What is process_task_list?

A Cursor rule for creating a Markdown task list from a product requirements document (PRD), which describes what a software product or feature should provide.

Use it to generate a file under /tasks/ with implementation tasks based on an existing PRD.

It turns a PRD into an implementation plan with high-level tasks and later sub-tasks. It also uses a confirmation step before expanding the task list.

process_task_list — Cursor rule for Cursor by markhazlett/cursor-rules

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Clone the repo

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/markhazlett/cursor-rules

Made for: Cursor.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

README.md

[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/markhazlett/cursor-rules/process_task_list/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/rules/markhazlett/cursor-rules/process_task_list)

Your own site

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/rules/markhazlett/cursor-rules/process_task_list"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/markhazlett/cursor-rules/process_task_list/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

Your own site · 80×15

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/rules/markhazlett/cursor-rules/process_task_list"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/markhazlett/cursor-rules/process_task_list.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>

Per session 0 Nothing until a file matches its globs; then the whole rule loads.

When invoked 916 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.

Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.

Origin 97% copy Near-identical to another mod in the catalogue.

Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

Model	Per session	Once invoked
Fable 5.1	$0.00000	$0.00916
Opus 5.5	$0.00000	$0.00366
Sonnet 5.5	$0.00000	$0.00183
Haiku 4.5	$0.00000	$0.00092

Measured 1mo ago against content hash b7fe4dc85465, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

process_task_list scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 1mo ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

Origin

This is a copy

97% identical to generate-tasks — 16 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

rules/process_task_list.mdc · 69 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 69 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

description: globs: alwaysApply: false

Rule: Generating a Task List from a PRD

Goal

To guide an AI assistant in creating a detailed, step-by-step task list in Markdown format based on an existing Product Requirements Document (PRD). The task list should guide a developer through implementation.

Output

Format: Markdown (.md)
Location: /tasks/
Filename: tasks-[prd-file-name].md (e.g., tasks-prd-user-profile-editing.md)

Process

Receive PRD Reference: The user points the AI to a specific PRD file
Analyze PRD: The AI reads and analyzes the functional requirements, user stories, and other sections of the specified PRD.
Phase 1: Generate Parent Tasks: Based on the PRD analysis, create the file and generate the main, high-level tasks required to implement the feature. Use your judgement on how many high-level tasks to use. It's likely to be about 5. Present these tasks to the user in the specified format (without sub-tasks yet). Inform the user: "I have generated the high-level tasks based on the PRD. Ready to generate the sub-tasks? Respond with 'Go' to proceed."
Wait for Confirmation: Pause and wait for the user to respond with "Go".
Phase 2: Generate Sub-Tasks: Once the user confirms, break down each parent task into smaller, actionable sub-tasks necessary to complete the parent task. Ensure sub-tasks logically follow from the parent task and cover the implementation details implied by the PRD.
Identify Relevant Files: Based on the tasks and PRD, identify potential files that will need to be created or modified. List these under the Relevant Files section, including corresponding test files if applicable.
Generate Final Output: Combine the parent tasks, sub-tasks, relevant files, and notes into the final Markdown structure.
Save Task List: Save the generated document in the /tasks/ directory with the filename tasks-[prd-file-name].md, where [prd-file-name] matches the base name of the input PRD file (e.g., if the input was prd-user-profile-editing.md, the output is tasks-prd-user-profile-editing.md).

Read the full file on GitHub · 69 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

1mo ago First seen · 69 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A b7fe4dc85465

Subscribe to this mod's changes

process_task_list is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository markhazlett/cursor-rules (2 stars, last pushed 1y ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 916 tokens. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 97% identical to generate-tasks, differing in 16 lines, and is treated as a copy.

Planning Project management

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PLANNING SPINE STEP 2 of 3 — Slice the work: break a scoped PRD into vertical-slice stories in specs/epics/. Use after scope-work (step 1), before plan-work (step 3). Not a substitute for scope-work or plan-work.

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