Spec

Spec MCP Server is an AI-assisted development companion that analyzes your codebase, generates a planning and steering framework, breaks down work into actionable tasks, and verifies implementations. It helps you plan migrations, feature work, and refactors with evidence-driven guidance, reducing risk and accelerating delivery.

How to use

You use Spec MCP Server through an MCP client (such as your editor’s MCP integration or Claude Code). Start by adding the Spec MCP server to your MCP configuration, then invoke the server through prompts that ask it to analyze your codebase, search related documentation, generate actionable tasks, and implement them via the task orchestrator.

How to install

Prerequisites: you need Node.js installed on your machine. You can verify installation with node -v and npm -v.

Add the Spec MCP server to your MCP configuration for your editor or client. Use the following approach based on your environment.

{
  "servers": {
    "spec": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "spec-mcp@latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Additional setup tips

If you prefer other editors or CLI workflows, you can use analogous configurations shown for different clients, all pointing to the same runtime command: npx -y spec-mcp@latest.

Notes on workflow

1. Analyze Codebase: Run the analysis to create steering docs that guide future work. The analysis yields product.md, tech.md, and structure.md in the .spec/steering/ directory. You can regenerate them later with the appropriate force option if needed.

2. Search Documentation: Look up frameworks, APIs, or migration guides relevant to your goal using the Context7 MCP, e.g., Search docs with Context7 MCP for [topic/framework/library].

3. Generate Tasks: From your goal and the analysis, generate a tasks.md that includes an overview, requirements, implementable tasks, dependencies, and tests. This creates .spec/specs/tasks.md.

4. Implement Tasks: Use the task orchestrator to execute tasks in the right order, handle dependencies, and verify completion.

Available tools

generate-codebase-analysis

Analyzes the codebase and produces foundational steering documents (product.md, tech.md, structure.md) in .spec/steering.

generate-tasks

Generates a tasks.md (plan and task breakdown) from your request and codebase, including overview, requirements, tasks, dependencies, and testing guidance.

task-orchestrator

Plans and coordinates task execution by resolving dependencies and identifying parallelizable tasks.

task-executor

Provides detailed guidance and patterns to implement a specific task from tasks.md.

task-checker

Verifies that a task’s acceptance criteria are met, optionally running builds and tests, and reports PASS or FAIL.