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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsSpec-driven development (SDD) is a way to build software in which an explicit, editable specification guides an AI coding agent from requirements through design, implementation, and testing. Rather than relying on a one-off prompt, the team gives the agent a working contract: what the software must do, what constraints apply, how the work is divided, and how success will be checked. This can make intent and decisions easier to inspect, but it does not guarantee correct code.
What spec-driven development means
In SDD, a specification is not merely background documentation. It is an active guide for planning and implementation. People and AI agents refine the requirements, derive a technical approach and task list, implement the work, and check the result against the stated criteria. The artifacts should be updated when implementation exposes a genuine gap or a changed requirement.
GitHub Spec Kit presents a sequence that carries intent through specification, planning, tasks, implementation, and convergence. Kiro describes a related set of requirement, design, and task artifacts, with workflows for carrying them into execution. These are documented tool workflows, not proof that SDD always improves quality or productivity. GitHub Spec Kit documentation; Kiro Feature Specs.
How the workflow works with an AI coding agent
- Describe the outcome and constraints. Explain the user-visible behavior, scope, relevant edge cases, and technical or operational constraints. Keep unresolved assumptions explicit so the agent does not silently decide a consequential question. GitHub describes Spec Kit as a way to turn vague prompts into clearer intent. GitHub’s Spec Kit announcement.
- Write observable requirements. State what the system should do in terms that can be checked. Kiro documents EARS-style requirements, which express behavior conditionally—for example, what the system shall do when a particular condition occurs. Ask the agent to identify ambiguity, conflicts, and missing cases, then edit the requirements yourself as needed. Kiro Feature Specs.
- Choose a requirements-first or design-first path. If the intended behavior is understood, start with requirements and derive the technical design. If an existing architecture, pseudocode, or strict nonfunctional constraint is already decisive, begin with that design context and shape feasible requirements around it. Kiro documents both approaches; neither is universally the right starting point. Kiro Feature Specs; Kiro Best practices.
- Break the work into tasks. Turn requirements and design decisions into discrete, trackable tasks. Keep dependencies and acceptance criteria visible, so a reviewer can see what each task is meant to deliver. GitHub Spec Kit and Kiro both document task artifacts as part of their workflows. GitHub Spec Kit documentation; Kiro Feature Specs.
- Implement with the relevant artifacts in context. Give the agent the requirements, design, and task details needed for its current work. Review the changes rather than treating generated output as approved. If implementation reveals a real requirement or design issue, revise the relevant artifact instead of letting code and specification drift apart. Kiro Best practices.
- Validate and converge. Run suitable tests, inspect each acceptance criterion, and revise the code or specification where needed. Kiro documents optional property-based tests connected to requirements and tasks. A passing test suite is evidence, not proof: a test may encode a weak property or fail to represent an important requirement. Kiro Correctness.
When to use more review gates—and when to move faster
The amount of structure should reflect uncertainty and the cost of getting a decision wrong. For unfamiliar work, interacting requirements, or significant reliability or compliance consequences, review requirements before design and design before implementation if those checkpoints could catch expensive misunderstandings. For well-understood work, a team may choose a quicker generated sequence and review the artifacts afterward.
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Kiro’s Quick Spec workflow skips approval gates between generated requirements, design, and tasks while keeping the artifacts editable. Its standard specs are intended for work where iteration and review matter. These are the vendor’s descriptions and recommendations, not independent evidence that one workflow produces better results. Kiro Best practices.
For a large task, sequential steps, independent reviews, and validation can help coordinate the work. That orchestration has a cost: Kiro notes that multi-step workflows use more tokens than a single session. Add those steps when their review and evidence are worth the extra coordination and agent use. Kiro Workflows.
How to choose an SDD workflow
| Decision | Choose this when | What to weigh |
|---|---|---|
| Requirements-first or design-first | Use requirements-first when desired behavior is clearer than the technical solution; use design-first when architecture, pseudocode, or a strict technical constraint already shapes feasible behavior. | Which information is already known, and which decisions still need to be explored? Kiro Feature Specs |
| Review-gated or accelerated | Use phase-by-phase review when uncertainty or the consequences of error justify checkpoints; consider an accelerated workflow for familiar work when reviewers can inspect the generated artifacts afterward. | Whether approval between phases is likely to catch a costly misunderstanding. Kiro describes Quick Spec and standard specs, but does not establish comparative outcomes. Kiro Best practices |
| Single-session or multi-step orchestration | Use sequential steps and added review for work that benefits from coordination; keep the workflow simpler when the added checks are not worth their cost. | Review and validation needs versus additional coordination and token use. Kiro Workflows |
| Test strategy | Use tests tied to actual requirements and acceptance criteria; consider property-based tests where they express meaningful properties of the system. | Whether each test represents a real requirement, rather than merely passing. Tests increase confidence but do not establish correctness. Kiro Correctness |
What SDD can and cannot establish
SDD makes intent, acceptance criteria, and work breakdown more explicit and gives an agent durable context beyond a single prompt. That structure can make decisions and progress easier to inspect. It cannot ensure that requirements are complete, that an agent implements them correctly, or that tests cover the behavior that matters.
The official tool documentation describes workflows and features; it does not establish that SDD causally improves software quality, safety, or delivery speed compared with other approaches. A team that wants to assess its own results can compare against its baseline using measures such as missed acceptance criteria, defects escaping review, rework, review time, and end-to-end delivery time. Those are evaluation measures to track, not published findings about SDD.
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