AI & LLMs
What is spec-driven development?
Spec-driven development is a workflow in which you write a clear specification of what the software should do, then have an AI build from that spec rather than from ad hoc instructions.
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Technical definition
Spec-driven development is an approach in which a written specification is the primary artifact and the source code is a generated output of it. The spec states intended behavior, data structures, user flows, constraints, and acceptance criteria in enough detail that an AI agent can implement it and a human can judge whether the result matches.
When behavior needs to change, the spec changes first and implementation follows. The document stays authoritative rather than becoming stale documentation.
In plain terms
Decide what you are building before you start building it. Write it down. Then hand that to the AI.
The alternative is prompting your way forward one idea at a time, which works until decisions you made in message four conflict with decisions you make in message 40.
Why it matters
Rebuilding costs more than planning. When an AI can generate a working app in minutes, the temptation is to skip the thinking and start prompting. That holds up for a landing page. It falls apart on anything with data, users, and rules, because the model keeps making reasonable local choices that add up to an incoherent product.
A spec fixes the expensive decisions once: what the data looks like, who can see what, what happens at each step, and what "done" means. Everything after that is implementation, and implementation is the part AI is good at.
This is also the cheapest quality control available to a solo builder. A spec gives you something to check the result against, which turns vague dissatisfaction into a specific fix.
