Skip to main content

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

    265 installs

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

    Review
  2. 02ui-design-system

    158 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. 03senior-frontend

    90 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
  4. 04markitdown

    84 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
  5. 05web-research-agent

    75 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
  6. 06frontend-design

    67 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
  7. 07Skill Finder

    61 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
  8. 08self-improving-agent

    61 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
  9. 09quickstart

    48 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
  10. 10using-superpowers

    43 installs

    Use when starting any conversation - establishes how to find and use skills, requiring skill invocation before ANY response including clarifying questions

    Buildfrom Superpowers
  11. 11refactor

    43 installs

    Systematic code refactoring — extract functions, reduce complexity, eliminate duplication, improve naming, and split large files. Preserves behavior with tests.

    Review
  12. 12security-review

    43 installs

    Security audit and vulnerability assessment for any codebase. Scans for authentication bypasses, missing auth middleware, broken JWT validation (algorithm confusion, weak secrets, missing expiry), OAuth state and PKCE flaws, IDOR and horizontal privilege escalation, vertical privilege escalation via role manipulation, SQL injection, NoSQL injection, XSS (stored, reflected, DOM), command injection, path traversal, SSRF, CSRF, hardcoded secrets and API keys (sk_live_, AKIA, ghp_), .env and credential file exposure, PII leaking in logs and error responses, overfetching sensitive fields, CORS misconfiguration, session fixation, missing secure/httpOnly/sameSite cookie flags, and Firebase/Firestore rule weaknesses. Produces a severity-ranked findings report with exploit scenarios and fix recommendations. Covers OWASP Top 10.

    Reviewfrom 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.