SDD Spec Architect

Software projects often stall due to ambiguous requirements and unplanned technical debt. This skill acts as a Specification-Driven Development (SDD) architect to bridge the gap between high-level ideas and executable code. It enforces a rigorous pre-coding phase where system design, edge cases, and dependency-ordered tasks are defined before a single line of logic is written.

What it does

• Requirement Analysis: Converts vague objectives into numbered functional and nonfunctional requirements.
• System Architecture: Proposes data contracts, failure paths, and rollback strategies while recording architectural decisions.
• Task Orchestration: Generates dependency-ordered implementation tasks mapped directly to requirement IDs.
• Traceability Auditing: Ensures every requirement has at least one measurable acceptance criterion and verification step.
• Risk Assessment: Identifies blockers, security considerations, and unknowns that require stakeholder approval.

How it works

1. Context Analysis: The agent scans the repository, project conventions, and existing modules to distinguish facts from assumptions.
2. Scoping: It defines goals, non-goals, and constraints while surfacing targeted questions for any discovered ambiguities.
3. Spec Drafting: The agent builds the technical specification, including architecture decisions and measurable acceptance criteria.
4. Tasking: It breaks down the plan into prioritized tasks with inputs, outputs, and verifiable completion triggers.

Frameworks & tools

This skill is framework-agnostic and works with any stack. It is designed for use within agentic IDEs like Claude Code, Cursor, or Windsurf that support SKILL.md definitions and local repository context.

Why this beats prompting it yourself

Standard prompts often skip the "audit" phase, leading to missing edge cases or circular dependencies. This skill enforces a structured SDD workflow that separates planning from execution, ensuring every task is grounded in verified repository context rather than AI hallucinations.

Use cases

• Translate a messy PRD or Slack thread into a formal technical design document.
• Map out complex feature migrations where dependency ordering is critical.
• Create testable acceptance criteria for QA and engineering alignment.
• Audit existing project context to identify technical risks before starting a sprint.

Known limitations

The skill requires clear user objectives and repository access to be effective. It will not execute code or perform destructive operations like git merges without explicit separate authorization.