Specification Management

Central hub for specification-driven development workflows. This skill provides navigation to specialized skills for different specification formats and workflows.

When to Use This Skill

Keywords: specifications, requirements, acceptance criteria, spec-driven development, SDD, EARS, Gherkin, Kiro, Spec Kit, BDD, user stories, feature specifications, canonical spec

Use this skill when:

• Starting a new specification-driven workflow

• Converting between specification formats

• Understanding available specification providers

• Navigating to specialized authoring skills

• Working with the canonical specification model

Quick Decision Tree

What do you want to do?

• Start Spec Kit 5-phase workflow → Use /spec:speckit:run or see speckit-workflow skill

• Generate a specification → Use /spec:specify command

• Write EARS requirements → See ears-authoring skill

• Write Gherkin scenarios → See gherkin-authoring skill

• Sync with AWS Kiro → See kiro-integration skill

• Check requirement quality → See requirements-quality skill

• Understand canonical format → See canonical-spec-format skill

• Convert between formats → Use /spec:convert command

Specification Providers

The canonical specification model (ADR-115) supports multiple providers:

Provider Format Best For

ears EARS syntax Precise, unambiguous requirements

gherkin .feature files BDD tests with Reqnroll

kiro AWS Kiro IDE integration with steering files

speckit GitHub Spec Kit AI agent prompts, 5-phase workflow

adr MADR format Architecture decisions

userstory Agile format Product backlog items

canonical YAML/JSON Direct canonical format

Spec Kit 5-Phase Workflow

The GitHub Spec Kit workflow guides feature development:

Phase Artifact Purpose

0 .constitution.md

Project principles and constraints

1 feature.md

Specification from requirements

2 design.md

Implementation approach

3 tasks.md

Task breakdown

4 Code Guided implementation

Full workflow: Use /spec:speckit:run or invoke the speckit-workflow skill.

Canonical Specification Model

All providers transform to/from the canonical model:

id: "SPEC-001" title: "Feature Title" type: feature | bug | chore | spike | tech-debt

context: problem: "Description of the problem" motivation: "Business value"

requirements:

• id: "REQ-001" text: "EARS-formatted requirement" priority: must | should | could | wont ears_type: ubiquitous | state-driven | event-driven | unwanted | complex | optional acceptance_criteria:
  • id: "AC-001" given: "Precondition" when: "Action" then: "Expected outcome"

traceability: adr_refs: ["ADR-115"] requirement_refs: ["FR-001"]

metadata: status: draft created: "YYYY-MM-DD" provider: canonical bounded_context: "WorkManagement"

Full schema: See canonical-spec-format skill or schemas/canonical-spec.schema.json

Available Commands

Generic Workflow Commands

Command Purpose

/spec:specify

Phase 1: Generate specification from requirements

/spec:plan

Phase 2: Generate implementation plan

/spec:tasks

Phase 3: Generate task breakdown

/spec:implement

Phase 4: Guide implementation

/spec:validate

Validate specification against schema

/spec:refine

AI-assisted specification refinement

/spec:audit

Audit specification quality

/spec:convert

Convert between formats

Provider Deep-Dive Commands

Command Purpose

/spec:ears:author

Interactive EARS pattern authoring

/spec:ears:convert

Convert to/from EARS format

/spec:gherkin:author

Interactive Gherkin scenario authoring

/spec:gherkin:convert

Convert to/from .feature files

/spec:kiro:sync

Sync with AWS Kiro specifications

/spec:speckit:run

Execute full Spec Kit 5-phase workflow

/spec:adr:create

Create ADR from specification context

/spec:userstory:author

Author user stories with acceptance criteria

/spec:constitution

Create or update project constitution

/spec:status

Show specification status dashboard

Delegation Pattern

This skill delegates to specialized skills for detailed guidance:

Topic Delegate To

EARS patterns ears-authoring skill

Gherkin/BDD gherkin-authoring skill

AWS Kiro kiro-integration skill

Spec Kit workflow speckit-workflow skill

Quality criteria requirements-quality skill

Canonical format canonical-spec-format skill

Official Claude Code docs docs-management skill

Repository Infrastructure

This plugin integrates with project infrastructure:

Resource Purpose

schemas/canonical-spec.schema.json

Canonical specification JSON Schema

prompts/specify.prompt.md

Generation template for Phase 1

templates/EARS-REQUIREMENT-TEMPLATE.md

EARS pattern reference

docs/adr/ADR-115-*

Specification Provider Abstraction

Related Skills

• ears-authoring - EARS requirement pattern authoring

• gherkin-authoring - Gherkin/BDD scenario authoring

• kiro-integration - AWS Kiro specification sync

• speckit-workflow - GitHub Spec Kit 5-phase workflow

• requirements-quality - INVEST criteria and quality assessment

• canonical-spec-format - Canonical specification reference

• docs-management - Official Claude Code documentation

References

Detailed Documentation:

• Canonical Format Reference

• Provider Matrix

• Workflow Phases

Last Updated: 2025-12-24

Version History

• v1.0.0 (2025-12-26): Initial release