Why I Built prjct: The Momentum Tool Claude Was Missing

Not a PM tool. Not Jira. It’s the tool I built to stop losing context with Claude and actually ship features.

The Problem That Drove Me Crazy

I work with Claude Code for everything. It’s incredible. But after 10 messages, I’d start losing track:

“What was I working on?”
“What features did I ship this week?”
“What was the original plan?”

And worse: Claude was losing context too.

I tried the obvious solutions:

Notion + Claude

✅ Good tracking
❌ Brutal context switching
❌ Claude can’t see what I write in Notion
❌ 5 minutes of overhead per task

Jira

✅ “Enterprise-grade”
❌ Setting up an epic: 20 minutes
❌ Absurd overkill for indie hackers
❌ Claude still sees nothing

README.md + Git

✅ Simple
❌ Messy after 3 features
❌ No metrics, no momentum
❌ Still losing track

The Epiphany

One night, debugging at 2am, I told Claude:

“p. I’m done with this task, what’s next?”

And I thought: Why can’t it just work like this?

Talk naturally. Zero commands to memorize. Claude understands. Does the tracking. I keep coding.

The Decisions That Changed Everything

1. Claude-Only (Zero Multi-Platform)

I could’ve made prjct compatible with ChatGPT, Copilot, etc. I didn’t.

The result:

Code eliminated: 800+ lines → 228 lines
Feature velocity: 2-3x faster
Quality: Proper testing of EVERYTHING

Focusing on ONE platform gave me superpowers that would be impossible with multi-platform support.

2. Native MCP

Claude has Model Context Protocol. Nobody else does.

This let me integrate:

Context7: Official library docs
Sequential: Multi-step reasoning
Magic: UI component generation
Playwright: Browser automation

Impossible to replicate on other platforms. And I don’t care.

3. p. Trigger - Zero Memorization

I didn’t want anyone to memorize commands. Nobody.

"p. I'm done" → /p:done
"p. ship this feature" → /p:ship
"p. help" → /p:help

Works in Spanish, English, any language. Claude understands intent, not pattern matching.

4. Git Validation

The last commit is the source of truth.

No empty claims. No “I completed 10 tasks” when git log shows 2 commits.

Real work = real commits. Period.

5. Dynamic AI Agents

Agents aren’t hardcoded. They’re auto-generated based on your stack:

Detect Astro → Frontend specialist
Have i18n → i18n specialist
Tests with Vitest → QA specialist

Coordinator, Frontend, Backend, UX, QA, Scribe. All understanding YOUR project.

The Numbers That Convinced Me

I used prjct for 3 weeks before launching publicly. I measured everything:

Without prjct (August)

Features shipped: 4
Context lost: ~15 times
Time on "what was I doing?": ~6h/week
Momentum: 😐

With prjct (September)

Features shipped: 12
Context lost: 0 times
Time on tracking: ~30min/week
Momentum: 🚀

3x more features. 12x less overhead.

Why It’s Not a PM Tool

Most PM tools are designed for managers, not makers.

prjct is different:

No “story points” → Just real features
No “sprints” → Just continuous momentum
No “ceremonies” → Just p. I'm done
No complex dashboards → Just p. status

Five commands. All local. Zero BS.

/p:feature → /p:done → /p:ship → celebrate

That’s the entire workflow.

The Tech Stack

For the curious:

CLI: Node.js with Commander
Storage: Local-first (~/.prjct-cli/)
Format: JSONL for sessions, MD for indexes
Architecture: Session-based with auto-archiving
Integration: Claude MCP native
Git: Last commit as source of truth

Everything runs on your machine. No cloud, no tracking, no data mining.

For You

If you’re building with Claude and feel like you’re losing momentum:

Install prjct → npm install -g prjct-cli
Init your project → p. init
Start working → p. I want to add [feature]
Ship → p. done and p. ship

No need to read docs. No commands to memorize. Just talk naturally.

Try prjct free →

The Indie Hacker Reality

You don’t need Jira on day one. You don’t need Google’s PM stack to validate your idea.

What you actually need:

Constant momentum
Zero context loss
Tracking without overhead
Celebrating real wins

prjct gave me all of that in 60 seconds vs hours configuring other tools.

prjct isn’t perfect. But it’s perfect for indie hackers who want to ship fast.

When I have a team of 50 devs, maybe I’ll migrate to Jira. Today, I need to maintain momentum and sleep well knowing exactly what I shipped.

Do you use Claude for development? How do you track progress? Hit me up at jlopezlira@gmail.com