spec-req

name	spec-req
disable-model-invocation	true
description	Look up, trace, and create spec requirements, and bootstrap a new SPEC.md.
argument-hint	<XX-NN | XX | new | init [from <doc>]>

Spec Req

Look up requirements by ID or category, trace them through implementations, and surface gaps in both directions. Also handles creating new requirements.

%%{ init: { 'look': 'handDrawn' } }%%
flowchart TD
    Start(["/sextant:spec-req arg"]) --> Parse

    Parse{"Parse argument"} -->|"XX-NN"| Single["Single requirement lookup"]
    Parse -->|"XX"| Category["Category lookup"]
    Parse -->|"new"| New["New requirement"]
    Parse -->|"init"| Init["Bootstrap new spec"]

    subgraph "Bootstrap"
        Init --> HasDoc{"from doc?"}
        HasDoc -->|"no"| Vision["Gather vision / scope"]
        HasDoc -->|"yes"| ReadDoc["Read source document"]
        ReadDoc --> Vision
        Vision --> Location["Choose spec location"]
        Location --> Scaffold["Write SPEC.md skeleton + STATUS.md stub"]
        Scaffold --> FromDoc{"from doc?"}
        FromDoc -->|"yes"| Populate["Extract EARS requirements into SPEC.md"]
        FromDoc -->|"no"| Handoff["Hand off to 'new' for first requirements"]
        Populate --> Handoff
    end

    subgraph "Lookup"
        Single --> FindSpec["Locate SPEC.md"]
        Category --> FindSpec
        FindSpec --> Extract["Extract matching requirements"]
        Extract --> Table["Present requirement table"]
    end

    subgraph "Trace"
        Table --> Search["Search implementations"]
        Search --> Gaps["Report gaps both directions"]
    end

    subgraph "Create"
        New --> FindSpec2["Locate SPEC.md"]
        FindSpec2 --> Classify["Auto-assign category + number"]
        Classify --> Confirm["User confirms"]
        Confirm --> Write["Write to SPEC.md"]
    end

Locate the spec

Find the current SPEC.md using the shared discovery order in references/locate-spec.md (the source of truth every sextant skill uses). In brief, first hit wins: STATUS.md spec-pointer → spec/ directory (incl. vnext/, exploration/, migration/) → justfile spec variable → CURRENT_SPEC_VERSION → root SPEC.md (or docs/spec.md).

If no SPEC.md is found, ask the user where it is.

Mode: Single requirement (sextant:spec-req XX-NN)

Look up one requirement by its full ID.

1. Find the requirement in SPEC.md. If the ID doesn't exist, say so and suggest nearby IDs in the same category.

2. Present a table with the requirement and its implementation status across all implementations:

| ID    | Requirement              | impl-1       | impl-2       |
|-------|--------------------------|--------------|--------------|
| CM-01 | Config file loading      | Covered      | Partial      |
|       |                          | src/cfg.py:45| src/cfg.js:30|

3. Trace through implementations to find gaps:

   • Implementation gaps — the spec says something the code doesn't do. Search for the requirement ID in comments, grep for keywords from the requirement text, and read relevant code to verify behavior.
   • Spec gaps — the code around this requirement does something the spec doesn't mention. Look at neighboring code, recent commits touching related files, and STATUS.md notes.

4. Report findings below the table:

Gaps found:
  → impl-2: missing env var override (CM-01 says "env vars take precedence")
  → Spec gap: impl-1 supports YAML config (src/cfg.py:62) but spec only mentions JSON

If no gaps are found, say so — a clean result is useful information.

Mode: Category lookup (sextant:spec-req XX)

Look up all requirements in a category.

1. Extract all requirements matching the category prefix from SPEC.md.

2. Present a summary table with implementation status:

## CM — Configuration (4 requirements)

| ID    | Requirement              | Status  | Location          |
|-------|--------------------------|---------|-------------------|
| CM-01 | Config file loading      | Covered | src/cfg.py:45     |
| CM-02 | Env var overrides        | Partial | src/cfg.py:72     |
| CM-03 | Validation on startup    | Missing | —                 |
| CM-04 | Config hot-reload        | FUT     | (deferred)        |

3. Trace each non-FUT requirement through implementations, same as single-requirement mode but summarized. Only report gaps — don't repeat "no gaps" for every covered requirement.

4. Category summary at the bottom:

Coverage: 1/3 active requirements (33%)
Gaps: 2 implementation gaps, 1 spec gap

Mode: New requirement (sextant:spec-req new)

Guide the user through creating a new requirement. This replaces the standalone spec-new-req skill.

Step 1: Classify

Read existing categories and their highest requirement numbers from the spec.

Based on the user's description:

• Match to an existing category if it fits. Use the next available number.
• Create a new category if none fits. Choose a natural-length mnemonic (2–4 chars) that doesn't collide with existing prefixes — the full word when the category name is already short (AUTH, HOOK, REPO), a short abbreviation otherwise (REQ, DEP, DV). Favor readability over a uniform width; these codes are read far more often than they're typed.
• Draft the requirement text in EARS syntax — choose the pattern that fits the requirement's activation. The five patterns (Ubiquitous, State-Driven, Event-Driven, Optional, Unwanted Behaviour) and how they combine live in references/ears-patterns.md.

Present for confirmation:

Proposed requirement:

  [XX-NN] <drafted requirement text>
  Category: <name> (existing|new)

Does this look right?

Step 2: Scope check

After the user confirms:

• Trivial/isolated — ask: "This looks straightforward — implement now, or capture for later?"
• Non-trivial — ask: "This touches [scope]. Implement now, or capture as FUT-NN?"

Step 3: Write

If implementing now:

1. Add to SPEC.md in the appropriate category section, sorted by ID
2. Update STATUS.md with "Missing" for each tracked implementation (the shared Covered/Partial/Missing/Contradicts vocabulary)
3. Flow to implementations — make the change, update STATUS.md to "Covered"

If capturing as future:

1. Add to SPEC.md under "Future Requirements" as [FUT-NN] (→ XX) <requirement text>

Confirm:

Captured [XX-NN]: <short description>
  → SPEC.md updated
  → STATUS.md updated (if applicable)
  → N implementations updated (if applicable)

Mode: Bootstrap a new spec (sextant:spec-req init [from <doc>])

Stand up a spec-driven repo from scratch — there's no SPEC.md yet. This is the zeroth authoring step: once the skeleton exists, every other mode (and the rest of sextant — spec-sync, spec-status, impl-new) operates on it.

Two variants:

• init (no source) — gather vision conversationally and scaffold an empty skeleton; requirements come next via new.
• init from <doc> — treat <doc> (a path or URL to a PRD, design doc, README, RFC, …) as a requirements source: derive vision and concepts from it, then extract its requirements into SPEC.md as EARS statements. The result is a populated spec, not an empty skeleton.

The steps below are shared; the from <doc> additions are called out inline.

Step 1: Confirm there's no spec already

Run the locate order from the top of this skill. If a spec already exists, stop and say so — init is for fresh repos; use new to add requirements to an existing spec.

Step 2: Gather vision and scope

With from <doc>: read the source first (Read for a path, WebFetch for a URL), then derive the vision, key concepts, and candidate requirement categories from its content instead of asking. Confirm the derived contract and category set with the user in one pass rather than interviewing field by field — they can correct the draft. Keep the document open; Step 4b extracts requirements from it.

Without a source — ask for:

• What the project does — the one- or two-sentence contract. This becomes the spec's opening line.
• Key concepts/nouns the spec will reference — these seed the Concepts section so requirement text has defined terms to lean on.
• Anticipated requirement categories (config, CLI, rendering, …) — used to seed empty category sections with natural-length mnemonic prefixes (2–4 chars). Don't force this; a single starter category is fine, and more get added via new.
• Whether multiple implementations are expected — informs the spec location in Step 3.

Step 3: Choose the spec location

Per the standard locate order:

• Root SPEC.md — simplest; for a single-implementation repo or an existing project adopting spec-driven in place.
• spec/<version>/SPEC.md (e.g. spec/v1/SPEC.md) — the versioned layout; pairs with an implementations/<version>/ tree when you expect to explore multiple candidates. Record the version in the justfile spec variable so the other skills resolve it.

Ask which; default to root SPEC.md unless the user expects multiple implementations.

Step 4: Scaffold

Write the SPEC.md skeleton — an EARS preamble, a Concepts section, and empty categorized requirement sections (no requirements yet):

# <project> — Specification

<one- or two-sentence contract from Step 2>

Requirements use [EARS syntax](https://alistairmavin.com/ears) — each is one of:
Ubiquitous (`The <system> shall …`), State-Driven (`While …`), Event-Driven
(`When …`), Optional (`Where …`), or Unwanted Behaviour (`If … then …`).

## Concepts

- **<term>** — <definition>

## Requirements

### <PREFIX> — <category name>

_(none yet — add with `/sextant:spec-req new`)_

Then write a STATUS.md stub in the canonical shape that spec-status maintains (zero requirements so far), and — if the versioned layout was chosen — note the implementations/<version>/ convention, or document that the repo starts with a single root implementation.

Without a source: do not invent requirements during init. The skeleton is empty by design; requirements come next via new. (This restriction is lifted for from <doc>, where the document is the requirements source — see below.)

Step 4b: Populate from the source document (from <doc> only)

When a source document was passed, the category sections are not left empty — extract the document's requirements into them:

1. Extract candidate requirements from the document read in Step 2. Capture every distinct behavior, constraint, or rule it states — favor coverage; the user prunes in confirmation.
2. Classify and number each candidate into the categories from Step 2 (the same classification logic as new Step 1: match an existing category or mint a natural-length mnemonic (2–4 chars), assign the next number per category).
3. Draft each in EARS syntax — pick the pattern that fits the requirement's activation (Ubiquitous, State-Driven, Event-Driven, Optional, Unwanted Behaviour), exactly as in new Step 1.
4. Present the full extracted set for confirmation as a table grouped by category, so the user can correct wording, drop noise, or re-bucket before anything lands:

Extracted N requirements from <doc>:

### CM — Configuration
  [CM-01] When the CLI starts, the system shall load config from <path>.
  [CM-02] If a required key is missing, then the system shall exit non-zero.

### RN — Rendering
  [RN-01] The system shall render output as <format>.

Confirm, edit, or drop any before I write them.

5. Bulk-write the confirmed set into SPEC.md under their category sections, sorted by ID, replacing the _(none yet …)_ placeholders. Seed STATUS.md accordingly (every requirement starts uncovered, since no implementation exists yet). Note in your summary that these requirements are derived from the document and should be reviewed against it — extraction is a draft, not an authority.

Step 5: Hand off

Report what was scaffolded.

Without a source — flow into new for the first real requirement:

Scaffolded:
  → SPEC.md (EARS preamble, Concepts, N empty category sections)
  → STATUS.md stub
  → spec location: <root SPEC.md | spec/v1/SPEC.md, justfile spec=v1>

Next: add your first requirement — /sextant:spec-req new

With from <doc> — report the populated spec:

Scaffolded from <doc>:
  → SPEC.md (EARS preamble, Concepts, N requirements across M categories)
  → STATUS.md (N requirements, all uncovered)
  → spec location: <root SPEC.md | spec/v1/SPEC.md, justfile spec=v1>

Review the extracted requirements against the source, then start an
implementation — /sextant:impl-new — or refine with /sextant:spec-req new.

Multiple implementations

When multiple implementations exist, always show status per implementation in the table columns rather than a single status. This is where spec-driven development gets its value — disagreements between implementations often reveal spec ambiguities.