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Agent skill

Specification

by citypaul in citypaul/.dotfiles

Turn fuzzy intent into shared understanding and acceptance criteria — specification as a conversation, run one question at a time, before any story is split or planned.

Custom licenceAuto-check passedProduct & Project Management

Install Specification

skills CLI
$ npx skills add citypaul/.dotfiles --skill specification -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install citypaul/.dotfiles specification --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/citypaul/.dotfiles.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/claude/.claude/skills/specification .claude/skills/specification && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
specification
GitHub stars
740
Token cost
~2.2k tokens
SKILL.md length
1,050 words
Files
3
Skills in repo
44
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
Custom licence

At a glance

Turn fuzzy intent into shared understanding and acceptance criteria — specification as a conversation, run one question at a time, before any story is split or planned.

  • Works in 6 steps: Find the story's home first. Ask where… → One question at a time. Never a… → Every material assumption becomes a… → …
  • Feature request
  • SKILL.md covers The Contract, The Recommended Path: Draft,…, The Review Page and Vocabulary Capture, plus 2 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Specification is an agent skill from citypaul/.dotfiles. Turn fuzzy intent into shared understanding and acceptance criteria — specification as a conversation, run one question at a time, before any story is split or planned. Use when an idea, feature request, or problem statement has no agreed rules or examples yet ("let's spec this out", "what should this actually do?", "we need acceptance criteria"). Produces an example map and acceptance criteria written back into the team's own story artifact, plus candidate glossary terms and parked questions. The…

Its SKILL.md is about 2.2k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 3 other files (for example `resources/references.md`).

It sits in Product & Project Management, covering User stories and Requirements gathering.

When your agent uses it

  • Feature request
  • Problem statement has no agreed rules
  • Examples yet (lets spec this out
  • What should this actually do?

Example prompts

  • “s spec this out”
  • “what should this actually do?”
  • “we need acceptance criteria”
  • “/specification”

Workflow steps

6 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Find the story's home first. Ask where this story lives — an issue, a file under docs/stories/, a ticket, anywhere the team already keeps…
  2. One question at a time. Never a questionnaire. Name the stakes and
  3. Every material assumption becomes a question. The moment you notice
  4. The map is data, not prose. Build it as you go and keep it visible
  5. Challenge the map before trusting it. For each rule: the counter-example question ("what would have to be true for this example to come…
  6. Read the map's shape as a diagnostic. Question-dominated → not ready to build; keep talking, or park with owners and stop. Rule-dominated…

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit cd4028d. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Specification loads about 2.2k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 218 tokens; SKILL.md has 1,050 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~218
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2.2k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

Its licence (Custom licence) doesn't allow us to republish the file, so here is its outline and opening line. It has 1,050 words (~2,236 tokens).

“A specification is not a document. It is a conversation between stakeholders in which shared understanding gets built — and the written result is, at best, an educated guess about what is really required, refined until reality gets the deciding…”

— opening of SKILL.md by citypaul, Custom licence
name
specification

Read the full SKILL.md on GitHub

Files

SKILL.md and 2 other files in claude/.claude/skills/specification of citypaul/.dotfiles.

  • SKILL.md
  • resources/references.md
  • resources/spec-review-template.html

Open the folder on GitHubat commit cd4028d

Compare with similar skills

Specification next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Specification compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Specification this skillcitypaul/.dotfiles740—~2.2kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence
Feature ForgeJeffallan/claude-skills12k—~1.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
User Story Writerdeanpeters/Product-Manager-Skills7.2k2 repos~2.9kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence
Extracting Requirementsprime-radiant-inc/iterative-development181—~2.7kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
PRD Developmentdeanpeters/Product-Manager-Skills7.2k3 repos~6.2kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence
Backlog Groomingforcedotcom/salesforcedx-vscode1k—~1.5kAutomated safety check: PassBSD-3-Clause

Similar skills

  • Feature Forge

    Jeffallan/claude-skills

    Runs a structured requirements interview to produce a feature specification with EARS requirements, acceptance criteria and an implementation checklist.

    12k GitHub stars~1.1k tokensUpdated 6 days ago
    Product & Project ManagementAuto-check passed

  • User Story Writer

    deanpeters/Product-Manager-Skills

    Writes user stories in Mike Cohn's format with Gherkin acceptance criteria, turning user needs into development-ready work with testable conditions.

    7.2k GitHub starsUsed in 2 repos~2.9k tokens
    Product & Project ManagementAuto-check passed

  • Extracting Requirements

    prime-radiant-inc/iterative-development

    Reads human-written spec documents and produces per-epic requirement files with proof obligations plus behavior scenarios with stable IDs, using parallel chunked extraction.

    181 GitHub stars~2.7k tokensUpdated 4 mo ago
    Agent WorkflowsAuto-check passed

  • PRD Development

    deanpeters/Product-Manager-Skills

    Builds a structured PRD that ties problem, users, solution and success criteria together, turning discovery notes into a document engineers can act on.

    7.2k GitHub starsUsed in 3 repos~6.2k tokens
    Product & Project ManagementAuto-check passed

  • Backlog Grooming

    forcedotcom/salesforcedx-vscode

    Triage the team's open GUS backlog — propose closing done-but-open work items (with code/test citations), flag under-specified items for grilling, catch wrong-epic / orphan / unpointed / dead-link…

    1k GitHub stars~1.5k tokensUpdated today
    Product & Project ManagementAuto-check passed

  • Stakeholder Requirements Gathering

    nimrodfisher/data-analytics-skills

    Structured requirements elicitation for analysis requests. An agent skill from nimrodfisher/data-analytics-skills.

    468 GitHub stars~513 tokensUpdated 14 days ago
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Categories

Questions about Specification

What does Specification do?

Turn fuzzy intent into shared understanding and acceptance criteria — specification as a conversation, run one question at a time, before any story is split or planned. dotfiles. Turn fuzzy intent into shared understanding and acceptance criteria — specification as a conversation, run one question at a time, before any story is split or planned.

When should I use Specification?

Specification fits situations like: feature request; problem statement has no agreed rules; examples yet (lets spec this out; what should this actually do?.

How do I install Specification in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add citypaul/.dotfiles --skill specification -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (claude/.claude/skills/specification in citypaul/.dotfiles) into .claude/skills/specification in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Specification in Codex?

Run `npx skills add citypaul/.dotfiles --skill specification -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (claude/.claude/skills/specification in citypaul/.dotfiles) into .agents/skills/specification in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Specification in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add citypaul/.dotfiles --skill specification -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/specification, .gemini/skills/specification, .github/skills/specification and .opencode/skills/specification in your project.

What does Specification need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Specification is instructions for the agent only.

Does Specification access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Specification safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Specification use?

Specification has a licence file (the repository's licence) that doesn't match a standard licence. Read it on GitHub before reusing the skill.

How many tokens does Specification use?

About 2.2k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 8.9k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Specification?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Specification: Feature Forge (Jeffallan/claude-skills, 12k stars), User Story Writer (deanpeters/Product-Manager-Skills, 7.2k stars), Extracting Requirements (prime-radiant-inc/iterative-development, 181 stars) and PRD Development (deanpeters/Product-Manager-Skills, 7.2k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Specification?

citypaul (a GitHub user) maintains it in citypaul/.dotfiles, which has 740 GitHub stars. The repository holds 44 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 9, 2026.

Source: citypaul/.dotfiles on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.