BRD & PRD Builders
The BRD Builder and PRD Builder share a common architecture for producing requirements documents through structured question-and-answer sessions. Both agents guide users through seven phases to create comprehensive, template-driven documents. The BRD focuses on business justification and the PRD on product specifications with measurable requirements.
TIP
Use the BRD Builder when capturing business objectives, stakeholder needs, and project justification. Use the PRD Builder when defining product features, acceptance criteria, and measurable requirements.
Shared Workflow
Both agents follow the same 7-phase workflow, with one naming difference at Phase 4:
| Phase | Step | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Assess | Evaluate existing context, detect prior sessions, determine if enough information exists to proceed |
| 2 | Discover | Gather project scope, stakeholder information, and domain context through targeted questions |
| 3 | Create | Analyze codebase artifacts and establish the document structure from the template |
| 4 | Elicit / Build | Extract detailed requirements through iterative Q&A (BRD: "Elicit Requirements"; PRD: "Build Requirements") |
| 5 | Integrate | Cross-reference requirements against codebase findings and resolve conflicts |
| 6 | Validate | Review the complete document for consistency, completeness, and alignment |
| 7 | Finalize | Produce the final document with all sections populated and reviewed |
Each phase builds on the previous one. The agents detect existing session files and resume from the last completed phase, supporting pause-and-resume workflows across conversations.
Shared Features
Session Persistence
Both agents store session state as JSON files, enabling multi-session workflows:
- BRD sessions:
.copilot-tracking/brd-sessions/ - PRD sessions:
.copilot-tracking/prd-sessions/
Session files track phase progress, gathered requirements, and document state. When a new conversation starts, the agent detects existing session files and offers to resume.
Output Modes
Both agents support four output modes for reviewing document content:
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
| Full | Complete document rendering |
| Delta | Changes since last output |
| Section | Single section view |
| Status | Phase progress summary |
Template-Driven Generation
Both agents use templates to structure their output, ensuring consistent section coverage across documents. The BRD Builder references an external template at docs/templates/brd-template.md, while the PRD Builder embeds its template inline within the agent definition.
Quality Controls
- Emoji refinement checklist for tracking section completion
- Conflict resolution hierarchy: user input > template guidance > agent defaults
- Cross-referencing between gathered requirements and codebase analysis
Key Differences
| Aspect | BRD Builder | PRD Builder |
|---|---|---|
| Agent file | .github/agents/project-planning/brd-builder.agent.md | .github/agents/project-planning/prd-builder.agent.md |
| File size | 195 lines | 766 lines |
| Template strategy | External (docs/templates/brd-template.md) | Inline (embedded in agent) |
| Template sections | 14 | 17 |
| Phase 4 name | Elicit Requirements | Build Requirements |
| Recovery protocols | Minimal | Extensive |
| Session directory | .copilot-tracking/brd-sessions/ | .copilot-tracking/prd-sessions/ |
The PRD Builder's larger file size reflects its extensive inline template and detailed recovery protocols for handling interrupted sessions.
How to Use
TIP
Select the agent using the agent picker in the Copilot Chat pane before entering a prompt.
Option 1: Prompt Shortcut
BRD Builder:
Create a BRD for migrating our authentication service from ADAL to MSAL.
The current auth implementation is in src/auth/ and serves 12 internal
applications with ~8,000 daily active users.
Scope:
- Business justification for the migration (ADAL end-of-support timeline)
- Stakeholder impact across the 12 consuming applications
- Cost analysis: migration effort vs ongoing vulnerability risk
- Compliance requirements (SOC 2, FedRAMP) affected by the transition
- Success metrics: zero-downtime migration, no auth regression in any app
Output using the BRD template at docs/templates/brd-template.md.
Save session state to .copilot-tracking/brd-sessions/ for multi-session work.
Resume my BRD session for the inventory management project. I've
completed stakeholder interviews and have new data:
- Warehouse ops team processes 3,000 SKUs daily with 15% error rate
- Current system downtime costs $12K/hour during peak season
- Three vendor proposals are in evaluation
Continue from the Elicit Requirements phase with this evidence.
PRD Builder:
Create a PRD for the self-service analytics dashboard. Target users are
regional sales managers who currently rely on weekly email reports from
the BI team. The existing data pipeline is in src/etl/ and writes to
Azure Synapse.
Define requirements for:
- Real-time revenue and pipeline metrics with 15-minute refresh
- Drill-down from region to territory to individual rep performance
- Export to PDF and Excel for quarterly business reviews
- Role-based access: managers see their region, directors see all regions
Acceptance criteria: dashboard load time under 3 seconds for 90th percentile,
data freshness within 15 minutes of source system updates.
Resume my PRD session for the notification system. The Discover phase
identified 3 notification channels (push, email, in-app) and I've now
clarified the priority order with stakeholders:
1. In-app alerts (MVP, needed for Q2 launch)
2. Push notifications (Q3 follow-up)
3. Email digests (Q4, low priority)
Continue building requirements with this phased delivery model.
Option 2: Direct Agent
Select the BRD Builder or PRD Builder using the agent picker in the Copilot Chat pane, then describe your requirements:
Create a business requirements document for consolidating
our 3 data platforms (Azure SQL, CosmosDB, and PostgreSQL on AKS) into
a unified data layer. The current architecture is spread across
infra/sql/, infra/cosmos/, and k8s/postgres/.
Scope:
- Business drivers: operational cost reduction and simplified compliance
- Current state analysis across all 3 platforms
- Migration risk assessment for each platform's workload
- ROI projections over 12 and 24 months
- Stakeholder sign-off criteria for go/no-go decision
Define product requirements for a self-service analytics
portal replacing the current manual reporting workflow. The BI team
currently spends 20 hours/week generating reports from src/reports/.
Requirements focus:
- User personas: sales managers, operations leads, executive dashboard viewers
- Data sources: Azure Synapse warehouse, Salesforce CRM, Jira project tracking
- Visualization types: KPI cards, trend charts, filterable data tables
- Access control: Azure AD integration with role-based dashboard visibility
- Performance: sub-3-second load for dashboards with up to 1M rows
Both agents begin with the Assess phase, checking for existing sessions and evaluating available context before proceeding to questions.
Option 3: Resume Session
Continue an interrupted session by referencing the project and providing new context:
Resume my BRD for the customer portal migration. Since our
last session I've confirmed the budget allocation ($150K for FY26) and
identified the technical lead for each of the 4 workstreams.
Continue from where we left off in the Integrate phase.
The agent detects session files at .copilot-tracking/brd-sessions/ or .copilot-tracking/prd-sessions/ and picks up from the last completed phase.
Example Prompt
Create a PRD for the real-time notification system. The system replaces
the batch email process in src/notifications/batch-sender.py that runs
nightly and generates ~4,000 notifications per cycle.
Target users: enterprise account managers who monitor up to 50 client
accounts and need alerts within 30 seconds of triggering events.
Define requirements for:
- Push notifications via Azure Notification Hubs (iOS, Android, web)
- Email digests aggregated hourly with configurable frequency per user
- In-app alert center with read/unread state and notification preferences
- Event taxonomy: billing alerts, SLA breaches, account status changes
Acceptance criteria:
- Delivery latency under 30 seconds for push and in-app channels
- 99.9% uptime SLA for the notification gateway
- User preference changes take effect within 60 seconds
- Audit trail for all notifications sent (compliance requirement)
Output the PRD with measurable requirements in every section.
Tips
- ✅ Provide a clear project name or scope at invocation to accelerate the Assess phase
- ✅ Answer iterative questions thoroughly; the agent builds sections as information accumulates
- ✅ Use output modes (Full, Delta, Section, Status) to review progress during long sessions
- ✅ Let the agent cross-reference requirements against codebase artifacts for consistency
- ❌ Do not skip the Discover phase by providing all requirements up front (the agent needs context)
- ❌ Do not edit session files in
.copilot-tracking/manually during an active session - ❌ Do not combine BRD and PRD creation in the same session (use separate conversations)
- ❌ Do not ignore conflict resolution prompts (user input overrides template defaults)
Common Pitfalls
| Pitfall | Solution |
|---|---|
| Agent asks too many questions | Provide a detailed scope at invocation to skip obvious scoping questions |
| Session not detected on resume | Verify session files exist at .copilot-tracking/brd-sessions/ or prd-sessions/ |
| Incomplete sections in output | Use the Section output mode to identify gaps, then answer follow-up questions |
| Template sections feel generic | Provide domain-specific details during the Elicit/Build phase for richer content |
| Document conflicts with codebase | Let the Integrate phase run to cross-reference; resolve flagged conflicts before Validate |
Next Steps
- Feed your completed BRD or PRD into the ADR Creation Coach for architectural decisions
- See Project Planning Agents for the full agent catalog
TIP
Both agents work best when you provide a clear project name at invocation. The agents can derive a working title from context, but explicit scope accelerates the Assess phase.
🤖 Crafted with precision by ✨Copilot following brilliant human instruction, then carefully refined by our team of discerning human reviewers.