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The rising 2026 pattern

Spec-Driven Skills

Spec-driven development is the inverse of vibe-coding, write a clear specification first, then let the agent build to spec. AWS Kiro makes it native to the IDE; Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and Antigravity 2.0 all support it via spec-driven skills.

Short answer

Spec-driven skills guide AI agents through a structured loop: read or write a specification, generate acceptance criteria, implement to spec, and verify the implementation matches the spec. The result is fewer rewrites, clearer acceptance, and reliable agent behavior on complex features.

Top spec-driven skills

  1. 01code-review

    143 installs

    Thorough code review — checks correctness, security, performance, readability, and test coverage. Gives actionable feedback ranked by severity.

    Review
  2. 02ui-design-system

    88 installs

    UI design system toolkit for Senior UI Designer including design token generation, component documentation, responsive design calculations, and developer handoff tools. Use for creating design systems, maintaining visual consistency, and facilitating design-dev collaboration.

    Buildfrom Multi-Domain Skills
  3. 03markitdown

    51 installs

    Convert heterogeneous documents and selected URIs to Markdown with Microsoft MarkItDown for text analysis, search, and LLM/RAG ingestion. Covers safe local conversion, streams, Office/PDF/data formats, batch workflows, plugins, vision OCR, Azure extraction, and the official MCP server.

    Researchfrom Scientific Skills
  4. 04web-research-agent

    45 installs

    A comprehensive autonomous web research agent that performs targeted searches, fetches and parses web content, summarizes findings, and generates structured reports, adhering to industry best practices for accuracy, security, and robustness.

    Analysis
  5. 05self-improving-agent

    41 installs

    Curate Claude Code's auto-memory into durable project knowledge. Analyze MEMORY.md for patterns, promote proven learnings to CLAUDE.md and .claude/rules/, extract recurring solutions into reusable skills. Use when: (1) reviewing what Claude has learned about your project, (2) graduating a pattern from notes to enforced rules, (3) turning a debugging solution into a skill, (4) checking memory health and capacity.

    Buildfrom Multi-Domain Skills
  6. 06Skill Finder

    39 installs

    Workflow orchestrator. Decomposes a task into ordered steps, finds or installs the right skill for each step, runs the chain, and offers to save it as a reusable skill.

    Combo
  7. 07quickstart

    35 installs

    Zero to power user in one invoke — detects OS, installs Homebrew/apt/Node.js/Python, sets up Claude Code, authenticates skills-hub CLI, connects MCP servers, and installs recommended skills based on your project. Cross-platform (macOS, Linux, WSL). Idempotent. Use when: 'quickstart', 'setup machine', 'new machine setup', 'install everything', 'get started', 'onboard me', 'setup skills-hub', 'fresh install'.

    Productivity
  8. 08senior-frontend

    33 installs

    Frontend development skill for React, Next.js, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS applications. Use when building React components, optimizing Next.js performance, analyzing bundle sizes, scaffolding frontend projects, implementing accessibility, or reviewing frontend code quality.

    Buildfrom Multi-Domain Skills
  9. 09frontend-design

    33 installs

    Guidance for distinctive, intentional visual design when building new UI or reshaping an existing one. Helps with aesthetic direction, typography, and making choices that don't read as templated defaults.

    Buildfrom Anthropic
  10. 10social-media-manager

    27 installs

    When the user wants to develop social media strategy, plan content calendars, manage community engagement, or grow their social presence across platforms. Also use when the user mentions 'social media strategy,' 'social calendar,' 'community management,' 'social media plan,' 'grow followers,' 'engagement rate,' 'social media audit,' or 'which platforms should I use.' For writing individual social posts, see social-content. For analyzing social performance data, see social-media-analyzer.

    Marketingfrom Multi-Domain Skills
  11. 11pptx

    27 installs

    Use this skill any time a .pptx or .potx file is involved in any way — as input, output, or both. This includes: creating slide decks, pitch decks, or presentations; reading, parsing, or extracting text from any .pptx or .potx file (even if the extracted content will be used elsewhere, like in an email or summary); editing, modifying, or updating existing presentations; combining or splitting slide files; working with templates (.potx), layouts, speaker notes, or comments. Trigger whenever the user mentions "deck," "slides," "presentation," or references a .pptx or .potx filename, regardless of what they plan to do with the content afterward. If a .pptx or .potx file needs to be opened, created, or touched, use this skill.

    Creativefrom Anthropic
  12. 12unit-test

    25 installs

    Generate comprehensive unit tests with edge cases, error paths, and boundary values. Auto-detects test framework (Vitest, Jest, pytest, go test, flutter_test, RSpec, cargo test, JUnit), scans for untested functions by priority, adopts existing test conventions, generates tests with proper mocks, runs them, and self-heals failures in up to 3 iterations. Measures coverage before and after. Use when you need to add unit tests, increase code coverage, test edge cases, or verify error handling paths.

    Testfrom Skills Hub

Frequently asked questions

What is spec-driven development?

Spec-driven development means writing a clear specification (requirements, acceptance criteria, edge cases) before code. The AI agent reads the spec, implements to it, runs tests against the spec, and iterates until the spec is satisfied. It's the inverse of vibe-coding, structure first, then code.

Which AI tools support spec-driven development?

AWS Kiro makes spec-driven development native to the IDE. Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and Antigravity 2.0 all support spec-first workflows via spec-writing skills from the skills-hub catalog, write a spec, hand it to the agent, iterate.

What's the difference between spec-driven and test-driven development (TDD)?

TDD writes tests first; spec-driven writes the full specification (requirements + acceptance criteria + edge cases + non-functional requirements) first. Tests are one artifact of a spec. Spec-driven is broader, it forces clarity about what 'done' means before any code is written.

How do spec-driven skills work?

A spec-driven skill is a SKILL.md file that guides the agent to: (1) read or write a spec, (2) generate acceptance criteria, (3) implement to spec, (4) verify against spec. Install one with npx @skills-hub-ai/cli install spec-driven-implement and use it in any compatible tool.

Are spec-driven skills portable across AI tools?

Yes, they follow the open Agent Skills standard (SKILL.md). The same spec-driven skill works in Kiro (where it's most native), Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Antigravity 2.0, and any MCP-compatible tool.

Where do I learn more about spec-driven development?

Start with skills-hub's /spec skill, it generates structured specs from feature descriptions. Pair it with /mvp-spec for greenfield work, or /story-implementer to chain spec → implement → review → PR into a single agent team.

Spec-driven workflows pair best with

Kiro makes spec-driven native; everything else implements it via skills.