sdd:specify

User Input

$ARGUMENTS

If $ARGUMENTS is empty, stop and say: "Provide a feature description: /sdd:specify <description>"

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Shared Instructions

• Transition Logging — append a transition entry on every .spec-context.json write
• Branch Creation — optional feature-branch creation driven by .sdd.json branchStage
• Layered Context — load Layer 1 living specs by domain (Step 3b)

Steps

1. Parse Input

Extract the feature description from $ARGUMENTS.

Generate a concise slug (2–4 words, action-noun format, lowercase, hyphens):

• "add clickable file references" → clickable-file-refs
• "fix payment timeout bug" → fix-payment-timeout
• Preserve technical terms (OAuth2, JWT, API)

Infer the conventional-commit type from the description. Used later by branch-creation.md (for the {type} variable in branchNameFormat) and by /sdd:implement commit-message generation.

Description starts with or mentions	type
"fix", "resolve", "repair", "bug", "broken", "regression"	fix
"refactor", "reorganize", "rename", "extract", "simplify", "cleanup"	refactor
"document", "docs", "readme"	docs
"chore", "bump", "upgrade dependency"	chore
anything else (default)	feat

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2. Determine Spec Number + Create Directory

Scan specs/ locally for directories matching [0-9]+-*:

• Extract the highest number N found; use N+1 as the new number.
• If no spec dirs exist, start at 1.

mkdir -p specs/{NNN}-{slug}

Write specs/{NNN}-{slug}/.spec-context.json (first write — initialize transitions with from: null per transition-logging):

{ "workflow": "sdd", "currentStep": "specify", "currentTask": null, "progress": "parsing", "next": null, "updated": "{TODAY}", "selectedAt": "{ISO_TIMESTAMP}", "specName": "{Feature Name}", "branch": "{CURRENT_GIT_BRANCH}", "workingBranch": null, "type": "{feat|fix|refactor|docs|chore}", "createdAt": "{ISO_TIMESTAMP}", "transitions": [{ "step": "specify", "substep": "parsing", "from": null, "by": "sdd", "at": "{ISO_TIMESTAMP}" }] }