openspec-workflow

What This Skill Does

The openspec-workflow skill enables autonomous, spec-driven software development by orchestrating the interaction between the OpenSpec CLI and Claude Code. As the orchestrator, the agent manages the full lifecycle of a development task: drafting proposal artifacts, managing design documents, and verifying technical specs. By delegating codebase exploration, code reviews, and implementation to Claude Code, this skill ensures that all changes are backed by rigorous technical documentation and verified against the repository's existing logic. It bridges the gap between high-level architectural requirements and low-level code implementation, ensuring every feature is 'spec-complete' before a PR is opened.

Installation

To install this skill, run the following command in your terminal: clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/bobbyradford/openspec-workflow Ensure you have the following prerequisites configured on your system: openspec CLI, claude CLI, gh CLI for GitHub interactions, and a Git-initialized repository with an openspec/ directory ready for artifacts.

Use Cases

This skill is ideal for projects that prioritize architectural integrity and audit trails. Use it when:

• Implementing complex new features that require a documented design proposal.
• Performing large-scale refactors where behavior must be strictly defined before execution.
• Handling breaking changes or cross-module migrations where task-breakdown artifacts are critical for coordination.
• Automating the creation of PRs that require specific OpenSpec artifacts to be archived and linked for compliance.

Example Prompts

1. "OpenSpec workflow: initiate a new change for the user authentication refactor. Draft the initial proposal and task list for the migration."
2. "Review the current implementation status for change 'api-rate-limiting' and trigger Claude Code to implement the documented task requirements."
3. "Orchestrate the review cycle for the design artifact 'db-schema-v2'. Once approved by Claude Code, proceed to implementation and final PR creation."

Tips & Limitations

• Timeouts: Always set your runTimeoutSeconds appropriately. Trivial updates (1-2 artifacts) need ~300s, while large multi-file changes require ~1200s to account for multiple Claude Code review loops.
• Scope: Only use this for functional product changes. Documentation-only updates or trivial dependency bumps are better handled by manual PRs to avoid the overhead of the spec workflow.
• Context: Ensure you are running the command at the repository root; the skill relies on the file structure of your openspec/ directory to maintain consistent state tracking.