Spec Kit Constitution

Create or amend the project constitution and keep dependent templates aligned.

When to Use

• User asks to create the first constitution for a Spec Kit project.
• User asks to amend governance/principles and update constitution versioning.
• memory/constitution.md is missing or still contains [PLACEHOLDER] tokens.
• Principle changes must be propagated into planning/spec/task templates.

Router Fit

• Primary route from spec-kit when intent is governance/principles.
• Run before feature planning when constitutional rules changed.
• Downstream dependency: spec-kit-plan constitution checks rely on this output.

Preconditions

• Work from the target project repository root.
• Treat memory/constitution.md as the source of truth once created.

Workflow

1. Resolve constitution file:
   • Target: {REPO_ROOT}/memory/constitution.md.
   • If missing, initialize from {REPO_ROOT}/templates/constitution-template.md when present; otherwise use assets/constitution-template.md.
2. Capture baseline state from existing constitution (if present):
   • Current version.
   • Ratified and last amended dates.
   • Principle/section titles for diff reporting.
   • Any unresolved [PLACEHOLDER] tokens.
3. Fill required values from user input first, then repository context.
   • If critical data is unknown, use TODO(<FIELD_NAME>): <reason>.
4. Decide semantic version bump and dates:
   • MAJOR: backward-incompatible governance/principle redefinition or removal.
   • MINOR: new principle/section or materially expanded policy.
   • PATCH: clarifications, wording, typo, non-semantic refinements.
   • RATIFICATION_DATE: keep original adoption date.
   • LAST_AMENDED_DATE: set to today (YYYY-MM-DD) only when content changes.
5. Draft the constitution:
   • Replace placeholders with concrete policy text.
   • Keep heading hierarchy from the template.
   • Make principles declarative and testable (MUST/SHOULD with rationale).
   • Keep Governance explicit about amendment process, versioning policy, and compliance review.
6. Propagate policy changes to dependent templates in the target repo when present:
   • templates/plan-template.md
   • templates/spec-template.md
   • templates/tasks-template.md Update constitutional checks, required sections, and task expectations to match revised principles.
7. Prepend a Sync Impact Report HTML comment to memory/constitution.md containing:
   • Version change (old -> new).
   • Modified principles (including renames).
   • Added/removed sections.
   • Template sync status (updated vs pending) with file paths.
   • Deferred TODO items.
8. Validate before finalizing:
   • No unexplained bracket placeholders remain.
   • Version/date line matches report and uses YYYY-MM-DD format.
   • File path is memory/constitution.md (not /memory/constitution.md).
9. Write memory/constitution.md and report results to the user.

Output

• Updated memory/constitution.md.
• Updated template files when present and required.
• Summary including version bump rationale, pending follow-ups, and a suggested commit message.

Common Mistakes

• Updating principles without updating dependent templates.
• Using a patch bump for material policy changes that require a minor/major bump.
• Leaving unresolved placeholders without explicit TODO annotations.
• Writing to /memory/constitution.md instead of memory/constitution.md.

References

• references/spec-kit-workflow.dot for where constitution work fits in the Spec Kit sequence.
• assets/constitution-template.md
• assets/spec-template.md
• assets/plan-template.md
• assets/tasks-template.md
• https://github.com/github/spec-kit/blob/9111699cd27879e3e6301651a03e502ecb6dd65d/templates/commands/constitution.md