1.3.3 - Describe One Main Path First, Then Ignore Everything Else

The earlier files describe what the product is, what pain it solves, what it promises and what it is and is not in scope to do. path.md is the how: the specific sequence of steps a user takes from the trigger to the promised outcome. The earlier files name the destination; path.md names the route.

Main path

Is the main path clear enough to ignore the rest?

The call

Describe one path first. Otherwise AI generates alternatives that split attention before the core flow is proven.

Explainer

A main path is not the average journey. It is the single route that matters most for the user and the decision in front of you. Until you can point to one user, one trigger and one path to the outcome, attention will keep splitting. AI can help map flows, but it cannot decide which one deserves focus first.

Make the main path concrete

Compare the broad version with a version you can actually test.

• Too vague: Users can explore the search tool in a few different ways.
• Concrete enough to test: A content creator opens the app, enters a question about what to write next, sees results shaped by their saved context and acts on one result in the same session.

The second version lets two people design the same flow from it.

Read more about how this works in Ways to get to a sharp answer. The full Sharpen prompt for the main path is below for members, join vibe2value to use it.

Check the main path

• Pass: You can describe the user, what starts the flow and the exact steps that lead to the outcome.
• Fail: If the path still reads like a menu of possibilities instead of one route, it is not focused enough yet.

Do not move into feature, navigation or prototype work until this passes.

What you'll walk away with

In the members-only section below we put this into practice. You'll come out with a main path clear enough that every later decision flows from it. UI choices, what screens exist, what waits for version two and the prompts you write to AI all inherit that clarity.

How it fits together

This is how the work is done in practice on the Cloudflare Workers stack with AI-assisted coding tools. The thoughts and ideas apply equally on any other platform.

The project is a monorepo so the main path (alongside the rest of the framework files) lives in one shared knowledge-base/ folder that every app, every package and every AI prompt reads from. The three products in the vibe2value build-in-public stack (subCancel, ghostMarketingFlow and flowRun) each carry this layout, so look at any of them to see the structure in practice.

You write the main path before you build any screen, so every UI decision and AI prompt is anchored against one concrete sequence of steps. The file is called path.md because that is what it is: the one path through the product that has to work end to end. The post calls it a "main path" because the act here is choosing one path and consciously ignoring the others.

Working with AI? Start with get to a sharp answer, the free guide for this kind of work, or browse all six ways at Working with AI.

If you sign up, this idea continues with how it all fits together, a worked example, how to use it with AI, how to evaluate it on a real change, the risks worth naming and how to mitigate them, the key takeaways and a copy-paste AI prompt you can drop straight into your next chat. Examples are shown on the Cloudflare Workers stack with AI-assisted coding tools; the ideas apply equally on any other platform.