Openspec Workflow

OpenSpec Workflow

Ship spec-driven changes autonomously with review quality gates.

Architecture

You are the orchestrator. You serve as the "human in the loop" — you make judgment calls, draft spec artifacts, process review feedback, and decide what ships. Claude Code is your hands — it explores the codebase, reviews with real code context, and implements tasks.

Why this split: The OpenSpec CLI is designed for scripting and automation — perfect for an orchestrator. Claude Code gets full codebase context automatically — perfect for review and implementation. The interactive plugin adds friction that doesn't help when an AI is the decision-maker.

When to Use This Skill

Use OpenSpec when the change affects what the product does:

• New features or capabilities
• Refactors that change behavior
• Breaking changes or migrations
• Anything that modifies or creates specs

Skip OpenSpec, just ship a PR when the change is supplementary:

• Examples, tutorials, sample projects
• Typo fixes, README updates, comment tweaks
• CI/CD config (GitHub Actions, linting)
• Dependency bumps

The key question: "Does this change what the product does, or just add stuff around it?"

Prerequisites

• openspec CLI installed (npm install -g @fission-ai/openspec)
• claude CLI installed (Claude Code)
• gh CLI authenticated with repo access
• Git repo with openspec/ directory initialized
• Working directory is the repo root (or a git worktree)

Timeouts

When running this workflow as a sub-agent, set runTimeoutSeconds based on change size:

Each Claude Code invocation (review or implement) takes 1-3 minutes. A full workflow with 4 reviewed artifacts + implementation = 5-8 Claude Code calls minimum.

Quick Start

1. openspec new change "<name>"
2. For each artifact: draft → review loop → write
3. Implement tasks
4. Commit, push, open PR with "OpenSpec change: <name>" in body

Workflow

Step 1: Create the Change

openspec new change "<kebab-case-name>"
openspec status --change "<name>"

Step 2: Artifact Loop

For each artifact in order (typically: proposal → design → specs → tasks):

openspec instructions <artifact-id> --change "<name>"

Read the template and dependencies. Draft the artifact content.

Then decide: review or skip?

• Skip review if the artifact is genuinely trivial (one-liner, obvious config, mechanical rename). Log: Skipped review — trivial: <reason>.
• Send to review for anything with real design decisions, trade-offs, or ambiguity.

Spawn reviewers as subagents with the repo path so they can explore the codebase independently — read files, grep for patterns, verify "no code changes" claims. Don't just paste the artifact; give them the tools to challenge it. See references/review-loop.md for the full protocol and prompt template.

After writing the artifact, confirm progress:

openspec status --change "<name>"

Continue to the next artifact.

Step 3: Implement via Claude Code

Do not implement tasks directly. Delegate to Claude Code, which has full codebase context and can make changes safely.

# Get the task list for Claude Code's prompt
cat openspec/changes/<name>/tasks.md

Launch Claude Code in the repo (or worktree) with PTY and --dangerously-skip-permissions:

exec pty:true workdir:<repo-path> background:true command:"claude --dangerously-skip-permissions -p 'Implement these tasks from openspec/changes/<name>/tasks.md. Read the tasks file, the proposal, design, and specs in that change directory for full context. Mark tasks complete as you go. Commit when done.

When completely finished, run: openclaw system event --text \"Done: implemented <name>\" --mode now'"

Monitor via process action:log sessionId:<id>. Claude Code will:

• Read the OpenSpec artifacts for context
• Implement each task
• Mark [x] as it goes
• Commit the changes

For trivial changes (pure doc edits, one-line fixes), you may implement directly instead. Log: Implemented directly — trivial: <reason>.

Step 4: Ship

Before committing, verify the change name matches the actual directory:

# Get the exact change directory name
CHANGE=$(ls openspec/changes/ | grep -v archive | head -1)
echo "Change name: $CHANGE"

Use this exact name everywhere — commit message AND PR body:

git add -A
git commit -m "<type>(scope): <description> (#<issue>)

OpenSpec change: $CHANGE"
git push origin <branch>
gh pr create --repo <owner/repo> --base main --head <branch> \
  --title "<type>: <description>" \
  --body "Closes #<issue>

OpenSpec change: $CHANGE"

Critical: The OpenSpec change: <name> in the PR body must exactly match the directory name under openspec/changes/. The auto-archive GitHub Action uses this to locate the change. A mismatch means the archive silently skips. Always verify with ls openspec/changes/ before writing the PR body.

Step 5: Address PR Review Comments

After opening the PR, code review agents may leave comments. Monitor and respond:

# Check for review comments
gh pr view <number> --repo <owner/repo> --json reviews,comments
gh api repos/<owner>/<repo>/pulls/<number>/comments

For each review comment:

1. Evaluate — Is it significant? Does it catch a real bug, missing edge case, or design issue?
2. If significant: Fix it in the worktree, commit, push. The PR updates automatically.

   # Fix, then:
   git add -A && git commit -m "fix: address review — <what changed>"
   git push origin <branch>
   

3. If not significant: Reply inline with your justification.

   gh api repos/<owner>/<repo>/pulls/<number>/comments/<comment-id>/replies \
     -f body="<your justification>"
   

Apply the same judgment rules as the artifact review loop: accept valid concerns, reject with reasoning, partially accept where appropriate. Don't blindly apply every suggestion — you're the decision-maker.

Step 6: Document & Report

Post the workflow log to the GitHub issue:

gh issue comment <number> --repo <owner/repo> --body '<workflow log>'

Include: each artifact's draft, review challenges, revisions, skip decisions with reasoning, and final implementation notes.

Always end by linking the user to the issue and PR:

• Issue: https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>/issues/<number>
• PR: https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>/pull/<number>

Artifact Guidelines

proposal.md

• Why (1-2 sentences), What Changes (bullet list), Capabilities (new + modified specs), Impact
• List every spec that will be created or modified in Capabilities — this drives the specs artifact

design.md

• Context, Goals / Non-Goals, Decisions (with alternatives considered), Risks / Trade-offs
• Skip for trivial changes (pure doc fixes, one-line config changes)

specs/<capability>/spec.md

• Delta format: ## ADDED Requirements, ## MODIFIED Requirements, ## REMOVED Requirements
• Every requirement needs ### Requirement: <name> + at least one #### Scenario:
• MODIFIED must include the full updated requirement text (not just the diff)
• Use existing spec names from openspec/specs/ for modified capabilities

tasks.md

• Numbered groups with checkboxes: - [ ] 1.1 Task description
• Small enough to complete in one session
• Ordered by dependency

GitHub Action: Auto-Archive on Merge

For repos that want automatic spec sync and archiving, add this workflow. See references/archive-action.md for the complete GitHub Action YAML.

The action:

1. Triggers on PR merge
2. Extracts change name from OpenSpec change: <name> in PR body
3. Runs openspec archive --yes on a new branch
4. Opens a PR with the archive and spec sync changes
5. Deletes the original merged branch