| name | community-spec-kit-pilot |
| description | Pilot a community Spec Kit extension without pretending it is trusted, official, or a hard gate |
| domain | developer-workflow, governance |
| confidence | high |
| source | earned (2026-04-24 batalla-ias ci-guard pilot) |
Context
Sometimes a community Spec Kit extension fits a real repo gap, but the upstream package is not
verified and may not even install cleanly against the pinned official CLI. In that case, do the
boring thing: pin provenance, patch only what is required for compatibility, and keep the rollout
advisory until the repo explicitly decides otherwise.
Patterns
Validate installability against the pinned CLI first
- Check the extension catalog/README, but also run the install against the repo-pinned Spec Kit CLI.
- If the upstream manifest fails validation, do not hand-wave it away.
- Capture the concrete incompatibility in repo docs or decisions.
Vendor a local pilot when compatibility is the only blocker
- Keep the upstream repo, commit, and license explicit.
- Patch only the minimum needed for reproducible install (for example, command namespace fixes).
- Store the pilot source in-repo and install from that local source so future setup does not depend on a mutable remote tag.
Separate official setup from community setup
- Keep the official CLI/integration setup path clean.
- Add a separate
speckit:ci:setup-style entrypoint for the community pilot.
- Make the warning unavoidable: community, unverified, advisory.
Advisory first, gates later
- Start with report/check/drift workflows.
- Default all
fail_* settings to false until the team explicitly chooses a merge gate.
- Document how humans and agents should invoke the pilot so it does not become shelfware.
Anti-Patterns
- Installing an unverified community extension silently through the same path as official tooling
- Depending on a mutable upstream tag when a local pinned pilot is easy
- Treating advisory findings as blockers without a recorded team decision
- Patching the extension so heavily that provenance becomes unclear