---
type: Concept
title: PM Identity Model
description: How PMOS models a product manager — the pm_slug identifier, the PM's authority as the human in the loop, and PM-scoped namespaces.
tags: [identity, pm, governance, namespace]
timestamp: 2026-06-28
---

# PM Identity Model

**Situating context:** PMOS is a PM control plane, so "who is the PM" is a primitive the whole
system is built around — paths, records, and the final human gate all reference it. This concept
fixes that model so skills, OKF namespaces, and agent records resolve a PM the same way. It informs
every place a `pm_slug` appears and every decision about who holds authority.

## The PM is the human in the loop

PMOS does not replace the product manager — it gives the PM a control surface over agent work. The
PM is the single accountable human. Agents generate; the PM **decides**. This is structural, not
advisory: the end of every agent run is an **Acceptance Gate** (a subjective, strategic "is this
the *right* thing?" judgment) that **only the human PM** can clear. See
[/okf/core/concepts/output-eval.md](/okf/core/concepts/output-eval.md) for the three-tier gate
model the Acceptance Gate sits in.

## `pm_slug` — the stable identifier

Every PM has a **`pm_slug`**: a stable, lowercase, URL-safe identifier. It is the canonical
reference to a PM across paths, records, and skill namespaces.

- Rules: lowercase, no spaces, stable for the life of the PM's participation. Treat it like a
  primary key — never rename casually, because paths and records point at it.
- For this instance, **`pm_slug: wawan`**.
- It pairs with `product_slug` (see
  [/okf/core/concepts/product-slug-convention.md](/okf/core/concepts/product-slug-convention.md))
  to fully scope work: *which PM*, *which product*.

## PM-scoped namespaces

The `pm_slug` carves out PM-specific space where a PM can hold variant knowledge and skills without
disturbing the canonical core:

- **`/skills/pm/<pm_slug>/`** — PM-specific skill variants. A PM may override or specialize a core
  skill here (e.g. `/skills/pm/wawan/`). The core skill in `/skills/core/` remains canonical;
  the PM variant is a deliberate, scoped divergence.
- **PM-promoted concepts** — knowledge a PM develops that generalizes across PMs is promoted into
  [/okf/shared/](/okf/shared/), per the OKF governance lifecycle. Promotion is deliberate; a PM's
  private working knowledge does not auto-publish to `shared/`.

## PM authority and responsibilities

The PM's authority is bounded and explicit:

- **Owns acceptance.** Clears (or rejects) the Acceptance Gate at the end of each run. This is a
  strategic-fit decision, **not** a re-check of the eval rubric.
- **Owns architectural decisions.** All locked decisions live in `DECISIONS.md`; agents never make
  architectural calls. The PM is the author and amender of those decisions.
- **Owns calibration.** The PM validates the evaluator against
  [eval-calibration.md](/planning/evals/eval-calibration.md) over the first P1 run cycles, because
  the eval gate is uncalibrated until then (evaluator leniency).
- **Owns the cadence.** Weekly transcript review, monthly kill-condition checks, quarterly harness
  assumption review — the anti-atrophy mechanisms that defend against the Paradox of Supervision.

## Why model identity explicitly

Modelling the PM as a first-class, slug-addressable identity is what lets PMOS scope work
unambiguously (which PM, which product), keep PM-specific variants isolated from canonical core, and
attribute the north-star metric — **human correction rate per agent run** — to a specific human's
judgment. Identity is the anchor the control plane hangs accountability on.