xoai Spec Review
Verify that the implementation matches its specification — nothing more, nothing less.
Core Principle: Do NOT trust the implementer's report. The implementer may have finished too quickly, missed requirements, added unrequested features, or described what they intended rather than what they built. Verify EVERYTHING independently.
When to Use
After every task implementation, as part of the quality gate sequence. This is Gate 1 of 5 — it runs first because all other gates are meaningless if the code doesn't even match what was requested.
Process
Step 1: Read the Specification
Read the COMPLETE task specification. Understand:
- What was requested (functional requirements)
- What was explicitly excluded (boundaries)
- What the acceptance criteria are (verification)
Step 2: Read the Implementation
Read the ACTUAL code that was written. Not the implementer's summary. Not the commit message. The code itself.
Step 3: Checklist Comparison
For each requirement in the specification:
- Is it implemented? (Check the code, not the report)
- Is it implemented CORRECTLY? (Does the logic match the intent?)
- Is it tested? (Does a test exist that verifies this requirement?)
For each piece of code in the implementation:
- Was it requested? (Is there a corresponding requirement?)
- If not requested, is it necessary infrastructure? (Imports, types, config)
- Or is it scope creep? (Features, optimizations, "nice to haves" not in spec)
Step 4: Produce Result
GATE: spec-compliance
RESULT: PASS | FAIL
REQUIREMENTS CHECK:
✓ [requirement 1] — Implemented and tested
✓ [requirement 2] — Implemented and tested
✗ [requirement 3] — MISSING: not implemented
✗ [requirement 4] — PARTIAL: implemented but not tested
SCOPE CHECK:
✓ No unrequested features added
— OR —
✗ EXTRA: [description of unrequested code]
ACTION: none | fix-and-retry | escalate-to-human
Rules
- NEVER trust the implementer's self-report. Read the code yourself.
- NEVER approve an implementation that is missing a requirement, even if the implementer says "I'll add it later."
- NEVER approve an implementation that adds unrequested features. Extra code is extra bugs. The implementer must remove it.
- ALWAYS check that tests exist for each requirement. Untested requirements are unverified requirements.
- If the spec is ambiguous, note the ambiguity and ask the human — don't interpret it yourself.
Adversarial Mindset
Assume the implementer:
- Finished suspiciously quickly
- Described what they INTENDED, not what they BUILT
- Missed edge cases they didn't think about
- Added "helpful" features that weren't requested
- Wrote tests that pass but don't actually verify the requirement
Your job is to be the skeptic. If you can't find evidence that a requirement is implemented and tested, it isn't — regardless of what anyone claims.
Review Loop v2 (ledger mode)
Active by DEFAULT (an absent review_loop: block means mode: v2)
(loop: orchestration/quality-locked; ledger: sage/runtime/tools/ review.py). When active, the Step 4 RESULT block above is replaced by
the contract below. With mode: v1 this section is inert.
Output contract (v2 — no verdict)
Include verbatim in the reviewer's instructions:
You do not decide the loop; you report findings. The decision is computed from them.
A critical or major must carry a witness — a failing test you wrote and ran, a concrete repro (input → observed → expected), or an execution trace — or a citation that resolves: a spec clause, constitution rule, or requirement that actually exists. Citations are checked mechanically against the cycle's spec/plan and the constitution; one that resolves nowhere counts as no citation. A finding with neither witness nor resolving citation is recorded as substantive. This is not a penalty; it is the definition of the severities.
An empty finding list is a valid, creditable outcome; you are scored on precision, not volume. Spend your effort on witnesses and resolvable citations, not on quantity.
Findings are ONE fenced ```json block — an array of objects (prose outside it is not parsed):
[{
"pass": "spec-conformance",
"severity": "critical | major | substantive | cosmetic",
"cited_rule": "spec §4.2 | null",
"anchor": {"file": "src/auth.ts", "region": [118, 141]},
"claim": "one falsifiable sentence",
"witness": {"kind": "test | repro | trace | none",
"ref": "path or matrix cell, else null",
"status": "red | green | n/a"},
"exit_criteria": "what specifically would make this finding pass"
}]
The trace matrix (this gate's pass: spec-conformance)
Emit a requirement → implementation-anchor → test-anchor table, one row
per spec requirement and acceptance criterion. Every empty cell is a
finding with witness.kind: trace and the cell as ref — the empty
cell is the demonstration, absence made observable. Enumerate coverage;
do not react to presence. Unrequested code (the scope check above) is a
finding anchored at the extra code, cited_rule naming the boundary it
violates.
Two-phase (rounds >1)
Phase A: verify each open/not-fixed ledger entry (FIXED | NOT-FIXED | DISPUTED-STANDS, evidence required; a test witness is run at current
HEAD — green is FIXED, mechanically). Phase B: new findings from the
revision delta plus Phase-A anchors only; the full matrix was built at
round 1 and only changed rows are re-derived.
Input packet (v2)
Assembled by the dispatching workflow, in order: (1) the diff/changed files (delta since last reviewed fingerprint on rounds >1); (2) deterministic gate outputs verbatim; (3) test output + per-file coverage for touched files; (4) sage-ontology blast radius for changed symbols — when absent, the packet says so (loud degradation); (5) the spec excerpts the diff claims to implement; (6) the ledger (open + settled); (7) mutation-survivor report if present.
Failure Modes
- Ambiguous specification: Don't guess. Report the ambiguity and escalate.
- Implementation is better than spec: Still fails. The spec is the contract. If the improvement is worth keeping, update the spec first, then re-review.
- Trivial missing item: Still fails. Partial compliance is non-compliance. The implementer fixes it, then you re-review.