New term: spec-driven development

2025-07-14 · Publisher : AWS (Kiro) · Domain : Artificial Intelligence

Spec-driven development has requirements, design and a task plan written before any code: the specification becomes the source of truth the agent executes. AWS's Kiro launched the approach in July 2025.

### Definition **Spec-driven development** has the agent produce, and the human validate, a written specification before any line of code. Requirements, design and a task breakdown become versioned files the agent follows to implement. ### Origin Specifying before coding is an old idea, but the term took hold in the AI era on July 14, 2025, when AWS released a preview of Kiro, an agentic IDE built around "specs". Its authors, Nikhil Swaminathan and Deepak Singh, wrote: "Sometimes it's better to take a step back, think through decisions, and you'll end up with a better application that you can easily maintain." On September 2, 2025, GitHub open-sourced Spec Kit, bringing the method to Copilot, Claude Code and Gemini CLI. ### What the term covers - Kiro produces three files: `requirements.md` (user stories in EARS notation), `design.md` and `tasks.md`. - Spec Kit structures the work into `/specify`, `/plan` and `/tasks` commands before implementation. - According to GitHub, the specification becomes "the source of truth" that determines what gets built. ### Criticism and limits In October 2025, Birgitta Böckeler (Thoughtworks) found these tools verbose: lots of repetitive Markdown to review, a process too heavy for a small fix, and agents that sometimes ignore the spec. She sees a risk of repeating the pitfalls of model-driven development (MDD). ### Key takeaway Spec-driven development moves human effort upstream: writing and reviewing intent rather than code. It is one building block in the shift from vibe coding to a more rigorous agentic engineering.

Tags : Vocabulaire, Code, Agents, Qualité