specify git:20261030.ebca32bA

Immutable. This exact content never changes and is served at /api/v1/blob/bbc1dc2cbaebe3db.

---
name: specify
description: Specify one bounded feature, bug fix, refactor, or other change with intended behavior, scope, acceptance criteria, and explicit TDD policy. Use whenever intended behavior, scope, or acceptance needs clarification or revision; use investigate to establish an unknown cause.
---

# Specify

Apply [core loading rules](../../README.md#loading-rules) for your role, including all
required shared sections unless their current text is already supplied or loaded.
Read linked procedures only when their operation applies. Read the relevant
product context if available and any existing spec, issue, or ticket for this change.
Persona: change analyst, focused on one verifiable outcome. Use the capability map for mapped
capabilities; a bug fix or direct bounded request does not require product definition first.

- Establish the user, problem, scope boundaries, constraints, and observable acceptance
  criteria. Include relevant failure or boundary behavior without enumerating speculative cases.
  Give saved criteria stable IDs such as AC1 and AC2; preserve existing IDs when reordering
  or refining them. Existing criteria without IDs can be referenced exactly without a rewrite.
- For a bug fix, distinguish expected behavior from observed behavior. Record reproduction
  steps and environment when known, impact, and evidence; label reported behavior separately
  from a reproduced failure. Keep suspected causes as hypotheses. If an unknown cause or
  reproduction gap blocks a useful plan, route that question to [investigate](../investigate/SKILL.md)
  without making diagnosis a prerequisite for recording the bug. A confirmed cause needs no
  repeated investigation. Acceptance criteria describe corrected behavior and relevant regressions.
- For a refactor, specify the structural outcome and observable behavior to preserve; do not
  invent a behavior change to fit the template.
- Recommend the smallest useful scope. Ask about consequential ambiguity; resolve routine
  details from the request and existing constraints, labeling assumptions that matter.
- For visual work, capture supplied references and concrete required or excluded visual patterns
  in the agreement. Clarify missing preferences only when they materially affect the outcome;
  a clear visual request does not require a design interview.
- When visual options or diagrams clarify a decision, apply [visuals](../../references/visuals.md).
- Create or update `docs/lusona/specs/<change-id>.md` from
  [the spec template](../../templates/spec.md) for every definition, including small changes,
  before handoff or completion without a separate save request. Use the helper and
  [naming rules](../../references/naming.md); missing directories or a queue do not waive saving.
  Reuse existing specs or legacy feature documents under [retention](../../references/retention.md),
  honoring explicit no-save/read-only restrictions and write permissions. An already clear request
  can proceed directly to authorized implementation. Link an external issue or ticket when provided; do not
  create one or copy a full ticket into a second maintained specification by default.
- Propose `none`, `targeted`, or `strict` under the [TDD rules](../../references/tdd.md).
  Record the user's choice or standing preference if supplied; otherwise leave it unset and ask
  through the permitted native question tool.
- Define observable outcomes, not a proposed implementation. Preserve user-required or established
  technical constraints with their source; do not turn a design proposal into an acceptance
  criterion. Include technical detail only when it clarifies scope or resolves uncertainty.
  Continue into architecture or planning when useful and authorized.
- Keep the spec concise: link existing product context, constraints, architecture, and legacy
  execution records instead of repeating them. Keep agreement, optional execution, evidence, and
  current handoff in one change record; preserve existing execution details and separate plans.
- Before handing off the definition, make one inline check for contradictions, ambiguous
  requirements, and unresolved decisions that block the selected work. Fix routine omissions
  from known evidence; preserve unknowns as explicit questions rather than inventing answers.
  This check does not add a review cycle or another approval gate.
- For work needing workflow tracking, the coordinator adds or updates the selected item under
  the [queue rules](../../references/queue.md) and agrees what completion means, including whether
  human acceptance or delivery is required. Recovery recording alone does not require tracking.
  Keep workflow state in the queue.
- The coordinator moves an existing queue item to Ready only when the user has accepted its
  scope and criteria and selected its TDD policy, with no blocking definition questions. Existing explicit authorization counts,
  including delegated routine decisions within batch authority after required reconciliation;
  it does not supply a missing TDD choice or authorize consequential scope changes.
  Report remaining decisions together; do not force a separate approval round for each field.

Apply [Context budget](../../README.md#context-budget) at the definition handoff.

## Next action

Return the spec path and any unresolved decisions together; if saving was prevented, return
the concise agreement and state the restriction or failure. Ask a blocking
behavior, scope, or TDD question; otherwise name the next action from unmet criteria or
uncertainty: an experiment, a consequential design decision, or an authorized increment.