Specgate

Using SpecGate

Bootstrap-only install

Use when specgate-project-setup is unavailable after a root-only skills.sh install. Check command -v specgate (PowerShell: Get-Command specgate). If absent, explain skills.sh provides instructions only. On macOS, Linux, or WSL2, show this and await explicit approval:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thanhtung2693/specgate/main/scripts/install-cli.sh | sh

Native Windows: use https://github.com/thanhtung2693/specgate/releases/latest; never invent PowerShell. Record specgate --version afterward.

Trust only a lock with source thanhtung2693/specgate and path plugins/skills/specgate/SKILL.md, in project skills-lock.json or global ~/.agents/.skill-lock.json. Show its matching command and await approval:

npx skills remove specgate -y
npx skills remove specgate -g -y

Never edit or delete skills.sh files or locks directly. Ask for IDE and scope, then preview, install, and verify:

specgate plugins install --agent  [--project-local] --dry-run --no-input
specgate plugins install --agent  [--project-local] --no-input
specgate plugins doctor --agent  [--project-local] --json

On native plugin ownership, stop. Never uninstall or disable it without separate explicit approval.

Require an IDE restart and stop before initialization. Continue through specgate-project-setup after restart.

Completion: one CLI-managed plugin, healthy doctor, explicit restart.

Route one phase

For lifecycle work, choose exactly one phase before acting:

• specgate-project-setup — initialize, bind, install, refresh, or diagnose SpecGate for a repository.
• specgate-work-preparation — turn a request or source specification into approved SpecGate work.
• specgate-work-delivery — implement, resume, review, or rework approved SpecGate work.

For a read-only work or lifecycle-status question with a work reference, start with the authoritative read:

specgate change status "$WORK_REF" --json

For other SpecGate concept or troubleshooting questions, use the smallest relevant CLI read. Do not force a lifecycle phase or mutate records.

Before a mode-dependent write or handoff, run specgate doctor --json. Read data.mode; never infer Local or Full mode from Docker, URLs, or browser availability. Report an unsuccessful doctor result instead of guessing.

Operating contract

• The specgate CLI is the only product-state read and write surface. Never inspect

or edit SpecGate SQLite, Postgres, object storage, deployment volumes, or .specgate/local directly. Repository source reads remain allowed.

• Drafts, explanations, summaries, and repository reads remain ephemeral until

an explicit CLI command persists them.

• The originating authoring framework owns durable source documents: their

paths, names, lifecycle, and Git policy. SpecGate snapshots them in place. It does not move, copy, rename, delete, commit, or change ignore rules for them.

• A readiness pass is not human approval. Approval, acceptance, and requested

changes remain human decisions. Run a decision command only after the human explicitly chooses and authorizes that exact decision; never infer one.

• An approved Context Pack outranks chat history, tracker prose, and stale

repository documentation. Never silently expand its scope.

• Follow exact identifiers and versions. artifact coverage is

exact-version evidence; do not collapse versions by feature name.

• Follow change status.data.next_actor and next_command. When the next actor

is human, stop and hand off that command verbatim.

• Local mode has no UI URL and never calls specgate open. In Full mode, use

only the URL returned by specgate open ... --print --json; never construct one.

For command syntax, run specgate --help rather than reconstructing flags from memory.

Source & license

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

• Author: thanhtung2693
• Source: thanhtung2693/specgate
• License: Apache-2.0
• Homepage: https://thanhtung2693.github.io/specgate/

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