technical-specification

name	technical-specification
description	Creates detailed technical specifications for software projects covering requirements, architecture, APIs, and testing strategies. Use when planning features, documenting system design, or creating architecture decision records.
license	MIT

Technical Specification

Create comprehensive technical specifications for software projects.

Specification Template

# Technical Specification: [Feature Name]

## Metadata
- **Status**: Draft | In Review | Approved
- **Author**: [Name]
- **Reviewers**: [Names]
- **Last Updated**: [Date]

## Executive Summary
[2-3 sentences: What problem does this solve? What's the proposed solution?]

## Background & Context
- Current pain points
- Why now?
- Related work

## Goals
### Primary Goals
1. [Measurable goal]

### Non-Goals
- [What this spec explicitly does NOT cover]

## Functional Requirements
| ID | Requirement | Priority |
|----|-------------|----------|
| FR-1 | [Description] | P0 |
| FR-2 | [Description] | P1 |

## Non-Functional Requirements
- **Performance**: Response time < 200ms
- **Scalability**: Support 10K concurrent users
- **Availability**: 99.9% uptime
- **Security**: [Requirements]

## Technical Design

### Architecture
[Diagram or description]

### API Design

POST /api/v1/resource Request: { "field": "value" } Response: { "id": "123", "field": "value" }

### Database Schema
```sql
CREATE TABLE resources (
  id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
  field VARCHAR(255)
);

Implementation Plan

Phase	Timeline	Deliverables
1	Week 1-2	Core functionality
2	Week 3	API endpoints
3	Week 4	Testing & docs

Testing Strategy

• Unit tests: 80% coverage
• Integration tests: API endpoints
• E2E tests: Critical flows

Risks & Mitigations

Risk	Probability	Impact	Mitigation
[Risk]	Medium	High	[Plan]

Success Criteria

• All P0 requirements implemented
• Tests passing
• Performance targets met
• Documentation complete

## Full Template

See [references/template.md](references/template.md) for a comprehensive copy-paste template including:
- Complete metadata section
- Success metrics tables
- Architecture diagrams
- Detailed API design sections
- Security threat analysis
- Monitoring & observability
- Risk assessment matrix
- Rollout and rollback plans
- Dependencies tracking
- Open questions section

## Best Practices

**Do:**
- Include measurable acceptance criteria
- Add architecture diagrams
- Define explicit API contracts
- Quantify performance targets
- Document risks and mitigations
- Get stakeholder review before implementation
- Include security considerations
- Define rollback procedures

**Don't:**
- Use vague requirements ("fast", "scalable")
- Skip non-functional requirements
- Ignore security considerations
- Leave alternatives unexplored
- Omit testing strategy
- Forget dependencies and risks