-includes skills/*/SKILL.md and evals/*-criteria.md); after copying, run git status --ignored and add a !path/to/your-file line for anything of yours that's wrongly ignored. The Team OS upgrade flow assumes your PM OS is already in a git repo, so this is the prerequisite step.

The Exercise

1. Fork this repo (and clone it - see Quick Start).
2. Create a branch: git checkout -b my-customization (keeps main clean and makes the PR reviewable).
3. Replace CLAUDE.md with your context (see examples/claude-md-filled-example.md).
4. Add one skill: mkdir -p skills/my-skill then create skills/my-skill/SKILL.md (copy a shipped one as a starting point).
5. Stage and commit (a commit is two steps - stage, then commit with a message; see examples/good-vs-bad-commits.md for what makes a good one):

   git add CLAUDE.md skills/
   git commit -m "customize CLAUDE.md and add my-skill"
   git log --oneline -1   # confirm it landed - your message should be at the top

6. Push the branch: git push -u origin my-customization. (This pushes to your fork. A 403/permission error means you cloned the original repo instead of your fork - re-clone from your fork's URL, step 2.)
7. Open a Pull Request (PR) back to this repo, using the Exercise PR Template in CONTRIBUTING.md (it also auto-fills from the repo's PR template).

It's a PM-artifact PR, not a code PR - that's the point.

Related

• PM OS · Team OS · Claude Skills
• Experimentation: Evals are the new PRD · Autoresearch Guide · Ship Your First PR
• Hannah's GitHub 101

MIT License. Fork it. Make it yours.