Spec

DEPRECATED: This skill is now a thin wrapper around deep-design --spec. The standalone spec skill is maintained for backwards compatibility but all new development happens in deep-design.

Routing

When invoked, this skill delegates to deep-design --spec:

• If deep-design is available: invoke it with --spec flag and pass through the argument.
• If not available: fall back to the inline workflow below.

SDD-Compatible Output

The spec is written as specs/{NNN-feature-name}/spec.md following the Spec-Driven Development format:

specs/{NNN-feature-name}/
├── spec.md              # Feature specification
└── checklists/
    └── requirements.md  # Spec quality validation

Required Sections

• User Scenarios & Testing — prioritized user stories (P1, P2, P3) with Given/When/Then acceptance scenarios. Each story must be independently testable.
• Functional Requirements — FR-001, FR-002, etc. Each testable and unambiguous.
• Success Criteria — SC-001, SC-002, etc. Technology-agnostic, measurable outcomes.
• Key Entities — if data is involved (entity, attributes, relationships).
• Assumptions — reasonable defaults documented here.
• Edge Cases — boundary conditions and error scenarios.

Spec Quality Rules

• Focus on WHAT and WHY, never HOW. No implementation details (languages, frameworks, APIs).
• Success criteria must be measurable and technology-agnostic.
• Max 3 [NEEDS CLARIFICATION] markers (scope > security > UX priority).
• Every requirement must be testable.

Fallback Workflow

If deep-design is unavailable, use this inline workflow:

Pace: Spec authoring is load-bearing design work — choices made here propagate to implementation. Think carefully and step-by-step.

1. Extract the core idea — identify what system, feature, or API is being specified.
2. Ask clarifying questions if needed (batched, max 3) — present ALL as a single numbered batch.
3. Create SDD directory — scan specs/ for next sequential prefix, create specs/{NNN-name}/.
4. Draft spec.md — write all required sections following the SDD format above.
5. Generate checklists/requirements.md — validate spec quality (no implementation details, testable requirements, measurable criteria, max 3 clarification markers).
6. Self-correct — if validation fails, fix and re-validate (max 3 iterations).
7. Report — print SDD_DIR path, spec status, and suggested next step (deep-plan or deep-design --spec for clarification).

Golden Rules

1. Problem before design. Always define what and why before how.
2. Non-Goals are valuable. They define the boundary of the work.
3. Success Criteria are mandatory. Without measurable criteria there is no definition of done.
4. Ask at most 3 clarifying questions, batched in one message.
5. Spec serves downstream tools. The spec.md must be consumable by deep-plan for plan generation and by autopilot for the full SDD workflow.

Follow-up Skills