alt Hacker NewsShow HN: Specification First Agentic Development Plugin and Prove
Implemented agent smith since start 2026 with over 1000 specifications which lead to about 500k lines of code. The procedure with that spec-first works well. How do you do it?
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If your specs are not executable or are editable by the agent, they are as non-deterministic as any code that comes out of them.
I have not seen spec first development work well in real world environments at all. The problem is that you typically don't know what you don't know upfront for most product based decisions. Going back and forth in the spec to fix problems is a huge mistake, it just leads to contradictory sets of requirements for the agent.
What does work well is using AI to generate a quick and dirty prototype ala vibecoding, and then using that as a basis to regenerate the final code. Some might say it's still spec driven development, but the spec is a working prototype.
What is the difference between having the agent create a spec and having the agent create a plan?
its crazy how capable the agents are becoming so quickly
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Always reminds me of this meme.
Some day we won't even need coders any more. We'll be able to just write the specification and the program will write itself.
Oh wow, you're right! We'll be able to write a comprehensive and precise spec and bam, we won't need programmers any more!
Exactly!
And do you know the industry term for a project specification that is comprehensive and precise enough to generate a program?
Code It's called code.