Spec Kit Overview
Summary of Spec-Driven Development and how Spec Kit shapes AI-assisted engineering in NexisChat.
Spec Kit brings a spec-driven workflow to our AI coding practices. Instead of jumping straight into implementation, we progress through structured phases that clarify intent, translate it into a technical approach, and break it into verifiable units of work. This reduces rework, improves alignment, and lets AI coding agents produce higher‑quality changes with less guesswork.
Why Spec-Driven?
Traditional “prompt → big code blob” usage of AI often produces code that compiles but diverges from actual product intent. Spec-Driven Development flips the order:
- Define the problem (what & why) explicitly.
- Translate intent into an implementation plan (how & constraints).
- Break the plan into atomic, reviewable tasks.
- Implement iteratively with continuous validation.
By making intent the first-class source of truth, we:
- De-risk architectural drift.
- Surface unknowns early (compliance, integration, performance, UX expectations).
- Enable parallel exploration (multiple plan variants if needed).
- Automate more safely (AI has tighter guardrails).
Core Phases (High-Level)
| Phase | Purpose | Primary Artifact | Trigger to Advance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Specify | Capture user & business intent (problem, users, outcomes, scope boundaries) | Specification (specs/...) | Stakeholder review + gaps resolved |
| Plan | Map intent to architecture, stack, data shapes, integration points, risks | Technical Plan (plans/...) | Technical validation + constraints affirmed |
| Tasks | Decompose plan into small, testable, sequential (or parallel) work units | Task List (tasks/...) | Tasks sized & ordered; dependencies clear |
| Implement | Apply tasks with AI + human review loops | PRs / code changes | Definition of Done per task satisfied |
Each phase is a forcing function for clarity. If something feels ambiguous during implementation, we revise the upstream artifact (not ad‑hoc patch coding).
Artifacts Introduced
We added standardized prompt + template assets (see Integration doc for details) so Copilot (and potentially other agents) can reliably:
- Expand a high-level feature description into a robust specification.
- Generate a detailed plan given stack + constraints.
- Produce a granular task list with acceptance criteria.
Benefits for NexisChat
| Area | Impact |
|---|---|
| Velocity | Fewer rewrites; clearer diff review cycles |
| Quality | Explicit success criteria per task; less hidden scope |
| Knowledge Capture | Institutional decisions encoded in spec/plan, not lost in chat threads |
| Onboarding | New contributors can read artifacts to understand intent fast |
| Parallelism | Multiple agents or developers can pick off decoupled tasks |
| Governance | Constitution + prompts enforce non‑negotiable principles |
Where This Excels
- Greenfield milestone planning (entire modules or subsystems)
- Incremental feature delivery in mature code (prevents bolt‑on anti-patterns)
- Refactors & migrations (capture target state before touching code)
- Legacy modernization (recover business intent → re‑architect intentionally)
Not a Silver Bullet
Skip the full process for:
- One-line fixes or trivial config tweaks
- Quick experiments / spikes (can promote to spec later)
- Emergency hotfixes (but document learnings afterward)
Relationship to AI Agents
Spec Kit doesn’t replace Copilot; it scaffolds it. Prompts + constitution supply persistent context so the model:
- Knows guardrails (security, style, architectural constraints)
- Avoids inventing scope
- Produces smaller, reviewable changes tied to explicit tasks
Feedback Loop
- Generate → Review → Refine (per phase)
- Only lock artifacts once validated
- Track deltas (spec evolution is expected, but intentional)
Key Repository Locations
| Path | Purpose |
|---|---|
.github/prompts/ | Phase-specific system prompts consumed in chat commands |
templates/ | Markdown templates for generated artifacts |
memory/constitution.md | Non-negotiable principles / engineering charter |
scripts/ | Automation helpers for context + feature scaffolding |
Next Documents
- Workflow Commands (
/specify,/plan,/tasks) - Integration Details (files added in initial commit)
- Customization & Best Practices
Proceed next to the Workflow section for operational usage.