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Specification-Driven Agent Development NEW

Problem

Hand-crafted prompts or loose user stories leave room for ambiguity; agents can wander, over-interpret, or produce code that conflicts with stakeholder intent.

Solution

Adopt a spec-first workflow in which a formal specification file (e.g., Markdown, OpenAPI, JSON Schema) is the agent's primary input and source of truth.

  • Parse spec → agent builds an explicit task graph.
  • Scaffold project structure & stub code straight from the spec.
  • Enforce that every generated artifact links back to a spec clause.
  • Iterate only by editing the spec, not by re-prompting ad-hoc.
if new_feature_requested:
    write_spec(update)
    agent.sync_with(spec)

How to use it

Give the agent a well-structured spec file, then run claude spec run. Pitfalls: coarse or under-specified requirements still propagate errors.

Trade-offs

  • Pros: repeatable, audit-friendly, easy diffing.
  • Cons: up-front spec writing effort; initial ramp-up for teams new to spec formats.

References

  • Talk teaser in the World's Fair meta-description about "shift to specification-driven development."