Author

Gary Newport

Spec-kit

Spec-kit is a collection of AI-Ready Specification Templates for various common features. These templates are designed to help developers create clear and comprehensive specifications that can be used to guide AI-driven code generation.

Spec-kit templates follow the CARE framework, which stands for Context, Action, Result, and Evaluation. This framework helps ensure that specifications are detailed and structured in a way that minimizes ambiguity and enhances the quality of AI-generated code.

Spec-Kit includes templates for a variety of features, such as user authentication, data validation, API endpoints, and more. Each template provides a structured format that developers can fill out with specific details relevant to their project.

Spec-kit aims to streamline the process of creating AI-ready specifications, making it easier for developers to leverage AI tools effectively in their code development workflows.

Spec-kit works with most AI code generation tools, including OpenAI’s Codex, GitHub Copilot, and Anthropic’s Claude. By using these templates, developers can improve the accuracy and reliability of the code generated by AI models.

Spec-kit is a CLI that is installed and run locally from VS Code. Spec-kit sets up a .specify folder in your project root with markdown templates for common features. The .specify folder will intitally contain templates such as:

* Memory - which should include your constituional principles for AI code generation.
* Scripts - which contains helper scripts to generate SPEC.md files from templates.
* Templates - which contains markdown files for various common features.

The .specify/Templates folder includes the following AI-Ready Specification Templates:

  • README.md - Overview of Spec-kit and how to use it.
  • spec-driven.md - Guide to Spec-Driven Development and CARE framework.
  • auth-spec.md - AI-Ready Specification Template for User Authentication feature.
  • data-validation-spec.md - AI-Ready Specification Template for Data Validation feature.
  • api-endpoint-spec.md - AI-Ready Specification Template for API Endpoint feature.
  • pagination-spec.md - AI-Ready Specification Template for Pagination feature.
  • error-handling-spec.md - AI-Ready Specification Template for Error Handling feature.
  • logging-spec.md - AI-Ready Specification Template for Logging feature.
  • rate-limiting-spec.md - AI-Ready Specification Template for Rate Limiting feature.
  • file-upload-spec.md - AI-Ready Specification Template for File Upload feature.

References