spec-shaping_skill

Overview

This skill shapes product ideas into clear specs and actionable sprint plans. It supports in-depth interviewing to narrow vague problems and a sprint-breakdown mode that produces atomic tasks, demoable sprints, and verifiable validation criteria. Use it to turn a fuzzy plan into a repeatable engineering roadmap.

How this skill works

In Interview mode, the skill asks targeted, non-obvious questions to narrow the problem, surface hidden dependencies, and confirm the true user need before writing or updating a spec file. In Sprint Breakdown mode, it reads an existing spec, produces a task registry with stable IDs and dependencies, groups tasks into demoable sprints, and annotates each task with concrete validation criteria and traceability back to spec sections.

When to use it

• You have a rough product idea that needs precise scoping
• You want to validate that a problem is well-framed before building
• You need to decompose a ready spec into atomic tasks and sprints
• You want to surface hidden technical or UX risks early
• You are preparing a spec file and want consistent document hygiene

Best practices

• Search existing specs before creating new files; update when the core problem identity remains the same
• Name files with a semantic title and date, include frontmatter status and last-modified date
• Keep a Context header and a Changelog section; log only significant scope changes
• Make tasks atomic and include explicit validation criteria for each task
• Order tasks so dependencies are done first and reserve 10–20% of sprint capacity for research/spikes

Example use cases

• Interview a PM who proposes “build a calendar” and narrow it to a single, testable feature spec
• Take a completed spec and produce T1..Tn task registry with dependencies and sprint groupings
• Refine a pivoted product direction by updating the existing spec file and adding a changelog entry
• Run a subagent review on a complex sprint plan to catch circular dependencies or oversized tasks
• Convert UX mockups and acceptance criteria into demoable first-sprint deliverables