The to-spec Skill: What It Writes and When to Skip It
How Matt Pocock's /to-spec skill turns a planning conversation into a spec issue, what its template leaves out, and when a spec is not worth the step.
Topic: Process
A focused archive of Process articles for spec-first teams.
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.
AGENTS.md for Spec-First Teams: What Belongs In It
AGENTS.md is a README for coding agents. The hard part is the boundary: which rules are true for every change, and which belong in a spec for one change.
Cursor Rules: The Four Types and When Each Fires
A Cursor rule that never fires is worse than no rule. Three frontmatter fields decide which of the four types you wrote, and most teams write the dead one.
Spec-First Workflow for AI Agent Teams
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.
MCP Server API Contracts for AI Agents
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: Compare and Combine
OpenSpec vs Superpowers vs Spec Kit, checked Nov 2026: what each one owns, how to combine them, and which to start with.
AI Coding Spec Packet Before Code Generation
A copy-ready packet for giving AI coding tools a bounded task, acceptance criteria, file ownership, tests, and review evidence before code generation starts.
Spec Skills and Spec-First Delivery
See how Spec Skills fits spec-first delivery through constrained prompts, spec injection, boundary enforcement, and reviewable AI output.
AI Coding Governance with Spec-Driven Prompts
Govern AI-assisted coding with spec-driven prompts: define scope, boundaries, evidence, and audit trails before generated code reaches review.
AI Coding PR Review with Acceptance Criteria
Review AI-generated pull requests against acceptance criteria: inspect the diff, run evidence checks, and catch failures a quick skim misses.
AI Coding Risk Register Before Merge
Use a pre-merge risk register for AI-generated code: flag auth, data, contract, migration, rollback, and observability risks.
AI Coding with Test-Evidence Gates
Use test-evidence gates for AI-generated code: require meaningful tests before merge and catch hallucinated implementations before release.
Contract Testing Plan: From OpenAPI to CI
Add contract testing from OpenAPI to CI with generated tests, provider checks, consumer expectations, and reliable fixtures.
Event-Driven Systems: Specification Patterns
Specification patterns for event-driven systems: schema versioning, command vs fact events, orchestration choices, idempotent handlers, and replay safety.
10 Common Mistakes in Software Specifications
Avoid ten specification mistakes that hide decisions, blur acceptance criteria, skip failure paths, and push scope arguments into implementation.
Quality Gates for AI-Assisted Development Specs
Quality gates for AI-assisted code: pre-prompt spec checks, diff review, test evidence, and human sign-off before generated code ships.
Spec Review Checklist Before Coding
Use this pre-coding review checklist to separate blockers from preferences, record accepted risks, and attach test evidence before implementation begins.
What Is Spec-First Development? (Complete Guide)
What is spec-first development? A complete guide to surfacing hidden decisions about scope, contracts, edge cases, and acceptance criteria before coding starts.