Harness Engineering vs Spec-Driven Development
What harness engineering means for AI coding agents, how it differs from spec-driven development, and how to run both.
A focused archive of AI Coding articles for spec-first teams.
What harness engineering means for AI coding agents, how it differs from spec-driven development, and how to run both.
A five-stage spec-first workflow for teams running AI coding agents: spec packets, bounded tasks, write scopes, evidence gates, and PR review that scales.
Write API spec contracts for MCP servers: input schemas, output shapes, error taxonomies, idempotency flags, and versioning that AI agent clients can rely on.
OpenSpec vs Superpowers vs Spec Kit, checked Sep 2026: what each one owns, how to combine them, and which to start with.
A copy-ready packet for giving AI coding tools a bounded task, acceptance criteria, file ownership, tests, and review evidence before code generation starts.
Follow a vague support ticket as it becomes a shippable technical spec using Spec Skills, guided questions, and review-ready output.
See how Spec Skills fits spec-first delivery through constrained prompts, spec injection, boundary enforcement, and reviewable AI output.
Superpowers enforces spec-first discipline for AI coding agents through brainstorming, specs, plans, TDD, verification, and repeatable review evidence.
AI coding tools drift without constraints, adding fields, renaming functions, expanding scope, and inventing tests. Spec-first prompts keep changes reviewable.
Govern AI-assisted coding with spec-driven prompts: define scope, boundaries, evidence, and audit trails before generated code reaches review.
Review AI-generated pull requests against acceptance criteria: inspect the diff, run evidence checks, and catch failures a quick skim misses.
Use a pre-merge risk register for AI-generated code: flag auth, data, contract, migration, rollback, and observability risks.
Use test-evidence gates for AI-generated code: require meaningful tests before merge and catch hallucinated implementations before release.
Design API specs for LLM-powered agentic clients with discoverable fields, idempotency, dry-runs, semantic descriptions, and safe destructive actions.
Quality gates for AI-assisted code: pre-prompt spec checks, diff review, test evidence, and human sign-off before generated code ships.