openspec-continue-change

name	openspec-continue-change
description	Continue an OpenSpec change by creating the next ready artifact. Use when the user wants to keep advancing proposal, specs, design, tasks, or similar artifacts without entering code implementation yet.
license	MIT
compatibility	Requires openspec CLI.
metadata	{"author":"openspec","version":"1.2","generatedBy":"custom"}

Continue an OpenSpec change, but create only the next ready artifact each time.

Core Positioning

• OpenSpec owns change selection, artifact dependencies, status, and instructions
• Superpowers owns requirement convergence and task decomposition
• Advance only one artifact at a time
• The continue stage does not implement business code

Exact Skill Protocol

• When this route is matched, you must call the corresponding exact skill name
• Do not substitute a similar local skill, todo list, manual breakdown, or long-form reasoning
• If the exact skill is unavailable, report that explicitly and pause the current routing

Capability Routing

• If the current artifact depends on unclear goals, boundaries, or approaches, use superpowers:brainstorming first
• If the current artifact is tasks.md, call superpowers:writing-plans by default
• In the continue stage, writing-plans only serves the entire tasks.md
• Do not generate docs/superpowers/plans/... or any extra master plan

Input

You may specify a change name. If none is given, first determine which change should be continued.

Execution Steps

1. Select the change

• If the user provided a change name, use it directly
• Otherwise, run openspec list --json
• If multiple candidates exist, do not guess; let the user choose

2. Check status

Run:

openspec status --change "<name>" --json

Read:

• schemaName
• artifacts
• isComplete

If isComplete: true, show the final status and stop.

3. Choose the current ready artifact

• If any artifact has status: "ready", create only the first one
• If there is no ready artifact, show the current status and explain that progress cannot continue yet

4. Read instructions and generate the artifact

Run:

openspec instructions <artifact-id> --change "<name>" --json

Then:

1. Read dependency artifacts
2. Write the file using the template structure
3. Treat context and rules as constraints
4. Do not copy those constraint blocks verbatim into the artifact

5. Apply routing based on artifact type

• proposal / specs / design: if continuing to write would create false certainty, call superpowers:brainstorming first
• tasks: draft it first, then call superpowers:writing-plans to refine the full tasks.md into an executable task structure

Apply these explicit constraints to writing-plans:

• Improve only the current change's tasks.md
• Do not pre-split the apply stage into per-task micro-plans
• Do not generate a separate master plan file
• Keep the task list concise by default

6. Show progress

After creating one artifact, run again:

openspec status --change "<name>"

Show:

• Which artifact was created this round
• The current schema
• The current completion progress
• Which artifacts were unlocked next

Guardrails

• Create only one artifact at a time
• Always read dependency artifacts before creating a new artifact
• Do not skip artifacts or create them out of order
• If the context is unclear, converge first instead of forcing a write
• Verify the file was written to the correct location before reporting progress
• Do not implement business code during the continue stage
• In the continue stage, writing-plans is only for the full tasks.md