There is a pre-release book on O’Reilly called “AI-Native Software Engineering” that has three chapters on spec driven design. That is where I found out about openspec.
The point AI-Native Software Engineering makes is: agents misunderstanding your goal is a common cause of bad results, so spend 10 minutes writing a spec to clarify ahead of time. The spec outlives any single conversation, and provides a rubric for success.
I haven’t actually started using openspec in earnest, but it is suppose to have a way to update specs in a structured way. Also, it is one of the simpler frameworks for SDD, versus eg speckit.
So the question is more if SDD is useful, and that might be more personal than eg cutting token costs.
The skills facilitate SDD, although what that actually means is vague: https://martinfowler.com/articles/exploring-gen-ai/sdd-3-too... (Note: this article is almost a year old.)
The point AI-Native Software Engineering makes is: agents misunderstanding your goal is a common cause of bad results, so spend 10 minutes writing a spec to clarify ahead of time. The spec outlives any single conversation, and provides a rubric for success.
I haven’t actually started using openspec in earnest, but it is suppose to have a way to update specs in a structured way. Also, it is one of the simpler frameworks for SDD, versus eg speckit.
So the question is more if SDD is useful, and that might be more personal than eg cutting token costs.