Spec-Driven Development

Spec-driven development is like drawing blueprints before building a house. First write down what to build (requirements), how you plan to build it (design), and the steps (tasks). Once it all checks out, start construction. It's slower than telling the AI to just go in one sentence, but you redo a lot less.

A useful spec usually covers: what users can do, the acceptance criteria for each feature (what counts as done), the states each page can be in (loading, no data, error), and what's explicitly out of scope. The task list breaks features into small steps you can check one at a time.

It works especially well for medium to large features and for work that takes several conversations. The spec lives in your project, and in a new conversation you have the AI read it first, so lost context isn't a worry. Small changes don't need this much formality. Just say clearly what you want.