Spec-Driven Planning Skill
Purpose
Guide feature planning through three structured phases: Feature Creation → Requirements (EARS) → Technical Design. This systematic approach ensures clear requirements and thoughtful design before implementation begins.
Activation Triggers
Activate this skill when:
- User says "create a new feature"
- User mentions "requirements", "specifications", or "specs"
- User uses
/dev-workflow:speccommand with planning options - User asks to plan or design a feature
- User says "I need to build [feature]"
- User mentions "architecture" or "technical design"
Three-Phase Planning Workflow
Phase 1: Feature Creation
Goal: Establish feature structure and placeholder files
Process:
- Parse feature name from user input
- Check existing features using Bash tool:
ls docx/features/ - Determine next number (NN) for feature directory
- Create directory using Bash tool:
mkdir -p docx/features/[NN-feature-name] - Copy templates from plugin to feature directory:
- Use Read tool: dev-workflow/templates/requirements.md - Use Write tool: docx/features/[NN-feature-name]/requirements.md (replace [Feature Name] with actual name) - Use Read tool: dev-workflow/templates/design.md - Use Write tool: docx/features/[NN-feature-name]/design.md (replace [Feature Name] with actual name) - Use Read tool: dev-workflow/templates/tasks.md - Use Write tool: docx/features/[NN-feature-name]/tasks.md (replace [Feature Name] with actual name)
Output:
Created feature: docx/features/[NN-feature-name]/
- requirements.md (from template)
- design.md (from template)
- tasks.md (from template)
Next step: Define requirements using EARS formatUser Confirmation:
"Feature structure created. Ready to define requirements?"
Phase 2: Requirements Definition (EARS Format)
Goal: Capture clear, testable requirements using EARS methodology
Brainstorming Integration (Optional):
- If user has rough idea but unclear requirements, use Skill tool to invoke:
dev-workflow:brainstorming - Helps clarify what to build vs. what's out of scope
- Explores different feature scopes through collaborative questioning
- Determines must-haves vs. nice-to-haves
How to activate:
Use Skill tool: Skill(skill: "dev-workflow:brainstorming")EARS Format Explained:
EARS (Easy Approach to Requirements Syntax) provides five templates for unambiguous requirements:
- Ubiquitous Requirements - Always true
- Template: "The system SHALL [requirement]" - Example: "The system SHALL validate all user inputs before processing"
- Event-Driven Requirements - Triggered by events
- Template: "WHEN [trigger] THEN the system SHALL [response]" - Example: "WHEN user clicks submit THEN the system SHALL validate form data"
- State-Driven Requirements - Active during specific states
- Template: "WHILE [state] the system SHALL [requirement]" - Example: "WHILE processing payment the system SHALL display loading indicator"
- Conditional Requirements - Based on conditions
- Template: "IF [condition] THEN the system SHALL [requirement]" - Example: "IF user role is admin THEN the system SHALL show management panel"
- Optional Requirements - Feature toggles
- Template: "WHERE [feature included] the system SHALL [requirement]" - Example: "WHERE premium subscription is active the system SHALL enable advanced analytics"
Research Protocol (Before Eliciting Requirements):
Before diving into requirement questions, gather context through research:
- Prior Art Research
- Use WebSearch to find similar features/products - Query: "[feature type] best practices 2025" - Query: "[feature type] common requirements"
- Technical Documentation
- Use WebFetch on relevant technical docs, APIs, or standards - Fetch competitor/similar product documentation
- API Research (if applicable)
- Use Bash with curl to explore API endpoints - Fetch API documentation and schemas
- Document Findings
- Summarize key insights in requirements.md under "## Research Summary" - Note patterns, anti-patterns, and industry standards discovered
🗣 Say: "Let me research similar implementations before we define requirements."
Systematic Questioning Approach:
Ask the user these questions to elicit requirements:
- Core Functionality
- "What is the primary purpose of this feature?" - "What problem does it solve?"
- Event-Driven Requirements
- "What user actions trigger this feature?" - "What system events are involved?"
- State-Driven Requirements
- "Are there different states or modes?" - "What should happen during each state?"
- Conditional Requirements
- "Are there different behaviors for different users/roles?" - "What conditions affect functionality?"
- Performance Requirements
- "Are there response time requirements?" - "What's the expected load/scale?"
- Security Requirements
- "What data needs protection?" - "Who should have access?"
- Error Handling
- "What can go wrong?" - "How should errors be handled?"
- Edge Cases
- "What are the boundary conditions?" - "What happens at extremes?"
Best Practices:
- Use "SHALL" for mandatory requirements
- Be specific and measurable (avoid "quickly", use "within 2 seconds")
- One requirement per statement
- Avoid ambiguous terms ("appropriate", "reasonable", "user-friendly")
- Use active voice
Requirement IDs & Traceability:
- Assign unique IDs to every requirement using a consistent prefix (e.g.,
REQ-001). - Keep numbering sequential across all requirement types (functional + non-functional).
- Record the IDs directly in each requirement line so later tasks can reference them.
- Add a short traceability note indicating how tasks/design will map back to these IDs.
Output Format: Update docx/features/[NN-feature-name]/requirements.md with:
- Overview section
- Functional requirements (organized by EARS type)
- Non-functional requirements (performance, security, usability)
- Constraints
- Acceptance criteria (checkboxes)
- Out of scope items
User Confirmation:
"Requirements complete. Ready for design phase?"
Phase 3: Technical Design
Goal: Create comprehensive technical design with architectural decisions
Research Protocol (Before Design):
Before proposing architectural approaches, research solutions:
- Architecture Research
- Use WebSearch: "[technology] architecture patterns 2025" - Use WebSearch: "[problem domain] implementation approaches"
- Library/Framework Research
- Use WebFetch on documentation for potential libraries - Compare approaches used by similar projects
- API Research (if applicable)
- Use WebFetch on external API documentation - Use Bash with curl to test API endpoints - Understand integration requirements and constraints
- Document Findings
- Add "## Technical Research" section to design.md - Include links to sources and key insights
🗣 Say: "Let me research technical approaches before proposing architecture options."
Process:
- Brainstorming Integration How to activate:
Use Skill tool: Skill(skill: "dev-workflow:brainstorming")
- Use Skill tool to invoke: dev-workflow:brainstorming for collaborative design exploration - Explore 2-3 different architectural approaches - Discuss trade-offs for each approach
UltraThink for Complex Designs: Before proposing technical approaches, activate deep thinking when:
- Architecture involves multiple services or complex data flows
- Trade-offs between approaches aren't obvious
- Design impacts security, performance, or scalability
- Requirements seem contradictory or incomplete
🗣 Say: "This design requires deep thinking. Let me ultrathink the architectural fundamentals before proposing approaches."
During UltraThink, question:
- Are we solving the right problem?
- What are we assuming that might be wrong?
- What could break at scale?
- What's the simplest architecture that works?
- What are the hidden costs of each approach?
- What would we do differently if starting from scratch?
After UltraThink: Present approaches with explicit reasoning about architectural trade-offs and scalability considerations.
- Approach Comparison Present options with trade-offs: Option A: [Approach Name] Option B: [Approach Name]
- Pros: [Advantages] - Cons: [Disadvantages] - Complexity: Low/Medium/High - Timeline: [Estimate] - Pros: [Advantages] - Cons: [Disadvantages] - Complexity: Low/Medium/High - Timeline: [Estimate]
- Recommendation
- State recommended approach - Provide clear reasoning - Explain why it best fits requirements
- Design Document Structure Create comprehensive
design.mdcovering: Architecture Overview Component Structure Data Flow API Contracts Error Handling Security Considerations Performance Considerations Testing Strategy
- How feature fits into system - High-level component diagram (ASCII art) - List components with responsibilities - Define dependencies between components - Specify public interfaces - Step-by-step data movement - Diagram showing flow - Input/output schemas - Error responses - Example requests/responses - Error scenarios and handling strategy - Fallback behaviors - Authentication/authorization - Input validation - Data protection - Optimization strategies - Caching approach - Database indexing needs - Unit test areas - Integration test scenarios - E2E test workflows
Approval Gate:
"Design complete. Ready for task breakdown?"
Wait for explicit user approval before proceeding.
Next Steps
After design approval, use /dev-workflow:spec tasks or /dev-workflow:spec execute to activate the spec-driven-implementation skill, which will:
- Break down your design into TDD tasks with Red-Green-Refactor cycles
- Guide systematic execution with quality gates
- Track progress with checkbox updates
- Integrate with review and git-workflow skills
Examples
Example 1: Creating User Authentication Feature
User: "I need to add user authentication"
Assistant:
Activating spec-driven-planning skill for feature planning.
Let me create the feature structure:
Created feature: docx/features/01-user-authentication/
- requirements.md
- design.md
- tasks.md
Phase 1 Complete. Ready to define requirements?User: "Yes"
Assistant:
Phase 2: Requirements Definition (EARS Format)
Let me ask some questions to capture clear requirements:
1. Core Functionality:
- What authentication methods should be supported? (email/password, OAuth, etc.)
- Should there be session management?
2. Events:
- What happens when user tries to log in?
- What happens when session expires?
[...continues with systematic questioning...]Example 2: Resuming at Design Phase
User: "/dev-workflow:spec design"
Assistant:
Activating spec-driven-planning skill at Phase 3: Design
Found latest feature: docx/features/01-user-authentication/
Requirements already defined. Let me propose architectural approaches:
**Option A: JWT-Based Authentication**
Pros: Stateless, scalable, works across services
Cons: Token invalidation complexity, larger payload
Complexity: Medium
**Option B: Session-Based Authentication**
Pros: Simple invalidation, smaller cookies, familiar pattern
Cons: Requires session storage, scaling challenges
Complexity: Low
Recommendation: Option A (JWT-Based)
Reasoning: Better for microservices, future-proof, industry standard
Proceed with JWT-based design?Notes
- Always request explicit approval between phases
- Use EARS format strictly for requirements
- Focus on "what" and "how", not "doing"
- Create clear, complete documentation before implementation
- Explore multiple architectural options before recommending one
- Wait for user approval before activating implementation skill