01
Local first
Runs on your machine with your keys. There is no paalto backend.
Product operations / agent system
Product teams, run as a system.
paalto turns a Loom, customer call, or product brief into a PRD, tickets, design direction, draft PR plan, launch copy, and an audit trail. Markdown agents do the repeatable work. Humans keep the gates.
Humans own the edges.The system compounds the middle.PRs ship as drafts. Always.
01 / System boundary
No autonomous theater. A clear operating line.
paalto does not pretend the product function can be replaced end to end. It compresses the repeatable work between human decisions, while preserving accountability at the moments that matter.
First mile / operator
The bet
- Define the customer
- Choose the problem
- Name the metric
- Decide what not to build
Middle / paalto
The work
- Synthesize signal
- Draft PRDs and specs
- Create tickets
- Open draft PRs
- Log every action
Last mile / operator
The close
- Pick the design
- Approve the merge
- Send the launch message
- Talk to customers
02 / Role agents
A product team expressed as files.
Agents, skills, and workflows are plain markdown. You can inspect the instructions, change the rules, remove what you do not need, and add the skills your company runs on.
| Discover / definePM | Design / specifyDesigner | Build / operateEngineer |
|---|---|---|
01Interview synthesis |
01Wireframes |
01Repo scout |
02Market radar |
02UX and content design |
02Tech specs and ADRs |
03PRD drafting |
03Figma handoff |
03Migrations and PRs |
04Roadmaps and OKRs |
04Design critique |
04Tests and review |
05Experiments and readouts |
05A11y and QA |
05Security and performance |
06Launch, decisions, pricing |
06Design ops |
06PRR, runbooks, incidents |
03 / Properties
Designed to be inspected.
The system should feel more like infrastructure than software theater. Every important behavior is named, logged, and constrained.
02
Plain files
Agents and skills are markdown. Workflows are readable. Runs are folders.
03
Scoped access
GitHub, Linear, Notion, Slack, Figma, Posthog, and Jira use least-privilege setup.
04
Audited output
Every step appends to events.jsonl. Drafts are saved before anything external is touched.
05
Human gates
Vision, prioritization, taste, merge approval, and launch comms never auto-advance.
06
Drafts only
Code arrives as draft PRs. Launch copy arrives as a draft. The operator closes the loop.
04 / Install
Try it before setup. Clone only when it clicks.
A PM should understand the workflow in the browser first. Then a technical teammate can clone the repo, run a no-key demo, inspect the audit trail, and decide whether to connect real tools.
No setup
See the workflow.
Open paalto.dev/demo.html
Click Run demo
Review PRD, tickets, launch noteOpen source
Run it yourself.
git clone https://github.com/Niki92i/paalto.git
cd paalto
npm run setup:local
npm run doctor
npm run demoImplementation
Wire it into your stack.
- Connect GitHub, Linear, Notion, Slack.
- Add Figma, Posthog, Jira, Intercom, Zendesk as needed.
- Load your design system and product voice.
- Run the first workflow with your team.
Gate 01
Vision
Is this the right thing to build?
Gate 02
Prioritization
Is this the right thing to build now?
Gate 03
Design taste
Which option wins?
Gate 04/05
Merge and launch
Humans approve the PR and send the message.
05 / Questions
Operational answers.
- Where does the data live?
- On your machine and in the tools you connect. Runs are local folders. There is no paalto hosted backend.
- Does it merge code?
- No. Engineer opens draft PRs only. Merge approval is a named human gate.
- What is actually open source?
- The agents, skills, workflows, docs, examples, validators, and static site. MIT licensed.
- Can teams add their own process?
- Yes. Add a markdown skill, list it in the role agent, and run the validator.
06 / Start
A product operating system you can inspect.
No black box. No automatic launch. No green button pretending strategy has been solved.