Speckit Checklist

Checklist Purpose: "Unit Tests for English"

CRITICAL CONCEPT: Checklists are UNIT TESTS FOR REQUIREMENTS WRITING - they validate the quality, clarity, and completeness of requirements in a given domain.

NOT for verification/testing:

• ❌ NOT "Verify the button clicks correctly"
• ❌ NOT "Test error handling works"
• ❌ NOT "Confirm the API returns 200"
• ❌ NOT checking if code/implementation matches the spec

FOR requirements quality validation:

• ✅ "Are visual hierarchy requirements defined for all card types?" (completeness)
• ✅ "Is 'prominent display' quantified with specific sizing/positioning?" (clarity)
• ✅ "Are hover state requirements consistent across all interactive elements?" (consistency)
• ✅ "Are accessibility requirements defined for keyboard navigation?" (coverage)
• ✅ "Does the spec define what happens when logo image fails to load?" (edge cases)

Metaphor: If your spec is code written in English, the checklist is its unit test suite. You're testing whether the requirements are well-written, complete, unambiguous, and ready for implementation - NOT whether the implementation works.

Ownership and checkbox lifecycle:

• Custom checklists generated by this command are reviewer-owned requirements-quality review artifacts.
• [x] means the reviewer determined the requirements-quality criterion is satisfied.
• [x] does NOT mean implementation work is complete.
• This command generates or appends checklist items; it MUST NOT mark generated items [x].
• An agent may assist with evaluating items only when explicitly asked by the reviewer.
• checklists/requirements.md is a separate built-in spec-quality checklist maintained by /speckit-specify and /speckit-clarify; do not treat that exception as applying to custom checklists generated here.

User Input

$ARGUMENTS

You MUST consider the user input before proceeding (if not empty).

Pre-Execution Checks

Check for extension hooks (before checklist generation):

• Check if .specify/extensions.yml exists in the project root.
• If it exists, read it and look for entries under the hooks.before_checklist key
• If the YAML cannot be parsed or is invalid, do not skip silently: tell the user that .specify/extensions.yml could not be read (include the parser error) and that no hooks were checked, including any mandatory (optional: false) hooks registered there, then continue normally
• Filter out hooks where enabled is explicitly false. Treat hooks without an enabled field as enabled by default.
• For each remaining hook, do not attempt to interpret or evaluate hook condition expressions:
• If the hook has no condition field, or it is null/empty, treat the hook as executable
• If the hook defines a non-empty condition, skip the hook and leave condition evaluation to the HookExecutor implementation
• When constructing command invocations from hook command names, replace dots (.) with hyphens (-). For example, speckit.git.commit → /speckit-git-commit.
• For each executable hook, output the following based on its optional flag:
• Optional hook (optional: true):

    ## Extension Hooks

    **Optional Pre-Hook**: {extension}
    Command: `/{command}`
    Description: {description}

    Prompt: {prompt}
    To execute: `/{command}`

• Mandatory hook (optional: false):

    ## Extension Hooks

    **Automatic Pre-Hook**: {extension}
    Executing: `/{command}`
    EXECUTE_COMMAND: {command}

    Wait for the result of the hook command before proceeding to the Execution Steps.

After emitting the block above you MUST actually invoke the hook and wait for it to finish before continuing. Run it the same way you would run the command yourself in this agent/session (the invocation may differ from the literal {command} id shown above, e.g. a skills-mode agent runs it as /skill:speckit-... or $speckit-...). Emitting the block alone does not run the hook.

• If no hooks are registered or .specify/extensions.yml does not exist, skip silently

Execution Steps

1. Setup: Run .specify/scripts/bash/check-prerequisites.sh --json --template checklist-template from repo root and parse JSON for FEATURE_DIR, AVAILABLE_DOCS list, and TEMPLATE_CONTENT.

• All file paths must be absolute.
• For single quotes in args like "I'm Groot", use escape syntax: e.g 'I'\''m Groot' (or double-quote if possible: "I'm Groot").

1. IF EXISTS: Load .specify/memory/constitution.md for project principles and governance constraints.

1. Clarify intent (dynamic): Derive up to THREE initial contextual clarifying questions (no pre-baked catalog). They MUST:

• Be generated from the user's phrasing + extracted signals from spec/plan/tasks
• Only ask about information that materially changes checklist content
• Be skipped individually if already unambiguous in $ARGUMENTS
• Prefer precision over breadth

Generation algorithm:

1. Extract signals: feature domain keywords (e.g., auth, latency, UX, API), risk indicators ("critical", "must", "compliance"), stakeholder hints ("QA", "review", "security team"), and explicit deliverables ("a11y", "rollback", "contracts").
2. Cluster signals into candidate focus areas (max 4) ranked by relevance.
3. Identify probable audience & timing (author, reviewer, QA, release) if not explicit.
4. Detect missing dimensions: scope breadth, depth/rigor, risk emphasis, exclusion boundaries, measurable acceptance criteria.
5. Formulate questions chosen from these archetypes:

• Scope refinement (e.g., "Should this include integration touchpoints with X and Y or stay limited to local module correctness?")
• Risk prioritization (e.g., "Which of these potential risk areas should receive mandatory gating checks?")
• Depth calibration (e.g., "Is this a lightweight pre-commit sanity list or a formal release gate?")
• Audience framing (e.g., "Will this be used by the author only or peers during PR review?")
• Boundary exclusion (e.g., "Should we explicitly exclude performance tuning items this round?")
• Scenario class gap (e.g., "No recovery flows detected—are rollback / partial failure paths in scope?")

Question formatting rules:

• If presenting options, generate a compact table with columns: Option | Candidate | Why It Matters
• Limit to A–E options maximum; omit table if a free-form answer is clearer
• Never ask the user to restate what they already said
• Avoid speculative categories (no hallucination). If uncertain, ask explicitly: "Confirm whether X belongs in scope."

Defaults when interaction impossible:

• Depth: Standard
• Audience: Reviewer (PR) if code-related; Author otherwise
• Focus: Top 2 relevance clusters

Output the questions (label Q1/Q2/Q3). After answers: if ≥2 scenario classes (Alternate / Exception / Recovery / Non-Functional domain) remain unclear, you MAY ask up to TWO more targeted follow‑ups (Q4/Q5) with a one-line justification each (e.g., "Unresolved recovery path risk"). Do not exceed five total questions. Skip escalation if user explicitly declines more.

1. Understand user request: Combine $ARGUMENTS + clarifying answers:

• Derive checklist theme (e.g., security, review, deploy, ux)
• Consolidate explicit must-have items mentioned by user
• Map focus selections to category scaffolding
• Infer any missing context from spec/plan/tasks (do NOT hallucinate)

1. Load feature context: Read from FEATURE_DIR:

• spec.md: Feature requirements and scope
• plan.md (if exists): Technical details, dependencies
• tasks.md (if exists): Implementation tasks

Context Loading Strategy:

• Load only necessary portions relevant to active focus areas (avoid full-file dumping)
• Prefer summarizing long sections into concise scenario/requirement bullets