spec-review
Skill59 starsChanged 9 months agoMITView on GitHub
Review a spec for under-specified areas, bugs, and adherence to the generate-spec skill. Use when asked to review, critique, or check a spec.
We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent
10 rules. 0 are common, 8 are distinctive, and 2 are very specific to this project.
0
Common
Most of the 38 edited versions we read keep these.
8
Distinctive
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
2
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.
- Common
- Distinctive
- Very specific
- Very specific: line 10
Read the spec file the user references.
- Distinctive: line 14
Use sub-agents to read every file listed in the spec's "Important files" section.
- Distinctive: line 16
If the spec references external libraries or APIs, look up their documentation.
- Distinctive: line 32
Do not flag things that are obviously implied by context.
- Distinctive: line 47
Test assertion details — the test runner catches these
- Very specific: line 52
Check whether the spec follows the structure and principles in generate-spec/SKILL.md:
- Distinctive: line 62
Do not check whether guiding questions were asked — the reviewer does not have context about the conversation that produced the spec.
- Distinctive: line 88
If a category has no findings, write "None" under it.
- Distinctive: line 95
Do not suggest scope additions.
- Distinctive: line 96
Do not comment on writing style or formatting unless it violates generate-spec structure requirements.
“Common” is measured: kept by at least 6 in 10 of the 38 edited versions of this file we could read. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.
Files
Review the spec the user points you to. Follow these steps in order.
Step 1: Read the spec and the generate-spec skill
Read the spec file the user references. Then read .agents/skills/generate-spec/SKILL.md to understand the requirements specs must meet.
Step 2: Research the codebase
Use sub-agents to read every file listed in the spec's "Important files" section. For each file, understand its current state well enough to evaluate whether the spec's proposed changes are correct and complete.
If the spec references external libraries or APIs, look up their documentation.
Step 3: Evaluate
Assess the spec against three categories. For each finding, cite the specific spec line or section and the relevant source file and line number.
Under-specified areas
Find places where the spec leaves ambiguous decisions that should have explicit design intent from the user. Examples:
- A phase says "update the handler" but two handlers exist and the spec does not say which one
- A schema change is described but the migration path for existing data on disk is not addressed
- A new dependency is introduced between two modules but the spec does not state which module owns the interface
- Error handling or edge cases are not mentioned for a path that can clearly fail
- The spec describes behavior but does not specify what happens when the precondition is not met
Do not flag things that are obviously implied by context. Flag things where a reasonable implementer would have to guess.
Bugs
Find design-level logical errors — things that would send an implementer down the wrong path or produce incorrect behavior that tooling won't catch. Examples:
- A phase deletes a module but a later phase depends on the concept it provided (not just the import — the typecheck catches that)
- The spec contradicts its own goals or non-goals (e.g., says "calendar support later" but removes the only calendar mechanism without acknowledging it)
- A fan-out loop creates sessions but nothing deduplicates if the same event matches the same trigger twice
- The spec assumes a data shape or behavior that doesn't match reality in the codebase
Do not flag:
- Missing imports/exports — the typechecker catches these
- Exact function signatures or parameter mismatches — the implementer will resolve these during development
- Test assertion details — the test runner catches these
- Wiring specifics that are obvious from context (e.g., "this function isn't exported yet" — that's an implementation detail, not a spec concern)
Adherence to generate-spec skill
Check whether the spec follows the structure and principles in generate-spec/SKILL.md:
- Does it have all required sections (problem overview, solution overview, goals, non-goals, important files, implementation)?
- Is each phase commit-sized (under 100 lines of change)?
- Does each phase have success criteria that verify the thing most likely to go wrong?
- Does the spec avoid speccing extensibility, abstraction layers, or polish that nobody asked for?
- Are there phases that are pure setup or refactoring with no user-facing progress?
- Is the sanity checklist present and correct?
- Does the spec represent the simplest version that works end-to-end?
Do not check whether guiding questions were asked — the reviewer does not have context about the conversation that produced the spec. Assume all decisions in the spec were intentional.
Step 4: Structure your response
Use this format:
# Spec Review: [spec title]
## Under-specified
- [Finding with spec section reference and source file reference]
## Bugs
- [Finding with spec section reference and source file reference]
## Adherence
- [Finding referencing specific generate-spec requirement]
## Verdict
[2-3 sentences. State whether the spec is ready to implement, needs minor clarifications, or needs significant rework.]If a category has no findings, write "None" under it.
Principles
- Review the plan, not the implementation. A spec is a design document, not a line-by-line coding guide. Don't flag things that tooling (typechecker, linter, test runner) will catch during implementation. Focus on decisions that, if wrong, would waste significant time or produce incorrect behavior.
- Be specific. Every finding must reference a spec section and a source file or generate-spec requirement.
- Be conservative. Only flag things that would cause an implementer to go down the wrong path, produce a design-level bug, or violate an explicit generate-spec rule.
- Do not suggest scope additions. The goal is to find holes in the existing scope, not to expand it.
- Do not comment on writing style or formatting unless it violates generate-spec structure requirements.
Other versions42 projects use a version of this.
Word for word · 0
None found.
Edited · 2
- cashew-labs/libretto★ 89892% same
- saffron-health/libretto★ 88392% same
Wrote their own version · 40
- microsoft/winappCli★ 1.4ksame name
- utopia-rise/godot-kotlin-jvm★ 980same name
- liza-mas/liza★ 409same name
- HHU3637kr/skills★ 146same name
- agent-ix/quoin★ 20same name
- azents/azents★ 16same name
- komluk/scaffolding★ 15same name
- microsoft/WinAppVSCE★ 14same name
- R-Hatim/hrih-skills★ 6same name
- markkj/skills★ 5same name
30 more not listed
How matches are found. Word for word: the exact same text. Edited: shares passages with this file (“99% same” means 99% of its five-word phrases also appear here; 10% or more counts). Their own version: similar meaning, or, weakest, the same name. We can’t tell which project had it first. Projects are counted among the 200 most-starred candidates, and mentions are links to the repository we found, up to 50 per site, so both counts are a floor.
Used alongsideProjects with it also use spec-init, specify and 1 more.
Other files people use alongside this one.
Files found in the same public projects as a version of this one, more often than they turn up anywhere else. Each project counts once, large collections count for less, and this file's own repository is left out.
telefrekSkillspec-init
Bootstrap the spec corpus for this project
Also in 3 projects that use this
ArvorCoSkillspecify
Create feature specification from natural language description. Use when starting a new feature or creating a spec. Triggers on: create spec, specify feature, new feature spec.
Also in 3 projects that use this
YougLin-devSkillplan-review
Reviews and adjusts PRD plans based on research findings. Use after completing research to evaluate story modifications. Triggers on: review plan, adjust stories, update prd based on research.
Also in 3 projects that use this
In this repository15 other files it gives its agents.
- AGENTS.mdAGENTS.md
- address-reviewSkill
- commitSkill
- dev-commandSkill
- generate-specSkill
- get-pr-reviewsSkill
- implement-specSkill
- playwrightSkill
- promptingSkill
- push-everythingSkill
- pushSkill
- reviewSkill
- summarizeSkill
- technical-writingSkill
- update-docsSkill
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