shape-spec

A guided process for deciding the scope, requirements, design, and architecture of a new feature before writing its formal specification.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to initialize a dated spec folder, research requirements with supporting agents, and report that the shaping process has started.
Why use it?
It separates early decisions and research from the final spec, reducing unclear or premature implementation plans.

Command for Claude Code

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add commands/adawalli/nexus/shape-spec
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/adawalli/nexus

Made for: Claude Code.

Per session 0 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 423 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00000 $0.00423
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.00211
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00085
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00042

Measured 2d ago against content hash 818c44ceeff3, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

shape-spec scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

.claude/commands/agent-os/shape-spec.md · 56 lines

What it actually says

Spec Shaping Process

You are helping me shape and plan the scope for a new feature. The following process is aimed at documenting our key decisions regarding scope, design and architecture approach. We will use our findings from this process later when we write the formal spec document (but we are NOT writing the formal spec yet).

This process will follow 3 main phases, each with their own workflow steps:

Process overview (details to follow)

PHASE 1. Initilize spec PHASE 2. Research requirements for this spec PHASE 3. Inform the user that the spec has been initialized

Follow each of these phases and their individual workflows IN SEQUENCE:

Multi-Phase Process:

PHASE 1: Initialize Spec

Use the spec-initializer subagent to initialize a new spec.

IF the user has provided a description, provide that to the spec-initializer.

The spec-initializer will provide the path to the dated spec folder (YYYY-MM-DD-spec-name) they've created.

PHASE 2: Research Requirements

After spec-initializer completes, immediately use the spec-shaper subagent:

Provide the spec-shaper with:

  • The spec folder path from spec-initializer

The spec-shaper will give you several separate responses that you MUST show to the user. These include:

  1. Numbered clarifying questions along with a request for visual assets (show these to user, wait for user's response)
  2. Follow-up questions if needed (based on user's answers and provided visuals)

IMPORTANT:

  • Display these questions to the user and wait for their response
  • The spec-shaper may ask you to relay follow-up questions that you must present to user

PHASE 3: Inform the user

After all steps complete, inform the user:

Spec shaping is complete!

✅ Spec folder created: `[spec-path]`
✅ Requirements gathered
✅ Visual assets: [Found X files / No files provided]

NEXT STEP 👉 Run `/write-spec` to generate the detailed specification document.
Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 56 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A 818c44ceeff3

Subscribe to this mod's changes

shape-spec is a command published in the GitHub repository adawalli/nexus (23 stars, last pushed 20d ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 423 tokens. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.