Outcome-shaped specs for agentic development

If you're running an agentic loop — Ralph, Claude Code, similar — the single biggest correctness-multiplier is requiring every feature to start from a spec the agent can verify against. Not a TODO list, not a paragraph in a chat — a structured document with checkboxes the agent can mechanically tick off.

The format below has shipped many features without rework. The agent is instructed (in CLAUDE.md or equivalent) to refuse to start a feature whose spec lacks the required sections.

When to use

Reach for this skill if you're:

• Setting up a new agentic-dev project and need a starting convention
• Writing the rule that gates "what gives the agent permission to start coding"
• Tired of features shipping with the wrong scope because the request was ambiguous
• Looking for a spec template that the agent and the human BOTH can parse

The pattern — specs/NNN-feature-slug.md

# Spec NNN — <Feature Name>