Dashboard 8 min read

Pipeline progress tracker

Understand the 6-stage AI generation pipeline that transforms your idea into a complete, developer-ready SaaS blueprint.

The 6-stage pipeline

Every PlanMySaaS project follows a structured 6-stage pipeline. Each stage builds on the previous one, creating interconnected outputs that form your complete blueprint:

1. Research
Market analysis, competitor mapping, target audience profiling, pain point identification, and positioning strategy. This is the foundation that informs all downstream stages.
2. Architecture
System architecture diagrams, component boundaries, service dependencies, database entity relationships, and API route planning. Determines how your product is structured.
3. Features
Detailed feature specifications with priority rankings (Now/Later/No), user stories, acceptance criteria, and effort estimates. Defines what you're building.
4. Tech Design
Technical design documents covering API schemas, authentication flows, state management patterns, error handling strategies, and deployment architecture.
5. Phases
Sprint-based development phases with story point estimates, milestone definitions, dependency tracking, and timeline visualization. Defines when you're building what.
6. Prompts
AI-optimized prompt packs for Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and Claude. Includes a Master Operating Prompt, module-specific prompts, test generation prompts, and integration guides.

How stages connect

The pipeline is designed to be sequential but flexible:

  • Research findings feed directly into Architecture decisions (e.g., multi-tenant vs single-tenant based on market requirements)
  • Architecture outputs inform Feature specifications (e.g., available components determine what features are feasible)
  • Feature specs drive Phase planning (e.g., feature priorities determine sprint ordering)
  • All upstream stages are embedded into Prompt packs (e.g., prompts reference your exact database schema and API routes)
💡

You can run stages out of order, but the AI quality improves significantly when earlier stages have been completed. For best results, run them in sequence or use Generate All.

Generate All vs individual stages

Generate All (recommended for new projects)

Click the "Generate All" button in the project sidebar to run the complete pipeline end-to-end. The system processes each stage in order, waiting for the previous stage to complete before starting the next. Total time: 2-5 minutes depending on complexity.

During generation, the sidebar button transforms into a real-time progress indicator showing the current stage name and completion percentage.

Individual stage generation

Navigate to any section (Research, Architecture, Features, etc.) in the project sidebar and click its individual Generate button. This is useful when:

  • You've updated your wizard context and want to regenerate only affected sections
  • A specific generation failed and you want to retry just that stage
  • You want to iterate on one section without regenerating everything
⚠️

Regenerating an early stage (like Research) does NOT automatically regenerate downstream stages. You need to manually trigger them or run Generate All again.

Reading the pipeline table

The Project Pipeline Status table on the dashboard shows every active project as a row with pipeline completion indicators:

  • Green checkmark in a filled circle = Stage completed successfully
  • Empty circle with dot = Stage not yet run
  • Progress bar on the right = Overall completion percentage (0-100%)
  • 100% completion with green bar = All 6 stages done

Projects are ordered by most recently updated. Click any row to jump directly into that project.

When to regenerate

Common scenarios where regeneration improves your blueprint:

  • You've refined your product idea significantly after initial generation
  • You've changed your target audience or market focus
  • You've decided on a different tech stack
  • You've added new competitors or removed irrelevant ones from the wizard
  • Your business model has changed (e.g., freemium → enterprise-only)
  • You want to create a new Version (V2, V3) with updated context