specify-meta

specify-meta is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from rsmdt/the-startup. It costs 42 tokens per session (803 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A workflow manager for specification folders and their progress. It organizes work through Requirements, Solution, and Decomposition phases and tracks documents, decisions, and the chosen work-planning tier.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to create and manage specification directories, check their status, move between phases, record decisions, and create the appropriate planning files for direct, incremental, or factory-style work.
Why use it?
It keeps related specification files and decisions organized as a project moves from an idea to implementation-ready work. It also shows which phase and documents are complete.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Part of the start plugin — 20 skills shipped together

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 skills/rsmdt/the-startup/specify-meta
Any agent
npx skills add rsmdt/the-startup --skill specify-meta
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/rsmdt/the-startup

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Or install start, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 20 skills.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for specify-meta

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/rsmdt/the-startup/specify-meta.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/rsmdt/the-startup/specify-meta)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/rsmdt/the-startup/specify-meta"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/rsmdt/the-startup/specify-meta.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 42 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 803 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 $0.00042 $0.00803
Opus 5 $0.00021 $0.00402
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00161
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00080

Measured 4d ago against content hash 7cf79a1fd2a6, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

specify-meta 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 4d ago.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 1 executable file (spec.py), listed below but not scanned — reading those needs a real analyzer, not pattern matching.

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.

plugins/start/skills/specify-meta/SKILL.md · 105 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 105 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Persona

Act as a specification workflow orchestrator that manages specification directories and tracks user decisions throughout the Requirements → Solution → Decomposition workflow. The Decomposition phase produces one of three artifact families based on the tier chosen by the specify classifier: Direct (no artifacts), Incremental (plan/ directory), or Factory (manifest.md + units/ + scenarios/).

Interface

SpecStatus { id: string // 3-digit zero-padded (001, 002, ...) name: string directory: string // .start/specs/[NNN]-[name]/ (legacy: docs/specs/) phase: Initialization | Requirements | Solution | Decomposition | Ready decomposition_tier: Direct | Incremental | Factory | None documents: { name: string status: pending | in_progress | completed | skipped notes?: string }[] }

State { specId = "" currentPhase: Initialization | Requirements | Solution | Decomposition | Ready decompositionTier: Direct | Incremental | Factory | None documents: [] }

Constraints

Always:

  • Use spec.py (co-located with this SKILL.md) for all directory operations.
  • Create README.md from template.md when scaffolding new specs.
  • Log all significant decisions with date, decision, and rationale.
  • Confirm next steps with user before phase transitions.

Never:

  • Create spec directories manually — always use spec.py.
  • Transition phases without updating README.md.
  • Skip decision logging when user makes workflow choices.

Reference Materials

  • Spec Management — Spec ID format, directory structure, script commands, phase workflow, decision logging, legacy fallback
  • README Template — Template for spec README.md files

Workflow

1. Scaffold

Create a new spec with an auto-incrementing ID.

  1. Run Bash("spec.py \"$featureName\"").
  2. Create README.md from template.md.
  3. Report the created spec status.

2. Read Status

Read existing spec metadata.

  1. Run Bash("spec.py \"$specId\" --read").
  2. Parse TOML output into SpecStatus.
  3. Suggest the next continuation point:

Read the full file on GitHub · 105 lines

Files

What ships with it

3 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

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. 4d ago First seen · 105 lines · 42 tokens per session scan A 7cf79a1fd2a6

Subscribe to this mod's changes

specify-meta is a skill published in the GitHub repository rsmdt/the-startup (511 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 42 tokens to every session and 803 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. 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.

Related

Other skills, from other repositories

atomic-issues-prs

Publish a change-set as atomic GitHub issues or PRs. Use when the user says "atomic PRs" or wants one issue/PR per logical change.

OutlineDriven/odin-claude-plugin · 39 tokens

user-story-generator

Transforms requirements into user stories with Given/When/Then acceptance criteria ready for sprint planning and Jira. Use when user needs to write user stories, create Jira tickets, define acceptance criteria, or says "user stories", "acceptance criteria", "sprint backlog", "Jira tickets", "as a user I want"…

lenar-amirov/product-pipeline-public · 76 tokens

ambiguity-resolver

Structures a brief HANDED DOWN by a stakeholder (boss, exec, another team) into a one-page problem statement with scope boundaries and a named decision owner. Use when the PM says "мне спустили задачу", "I've been asked to look into Y", "руководство хочет X", "CEO попросил разобраться" — a request the PM didn't…

lenar-amirov/product-pipeline-public · 98 tokens

setup-initiative

Guides the PM through an initiative alignment checklist — metric, baseline, target, stakeholders, success/kill criteria. Use before a gate, when the PM says "setup initiative", "set the target", "define success criteria", "align on goals", or when the coverage map shows Frame incomplete. NOT a prerequisite for…

lenar-amirov/product-pipeline-public · 76 tokens

go

Execute the next undone task(s) from a sprint's TASKS.md by dispatching the magi-developer subagent (Sonnet by default). Updates WORKS.md as a development log. Pauses for user confirmation before any commit. Default behavior auto-parallelizes tasks with disjoint file scopes; --parallel forces parallel, --sequential…

howar31/magi-workflow · 90 tokens

status

Terse "where am I, what's next" printer for magi-workflow projects. Outputs only the current project state, sprint dir (if any), suggested next command, and any active warnings — typically 3–6 lines. Use this when you're mid-flow and just need a quick orientation; reach for /magi:help when you want the full command…

howar31/magi-workflow · 84 tokens