# Spec Driven Development

> Use when starting a substantial feature or change — something that spans multiple files, has non-trivial design decisions, or is expensive to get wrong. Makes the agent write a short spec (goal, approach, key decisions, edge cases) and confirm it before implementing, instead of discovering the design by writing code.

- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-buildmoonshot-skillpacks-spec-driven-development`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [buildmoonshot](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/buildmoonshot)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [AI & ML](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/ai-and-ml)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** MIT
- **Upstream author:** [buildmoonshot](https://github.com/buildmoonshot)
- **Source:** https://github.com/buildmoonshot/skillpacks/tree/main/skills/engineering/expert/spec-driven-development

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-buildmoonshot-skillpacks-spec-driven-development
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# Spec-Driven Development

For substantial work, **write a short spec and agree on it before writing code.** The design decisions are cheapest to change as text, before they're encoded across a dozen files.

## Write the spec first

Keep it short — a focused page, not a document. Cover:

1. **Goal** — what this needs to accomplish, in one or two sentences. What does "done" look like?
2. **Approach** — the high-level shape: the main pieces, where they live, how data flows. Enough that someone could predict the file structure.
3. **Key decisions** — the choices that matter, each with a one-line rationale: data model, the library or pattern picked, API shape, where state lives. Note the alternatives you rejected and why.
4. **Edge cases & failure modes** — the inputs and conditions that will break a naive version (empty, concurrent, error, large, malicious). How each is handled.
5. **Out of scope** — what this deliberately does *not* do, so scope doesn't creep mid-build.

## Get alignment, then build

Present the spec and confirm direction before implementing. A wrong assumption caught in the spec costs one sentence; caught after implementation it costs a rewrite. Once agreed, the spec becomes the checklist you build and verify against.

## Match the effort to the work

This is for substantial, multi-file, or hard-to-reverse work. A one-file change doesn't need a spec — that's what lightweight planning is for. Don't turn every task into a design doc; reserve this for when the design genuinely carries risk.

## Why this matters

The most expensive mistakes are architectural — chosen early, discovered late, and woven through everything by the time they surface. A short spec surfaces those decisions while they're still one paragraph to change, and turns implementation into execution against a plan instead of design-by-accident.

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [buildmoonshot](https://github.com/buildmoonshot)
- **Source:** [buildmoonshot/skillpacks](https://github.com/buildmoonshot/skillpacks)
- **License:** MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-buildmoonshot-skillpacks-spec-driven-development
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/buildmoonshot
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

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Listed on AgentStack — the marketplace for AI agent skills and MCP servers. Every listing is security-reviewed. Creators keep 70%.