01 Technical Specification

Technical Specification Skill

Use When

• Produce or update implementation-ready technical specification from approved project evidence.
• Resolve decisions about module contracts, interfaces, data schemas, dependencies, and requirement traceability.
• Prepare a reviewable handoff for Implementation team.

Do Not Use When

• The task is primarily owned by coding-guidelines; route there and use this skill only for its named output.
• Required project evidence or decision authority is unavailable and the requester expects a pass, release, certification, or production change.

Required Inputs

Outputs

Evidence Produced

Capability and Permission Boundaries

• Minimum capabilities: read and search the authorised project sources. Execution is optional and limited to non-destructive validation.
• Assessment and planning default to read-only. Create or edit the named project document only when the request explicitly authorises it. Production mutation, publishing, destructive action, spending, external communication, or certification claims require separate explicit authority.
• Treat secrets, tenant data, incident evidence, and financial records as least-privilege inputs; expose only the minimum evidence needed for review.

Degraded Mode

If files, execution, network, rendering, environment access, fonts, or current evidence are unavailable, return the narrowest useful draft plus a gap register. Label affected checks not assessed, retain the intended acceptance oracle, and state who must supply or verify the missing evidence. Never convert an unavailable check into a pass.

Decision Rules

Workflow

1. Confirm the named deliverable, consumer, scope, environment, authority, and neighbouring-skill boundary.
2. Inventory required sources and validate provenance, freshness, internal consistency, and missing inputs. Stop the affected branch on a mandatory gap.
3. Extract traceable requirements, invariants, risks, and measurable acceptance criteria; record conflicts before choosing a design or procedure.
4. Apply the decision rules and the domain workflow below. For a failed branch, preserve evidence, choose the documented recovery path, or escalate to the named owner.
5. Draft the artefact, decision register, and evidence record together. Do not defer failure handling, rollback, security, tenancy, accessibility, or operational ownership.
6. Run available checks, review every result, repair failures, and hand off only when acceptance is observable. If recovery fails or authority is exceeded, stop and escalate without mutation.

Quality Standards

• Ground every section in a named project source, decision, measured result, or accountable owner.
• Give each requirement or procedure a deterministic oracle that another reviewer can reproduce.
• Keep assumptions, exclusions, degraded checks, residual risks, and waivers visible at handoff.
• Preserve the domain invariants and more specific controls in the existing workflow below; this contract does not replace them.
• Run the repository anti-AI-slop gate: remove filler, verify named standards and dependencies, and retain purposeful domain detail.

Anti-Patterns

• Copying a generic template without mapping it to project sources. Fix: attach each section to an approved requirement, configuration, risk, or owner.
• Choosing a threshold because it is common practice. Fix: derive it from a requirement, measured baseline, risk decision, or current verified source.
• Reporting an inaccessible or unexecuted check as passed. Fix: mark it not assessed, preserve the oracle, and name the verifier.
• Mixing the neighbouring coding-guidelines concern into this artefact without a boundary. Fix: cross-reference its output and keep ownership explicit.
• Omitting failure, rollback, empty-state, security, tenancy, or escalation behaviour. Fix: specify the trigger, safe action, verification, and owner for each applicable case.
• Mutating a repository, environment, tenant, ledger, or external system while drafting guidance. Fix: remain read-only until the exact mutation and authority are explicit.
• Claiming compliance, certification, readiness, or release from prose alone. Fix: require source-attributed evidence and a named acceptance decision.

Worked Example

Given an approved project source and a conflicting implementation detail, record both with provenance, stop the affected branch, and obtain the accountable owner's decision. Then update the relevant contract, define a reproducible acceptance check, and retain its observed result. The artefact is accepted only when every in-scope module and interface has a source requirement, deterministic contract, error behaviour, and review owner.

References

• logic.prompt - load only when its template, logic, or detail is needed.
• README.md - load only when its template, logic, or detail is needed.

Overview

This is the first skill in Phase 04 (Development Artifacts). It transforms the Low-Level Design module decomposition and SRS requirements into an implementation-ready technical specification that defines module contracts, data format schemas, integration specifications, configuration parameters, and dependency matrices. The output serves as the primary reference for developers translating design into code and conforms to IEEE 1016-2009 and IEEE 830-1998.

When to Use

• After Phase 03 completes and LLD.md exists in projects/<ProjectName>/<phase>/<document>/ with module decomposition and class diagrams.
• When SRS_Draft.md is present in projects/<ProjectName>/<phase>/<document>/ for requirement traceability.
• When tech_stack.md is present in projects/<ProjectName>/_context/ for technology-specific implementation details.

Quick Reference

Input Files

Output Files

Core Instructions

Follow these eight steps in order. Halt and notify the user if a required input file is missing.

Step 1: Read Context Files

Read LLD.md and SRS_Draft.md from projects/<ProjectName>/<phase>/<document>/ and tech_stack.md from projects/<ProjectName>/_context/. Log the absolute path of each file read. If any required file is missing, halt execution and report the gap.

Step 2: Extract Module Contracts from LLD

For each module defined in LLD.md, extract and formalize the contract:

• Module Name: exact identifier from the LLD class diagram
• Public Interface: method signatures with typed parameters and return types
• Preconditions: input constraints that must hold before invocation
• Postconditions: guaranteed state after successful execution
• Exceptions: error conditions and corresponding exception types

Step 3: Define Data Format Specifications

For each data entity exchanged between modules or exposed via APIs, define:

• JSON schema with field names, types, required/optional flags, and constraints
• Database column types with precision (e.g., DECIMAL(19,4) for monetary values)
• Enumeration values with definitions for every status or category field

Step 4: Define Integration Specifications

For each integration point identified in LLD and SRS Section 3.1, define the API contract:

• Endpoint path, HTTP method, and content type
• Request schema with typed parameters and validation rules
• Response schema with status codes and payload structure
• Authentication requirements and rate limits

Step 5: Define Configuration Parameters

Document every configurable parameter the system requires:

• Parameter name, data type, default value, and valid range
• Environment variable mapping (e.g., DB_HOST maps to database connection host)
• Configuration file format and location

Step 6: Define Dependency Matrix

Produce a module-to-module dependency matrix:

• Source module, target module, dependency type (compile-time, runtime, optional)
• Circular dependency detection: flag any bidirectional dependencies as design issues

Step 7: Generate Implementation Notes

For each module, provide implementation guidance:

• Recommended design patterns from LLD (e.g., Repository, Strategy, Observer)
• Performance considerations derived from SRS non-functional requirements
• Security considerations derived from SRS Section 3.5

Step 8: Write Output with Traceability

Write the completed document to projects/<ProjectName>/<phase>/<document>/Technical_Specification.md. Include a traceability table mapping every module contract to its LLD module and originating SRS requirement IDs. Log the total count of module contracts, data schemas, and integration specifications.

Output Format

The generated Technical_Specification.md shall contain these sections in order: Document Header (project name, date, version, standards), 1. Introduction and Scope, 2. Module Contracts, 3. Data Format Specifications, 4. Integration Specifications, 5. Configuration Parameters, 6. Dependency Matrix, 7. Implementation Notes, 8. Traceability Matrix, Appendix A: Glossary.

Common Pitfalls

Verification Checklist

• Technical_Specification.md exists in projects/<ProjectName>/<phase>/<document>/ with all eight sections populated.
• Every LLD module has a corresponding contract with public interface, preconditions, and postconditions.
• Data format specifications include JSON schemas with typed fields and constraints.
• Integration specifications document request/response schemas with status codes.
• Configuration parameters list default values and valid ranges.
• Dependency matrix flags any circular dependencies.
• Traceability table maps every module contract to LLD modules and SRS requirement IDs.

Integration

Standards

• IEEE 1016-2009 -- Software Design Descriptions. Governs module contract structure and design viewpoints.
• IEEE 830-1998 -- Recommended Practice for Software Requirements Specifications. Ensures requirement traceability in the specification.

Resources

• logic.prompt -- Executable prompt containing the step-by-step technical specification generation logic.
• README.md -- Quick-start guide for this skill.