/ido4dev:spec-validate

The spec-validate skill runs pre-ingestion validation on a technical spec artifact, checking format compliance and content quality before feeding it into the ingestion pipeline.

What It Does

/ido4dev:spec-validate path/to/technical-spec.md performs two stages of validation:

Stage 1: Format Compliance

• Verifies the spec follows the ## Capability: / ### PREFIX-NN: heading pattern
• Checks all required metadata fields are present (effort, risk, type, ai for tasks; size, risk for capabilities)
• Validates metadata values are in allowed sets
• Ensures depends_on references point to existing task IDs
• Runs circular dependency detection on the dependency graph
• Verifies success conditions are present for each task

Stage 2: Content Quality

• Checks task descriptions meet minimum length (>= 200 characters)
• Assesses description quality: does it contain implementation guidance, not just titles?
• Checks success conditions are specific and verifiable
• Flags tasks with ai: human that lack explanation of why human involvement is needed
• Validates effort/risk consistency (e.g., S-effort task with critical risk is suspicious)

Output

The skill produces a structured validation report:

Spec Validation: Real-time Notification System
  Format: 12/12 checks passed
  Content: 10/12 checks passed, 2 warnings

  Warnings:
  - NCO-03 (Routing Engine): Description references "user preferences"
    but depends_on doesn't include PRF-01. Missing dependency?
  - EML-03 (Bounce Handler): risk=medium but effort=S — verify
    webhook integration complexity is genuinely small

  Ready for ingestion: YES (with warnings)

When to Use

• After the technical spec writer produces a spec (as part of /ido4dev:decompose)
• When manually authoring a technical spec
• Before running ingest_spec to catch issues early
• As a quality gate in the decomposition pipeline

Metadata Reference

Task Metadata

Field	Values	Required
effort	S, M, L, XL	Yes
risk	low, medium, high, critical	Yes
type	feature, bug, research, infrastructure	Yes
ai	full, assisted, pair, human	Yes
depends_on	Comma-separated IDs, or - for none	Yes

Capability Metadata

Field	Values	Required
size	S, M, L, XL	Yes
risk	low, medium, high, critical	Yes

Related

• /ido4dev:decompose — Full decomposition pipeline (includes validation)
• Tool Reference: ingest_spec — The ingestion tool that consumes validated specs