Spec forge

Spec-Forge Orchestrator

Spec-forge is a documentation and specification workflow suite. This root skill is the Codex-facing orchestrator: decide which child skill to load, keep the document chain coherent, and avoid loading large generation references until they are needed.

Trigger Patterns

Use this skill when the user asks for any of the following:

• Start or refine an idea before specs: use skills/idea/SKILL.md
• Split a large project into sub-features: use skills/decompose/SKILL.md
• Write a PRD or product requirements document: use skills/prd-generation/SKILL.md
• Write an SRS, requirements spec, or functional/non-functional requirements: use skills/srs-generation/SKILL.md
• Write a technical design, architecture doc, design doc, or RFC: use skills/tech-design-generation/SKILL.md
• Generate test cases, QA coverage, or a test case matrix: use skills/test-cases-generation/SKILL.md
• Review spec-forge documents for quality and consistency: use skills/review/SKILL.md
• Audit project docs against code: use skills/audit/SKILL.md
• Analyze a document ecosystem for themes, conflicts, gaps, redundancy, or staleness: use skills/analyze/SKILL.md
• Propagate an upstream doc change downstream: use skills/propagate/SKILL.md
• Run the full chain for a feature: orchestrate idea -> decompose -> tech-design -> review

Also treat slash-like requests as aliases:

User request	Route
/spec-forge <name>	Full chain
/spec-forge:idea <name> or /idea <name>	Idea
/spec-forge:decompose <name> or /decompose <name>	Decompose
/spec-forge:tech-design <name> or /tech-design <name>	Tech Design
/spec-forge:prd <name> or /prd <name>	PRD
/spec-forge:srs <name> or /srs <name>	SRS
/spec-forge:test-cases <target> or /test-cases <target>	Test Cases
/spec-forge:review <name> or /review <name>	Review
/spec-forge:audit [path] or /audit [path]	Audit
/spec-forge:analyze [path] or /analyze [path]	Analyze
/spec-forge:propagate ... or /propagate ...	Propagate

The commands/*.md files are compatibility command definitions from the original Claude-oriented implementation. In Codex, prefer reading the child skills/*/SKILL.md files directly. Use commands/spec-forge.md only as an additional orchestration reference if you need more detail about the full chain.

Progressive Loading

Keep context small.

1. Read this root file first.
2. Read only the child SKILL.md matching the user's request.
3. When a child skill references skills/shared/project-context.md, read it if the workflow needs code/project awareness.
4. When a child skill references skills/shared/doc-first.md, apply it before generating or editing docs.
5. When a child skill invokes the script layer, read skills/shared/scripts.md once to resolve <sf_scripts>; do not read the scripts' source unless you need to debug them.
6. Read generation references, templates, or checklists only when that child skill explicitly needs them.

Do not bulk-load every child skill. Do not read every reference folder just because the suite is complex.

Global Rules

• Preserve the user's requested language. If the user writes in Chinese, respond and write user-facing explanations in Chinese unless the target document convention requires English.
• Treat docs as current truth, not history. Before generating a new spec, scan for existing related docs and decide whether to reuse, edit, or create.
• Do not create parallel versions such as prd-v2.md, new-tech-design.md, or addendum files. Edit the canonical file in place unless no canonical document exists.
• Keep traceability stable: preserve existing requirement IDs, feature names, component names, and section titles unless the user explicitly asks to rename them.
• When changing upstream docs, identify downstream impact. Either update affected downstream docs or recommend/run the propagate workflow.
• Every finding in review, audit, analyze, or propagate output must cite concrete files/sections. Do not invent issues.
• Prefer project-local conventions and existing docs over generic templates.
• Ask only necessary questions. If existing docs or code provide the answer, use them and state the assumption.

Shared Project Context

For generation workflows that need grounding in the actual codebase, use:

skills/shared/project-context.md

Apply it before PRD, SRS, tech-design, decompose, and test-cases work when the project exists. It produces a concise summary of:

• Project profile
• Language, framework, database, auth, testing, and CI signals
• Existing documents and upstream specs
• Architecture and module boundaries
• Existing test infrastructure when relevant

For the full chain, scan project context once and reuse the summary across stages instead of repeatedly rescanning the same repository.

Script Layer

spec-forge ships a small layer of deterministic Python 3 (standard-library-only) helpers under skills/shared/scripts/ that absorb the mechanical, token-heavy bookkeeping the skills used to do by hand — project + document scanning (sf-scan.py), configuration/directory resolution (sf-config.py), document structure/ID validation (sf-verify-doc.py), and traceability/coverage math (sf-trace.py). The division of labour: the scripts keep the record-keeping; the model keeps the reasoning (requirement quality, architecture trade-offs, conflict judgement). Every skill that calls a script keeps a silent manual fallback for when python3 is unavailable.

How to locate and invoke the scripts, and which one does what:

skills/shared/scripts.md

Prefer the fast path (run the script, use its JSON) over re-deriving the same facts by hand. Never restate a script's algorithm in prose — the script is the single source of truth so the two cannot drift.

Document Discipline

For any document creation or edit, apply:

skills/shared/doc-first.md

Minimum pre-write checklist:

1. List relevant existing docs under docs/, specs/, design/, architecture/, ideas/, and the project root.
2. Grep for the feature name, domain terms, requirement IDs, component names, and aliases.
3. Decide for each topic: reuse existing content, extend existing content, or create new content.
4. Preserve stable IDs and terminology.
5. Note downstream docs that will need updates.

Full Chain

When the user asks for /spec-forge <name> or "run the full spec-forge chain", execute this sequence:

1. Idea: Use skills/idea/SKILL.md.

   • Goal: validate demand and produce ideas/{name}/draft.md.
   • If a ready or graduated idea already exists, reuse it.
   • If the idea is still exploring/refining, warn the user before continuing.

2. Decompose: Use skills/decompose/SKILL.md.

   • Goal: decide single feature vs multi-split project.
   • Multi-split output: docs/project-{name}.md with a first-line FEATURE_MANIFEST block.

3. Tech Design + Feature Specs: Use skills/tech-design-generation/SKILL.md.

   • Single feature output: docs/{name}/tech-design.md.
   • Multi-split output: one tech design per sub-feature.
   • The tech-design workflow also generates implementation-facing feature specs under docs/features/.
   • If ideas/{name}/draft.md exists, use it for user scenarios, acceptance criteria, success metrics, scope, and goals.

4. Review: Use skills/review/SKILL.md.

   • Review generated tech designs and docs/features/*.md.
   • Auto-fix only where the review skill permits it.
   • Leave review comments where domain knowledge is missing.

PRD, SRS, and test cases are optional on-demand outputs, not required stages in the default full chain.

Single-Skill Routes

Idea

Read skills/idea/SKILL.md.

Use for early exploration, demand validation, competitive research, and anti-pseudo-requirement checks. Output lives in top-level ideas/{idea-name}/, not under docs/.

Decompose

Read skills/decompose/SKILL.md.

Use for deciding whether a project is one feature or several independently specifiable sub-features. If multi-split, generate docs/project-{name}.md.

PRD

Read skills/prd-generation/SKILL.md.

Use for product requirements, stakeholder alignment, product strategy, market context, personas, user stories, priorities, success metrics, and timelines.

SRS

Read skills/srs-generation/SKILL.md.

Use for formal functional/non-functional requirements, requirement IDs, interfaces, data requirements, acceptance criteria, and traceability matrices.

Tech Design

Read skills/tech-design-generation/SKILL.md.

Use for architecture/design docs, RFCs, API design, data model design, deployment, observability, security, performance, alternatives, and generated feature specs.

Test Cases

Read skills/test-cases-generation/SKILL.md.

Use for test case generation, coverage matrices, test strategy, testable unit extraction, and code/spec-driven QA planning. Honor --formal when requested.

Review

Read skills/review/SKILL.md.

Use after spec generation to check completeness, specificity, internal consistency, traceability, and actionability. Findings first; fixes only where allowed.

Audit

Read skills/audit/SKILL.md.

Use when auditing one project that has docs and code. It checks documentation quality, completeness, consistency, staleness, and alignment with the codebase.

Analyze

Read skills/analyze/SKILL.md.

Use for docs-only or cross-repo document landscapes. It maps themes, conflicts, gaps, redundancies, and stale areas without assuming a single codebase.

Propagate

Read skills/propagate/SKILL.md.

Use after upstream document changes. It finds downstream docs affected by changed concepts and updates them surgically or reports unresolved stale references.

Output Locations

Default locations:

• Ideas: ideas/{name}/
• PRD: docs/{name}/prd.md
• SRS: docs/{name}/srs.md
• Tech design: docs/{name}/tech-design.md
• Feature specs: docs/features/*.md
• Test cases: docs/{name}/test-cases.md or the path specified by the child skill
• Project manifest: docs/project-{name}.md
• Audit report: {target-docs-path}/audit-report.md
• Analysis report: {target-root}/analysis-report.md

If existing project conventions differ, follow the existing convention and state the location you used.

Completion Criteria

Before finishing a spec-forge task:

• Confirm the requested document or report exists, or explain why it could not be written.
• Mention the exact files changed or generated.
• For generation tasks, note whether project context and existing docs were scanned.
• For review/audit/analyze tasks, summarize findings by severity and cite the report path.
• For chain tasks, summarize which stages completed and which optional stages remain.