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OpenSpec Workbench adds a live supervision layer to OpenSpec changes: you can start an agent run, see its last reported activity and age, respond at checkpoints, and request a stop. Those signals help you oversee a run, but they do not tell you whether an agent is stuck or whether its code is correct. The operator still has to judge the plan, progress, and result.
What OpenSpec Workbench adds to OpenSpec
OpenSpec organizes work as a change with reviewable artifacts: a proposal explaining why the change is needed, specification deltas describing requirements, an optional design, and a task checklist. The checklist records implementation progress, but OpenSpec’s artifacts alone are not a live interface for watching an agent run. OpenSpec’s Quickstart describes the change workflow; Workbench’s article describes the additional supervision layer.
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Workbench presents active changes as cards in a Pipeline. From a card, an operator can start a run, answer a checkpoint, or request a stop with a reason. The card reports the run’s last activity, where it is running, and how long ago it reported. Its CLI status command can show runs across a repository, including runs started on another host. This is visibility into reported activity, not an independent assessment of the code or the agent’s internal state.
How the OpenSpec workflow differs from Workbench’s pipeline
OpenSpec’s Quickstart describes a human-reviewed loop: explore, propose, review, apply, and archive. Workbench’s article describes its own six-stage run chain: propose, review, apply, verify, archive, and git. These are not interchangeable lists: Workbench’s chain is its orchestration interface, not a universal OpenSpec default.
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| Aspect | OpenSpec workflow | Workbench supervision |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility | Change artifacts and task checkboxes show the plan and recorded implementation progress. | A run card shows the last reported activity, its age, and where the run is executing. |
| Control | The person reviews artifacts and directs the agent through the AI tool’s workflow. | The operator can configure checkpoints, answer them, and request a stop. |
| Workflow scope | The core profile has six workflows: explore, propose, apply, update, sync, and archive. Verify is optional. | The described Pipeline has propose, review, apply, verify, archive, and git stages. |
| How it is delivered | Setup installs an openspec/ folder and workflow files in the AI tool’s folder; instructions may be delivered as skills or commands depending on the tool. |
A local standalone web application or VS Code extension uses a shared core. |
| Human judgment | A person checks whether the proposal addresses the right problem, requirements define done, and tasks cover those requirements. | A person still reviews the plan and implementation and interprets the run’s reported activity. |
The OpenSpec core-workflow distinction is documented in its profiles guide and setup guide. The Quickstart’s five-step description includes review as a human checkpoint between proposal and implementation.
Review the change before implementation
In the Quickstart, explore investigates the codebase and develops an idea without writing code by default. Propose creates a change folder with the rationale, requirements, optional design decisions, and tasks. Before apply begins, check whether the proposal targets the right problem, whether the requirements make completion clear, and whether the task list covers them. A live run card cannot compensate for a plan that is wrong or incomplete.
Track implementation and archive deliberately
Apply works through the task checklist; checked boxes record progress. Archive updates the main specifications and moves the finished change folder into the archive. OpenSpec also describes sync as a core workflow, while its skills guide says archive syncs remaining specification deltas before moving a finished change. See the OpenSpec skills guide for the workflow contracts.
What run status can—and cannot—tell you
Workbench reports what the run last said and how old that report is. A quiet run may be working slowly, or it may have stopped making progress; the same silence can fit either case. Alexander Ivanov’s 20 September 2026 article puts the limit plainly: “A silent agent and a hung one look identical, and telling them apart is a person’s judgement, so the tool leaves that call to you and gives you the last thing the run said and its age.”
Use the last reported activity as context, then compare it with the task checklist, expected work, and elapsed time for the task at hand. The product materials do not establish that Workbench detects stuck runs, guarantees correct code, or improves delivery speed.
How to request a stop safely
Workbench’s article documents a stop request with an optional reason and a way to let a named task finish before stopping at the next sound point. For example:
openspec-ui-cli stop <instanceId> --reason "wrong branch"
To let a specific task finish before the stop, add --after <task>. The article says the signed request is read at the run’s next renewal and acted on only if it is verified and fresh. This describes the documented product behavior; it is not an independent security test. Choose a task boundary when an immediate interruption could leave work incomplete, and give a reason that will help explain the decision later.
Use checkpoints as review opportunities
Before starting, inspect the proposal, requirements, and tasks. While the agent works, compare reported activity and task completion with that plan. If progress diverges, use a configured checkpoint or request a stop rather than assuming the run will self-correct. Before archiving, review whether the implementation matches the proposal and requirements. If the optional verify workflow is installed, treat its output as a report: OpenSpec documents verify as report-only, not as proof of correctness.
Best Value
Workbench is described as running locally in a standalone web application or VS Code extension. Its product page lists integrations for Claude, GitHub Copilot, Codex, Gemini CLI, and a local model behind an OpenAI-compatible API. The same page listed the standalone application at version 1.52.0 and the VS Code extension at 0.91.0, published 2 October 2026; these are dated release details, not enduring version guarantees. See the Workbench product page for its current product information.
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