(October 2025) Understanding Spec-Driven-Development: Kiro, spec-kit, and Tessl

This article from Martin Fowler's site explores the emerging concept of Spec-Driven Development (SDD) by examining three tools that claim to implement it: Kiro, GitHub's spec-kit, and the Tessl Framework. The author defines SDD as a "documentation-first" approach where a structured specification is written before code and serves as a source of truth. The tools vary significantly in their implementation, from lightweight workflows to more elaborate artifact generation, and in their ambition—ranging from "spec-first" to "spec-anchored" (maintaining the spec over time) to "spec-as-source" (where the spec is the primary artifact). The author raises critical questions about the practical utility of these tools, noting that their rigid workflows may be overkill for small tasks, the generated markdown files can be tedious to review, and the approach risks creating a false sense of control due to LLM non-determinism. The article concludes by drawing parallels to past failures of Model-Driven Development, suggesting that while the "spec-first" principle is valuable, the current tool implementations may be over-engineering the problem. 

https://martinfowler.com/articles/exploring-gen-ai/sdd-3-tools.html

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