Spec-Driven Development — Spec-driven development is an approach in which a clear specification — requirements, acceptance criteria, and constraints — is authored before implementation and treated as the source of truth that guides (and, ideally, is enforced against) the code that follows.
Spec-driven development pushes the thinking upfront: resolve ambiguity in the spec before it becomes ambiguity in the code. In AI-native delivery this becomes essential, because a coding agent's output is only as good as the specification it's given.
The failure mode is spec drift — specs that fall out of sync with the implementation until they can't be trusted. Spec-driven development only pays off if specs stay linked to code and are checked against it over time.
Skaftor operationalizes spec-driven development: intent is captured as structured requirements and blueprints, compiled into work orders agents execute, and kept honest by linking specs to code and detecting drift.
Tickets are often vague prose disconnected from the code. Spec-driven development treats a structured specification — with acceptance criteria and constraints — as the source of truth, ideally linked to the code and checked against it, so intent stays enforceable rather than decorative.
A work order is a self-contained, agent-executable unit of software work: a scoped task co…
Spec drift is the gradual, usually silent divergence between what a specification says a s…
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Last updated July 28, 2026 · https://skaftor.com/glossary/spec-driven-development