← Patterns / prep
Explore → spec → plan → prompt
Work climbs down a ladder of altitude, and every rung is a doc that outlives the session.
- Authors
- Michael Staton
- Augmented with
- Claude Code on Claude Opus 5.5
- Tags
- Specs · Plans · Workflow
What it is
The most common rhythm in practice:
-
An exploration asks the question and weighs options.
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When it has learned enough, it's adapted into a spec : what we're building, why, and how we'll know it works.
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The spec's phases become a plan : ordered, scoped, each step checkable.
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Optionally, a prompt breaks the plan into steps to run across sessions.
Why
A prompt without a spec is a vibe. A prompt within a spec is engineering.
Each rung carries acceptance criteria down. Plan-mode output that would otherwise vanish when the session ends lands in
plans/
instead.
How
-
Promotion is an adaptation, not a move. The parent stays, linked both ways.
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Specs have a sign-off gate before anyone builds.
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Acceptance criteria are things someone can check: a command, a test, a click-path.
In the kit
/cv:prep
plays senior product manager on this ladder and writes no code.
/cv:implement
and
/cv:loop
take it from a signed-off doc.