Proposal Creation Guide
Guardrails
- •Favor straightforward, minimal implementations first and add complexity only when it is requested or clearly required.
- •Keep changes tightly scoped to the requested outcome.
- •Refer to
spectr/AGENTS.mdandspectr/project.md(located inside thespectr/directory—runls spectr) if you need additional Spectr conventions or clarifications. - •Identify any vague or ambiguous details and ask the necessary follow-up questions before editing files.
Note: You are not implementing yet, you are fully planning and creating the change proposal using spectr.
Steps
- •Review
spectr/project.md, readspectr/specs/andspectr/changes/directories, and inspect related code or docs (e.g., viarg/ls) to ground the proposal in current behaviour; note any gaps that require clarification. - •Choose a unique verb-led
change-idand scaffoldproposal.md,tasks.md, anddesign.md(when needed) underspectr/changes/<id>/. - •Map the change into concrete capabilities or requirements, breaking multi-scope efforts into distinct spec deltas with clear relationships and sequencing.
- •Capture architectural reasoning in
design.mdwhen the solution spans multiple systems, introduces new patterns, or demands trade-off discussion before committing to specs. - •Draft spec deltas in
spectr/changes/<id>/specs/<capability>/spec.md(one folder per capability) using## ADDED|MODIFIED|REMOVED Requirementswith at least one#### Scenario:per requirement and cross-reference related capabilities when relevant. - •Draft
tasks.mdas an ordered list of small, verifiable work items that deliver user-visible progress, include validation (tests, tooling), and highlight dependencies or parallelizable work. Note: After runningspectr accept, bothtasks.md(human-readable) andtasks.jsonc(machine-readable) will coexist—the former preserves formatting and context, while the latter becomes the runtime source of truth. - •Validate with
spectr validate <id>and resolve every issue before sharing the proposal.
Reference
- •Read delta specs directly at
spectr/changes/<id>/specs/<capability>/spec.mdwhen validation fails. - •Read existing specs at
spectr/specs/<capability>/spec.mdto understand current state. - •Search existing requirements with
rg -n "Requirement:|Scenario:" spectr/specsbefore writing new ones. - •Explore the codebase with
rg <keyword>,ls, or direct file reads so proposals align with current implementation realities.