speckit.companion.specify

User Input

$ARGUMENTS

Record this step's start: before anything else runs

A step's recorded window has to contain the work it claims. Stamping the start partway down the body leaves the extension hooks, and any node above the stamp, outside the window the step later reports. So this is the first instruction in the command, ahead of the hooks.

Let <step> be this command's phase and <status> its in-progress status: specify/specifying, plan/planning, tasks/tasking, implement/implementing.

Which feature directory this step stamps against decides when it stamps.

• A step that mints its own feature directory, meaning any fresh-spec entry point such as specify or auto, has nothing to stamp against yet. .specify/feature.json is this step's output: it still points at the previous spec, so stamping now would write this run's status onto finished work. Resolve the directory first, then stamp the instant it exists, before any other work in the step.
• Every other step reads the feature directory it was given, from the invocation or from .specify/feature.json, which by then points at this spec. Stamp immediately, before the extension hooks and before any node.

In both cases the call is the same:

python3 .specify/extensions/companion/scripts/write-context.py --feature-dir <feature_directory> --step <step> --status <status> --kind start --by extension

Add --at "<dispatch time>" when the dispatcher printed one; otherwise the script stamps now. Two things keep this honest:

• Run it, never hand-write it. The script stamps the real clock and writes atomically. A hand-authored entry in .spec-context.json is what corrupts the file.
• A second start is refused, not reconciled. History is append-only, so if the extension already seeded this step's start, this call appends nothing and the earlier timestamp stands. Running it is always safe; skipping it loses the window.