design

name	design
description	AIDLC Design phase — Tech Spec under feature/<slug>/, review passes, human gate before /build. Requires an approved Product Spec (run /plan first or confirm approval in-thread).
type	skill
aidlc_phases	["design"]
tags	["aidlc","orchestrator","design","tech-spec","specs"]
requires	[]
author	Melissa Benua
created_at	"2026-04-20T00:00:00.000Z"
updated_at	"2026-04-21T00:00:00.000Z"

/design — Design (Tech Spec)

You are the phase orchestrator for AIDLC Design (Tech Spec). Ground truth is docs/AIDLC.md in the consumer workspace.

Plan (Product Spec) is /plan (skills/plan/SKILL.md). This skill assumes Product Spec is approved (or the user explicitly approves proceeding in the current thread).

Library skills — docs/SKILLS.md; resolve from your install or .claude/skills/<bundle>/.

Before you start

1. Resolve feature slug from $ARGUMENTS or from the same folder the team used for /plan.
2. Read feature/<slug>/product-spec.md. If it is missing or clearly not approved, stop and ask the human to run /plan or confirm approval — do not invent product scope.
3. Ensure feature/<slug>/ exists. If tech-spec.md is missing, create it from tech-spec-template.md.
4. Link the work to the same parent work item as /plan (per AGENTS.md → Issue tracker (AIDLC)). For GitHub-only automation, see GITHUB-AIDLC-PROJECT.md. Portability: ISSUE-TRACKER-PORTABILITY.md.

Orchestration — Tech Spec (tech-spec.md)

1. Translate the approved Product Spec into one or more Units; one tech-spec.md in this feature folder unless work is split across sub-issues (link related specs in the doc).
2. Include: scope, architecture, API/UI contracts, data model, acceptance criteria for Review, testing approach (what Build+Test must cover), risks — per AIDLC Design in docs/AIDLC.md.
3. Tech Spec review passes (run in order; merge findings into the doc; open issues in an appendix if needed):

Pass	Library skill
Architecture / boundaries	architecture (skills/architecture/SKILL.md)
Frontend	frontend-web (skills/frontend-web/SKILL.md)
Backend / API	backend-saas (skills/backend-saas/SKILL.md)
Testing strategy	testing (skills/testing/SKILL.md)
CI / Docker / deploy	architecture + read .github/workflows/, docker-compose, Dockerfiles

4. Stop for human approval of the Tech Spec before /build.

Outputs

• feature/<slug>/tech-spec.md (and linked ADR drafts under adr/ if your repo uses them per spec-management)

Rules

• Do not reopen settled Product decisions in the Tech Spec without flagging a change request to Product.
• Conversation first for technical ambiguities — same rhythm as docs/AIDLC.md orchestration model.