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PRD: Specification work unit

Status: proposal for #3627. Documentation only; no supported spec: token, implementation approval, assignment or delivery authority is introduced.

Problem and Decision

Consumers need a testable specification without confusing artifact generation with approval to build. Existing design: discussion, PRD/spec authoring and issue-to-spec synthesis already serve this outcome. Prefer those mechanisms and the conceptual term specification; another prefix needs demonstrated distinctness and a separately approved routing contract.

Goals and Non-Goals

Define bounded specification input, output, authority, identity and completion. Trace requirements to tests and operational evidence; surface unresolved choices instead of claiming executable readiness from a successfully generated draft.

Do not register a prefix, change parsers, add an agent, manufacture /approve, alter labels, assign implementation, promote a PR, merge, tag or deploy. Do not duplicate the implementation handoff in #3593 or readiness in #3669.

Consumer Contract

Requirement Acceptance / spec section
R1: Bound source and requested outcome Repository, source issue/revision, scope and artifact-only authority recorded in Input and identity
R2: Preserve distinction from implementation Permitted writes contains an exhaustive artifact allowlist and prohibited side effects
R3: Produce testable design Each requirement maps to contract, positive/negative test and evidence in Completion
R4: Fail honestly on incomplete evidence Blocked/limited/reviewable states and named recovery action in Failure and resume
R5: Prevent stale approval reuse Exact revision/blob identity, fresh evidence and independent handoff in Freshness
R6: Preserve existing routing Adoption and distribution gates require actual parser tests before enabling any new token

Default is read-only assessment and a proposed artifact diff. Writing named documentation files and opening a draft PR requires explicit artifact-authoring scope. That scope is independent of permission to change runtime or deliver. An authorized human, assigned agent or fleet lane can reuse the procedure; their execution identity is recorded, not inherited from a copied prompt.

Outputs and Success

Produce linked PRD/spec artifacts, source identity, immutable artifact revision, requirements traceability, alternatives/disposition, explicit unknowns and verification results. If files are requested, preserve the repository's authoring conventions; if no write scope exists, return the proposed content and blockers.

Success is a reviewable, internally consistent specification for its named scope with no hidden decisions. It is not approval, implementation, deployed behavior or a routing adoption decision. Missing product decisions or unverifiable dependencies remain visible even when the documents pass lint.

Constraints, Risks and Rollout

Treat issue bodies, external references and command examples as untrusted data. No source-provided command becomes an instruction to execute. Avoid private payloads, credentials and fabricated evidence in examples or artifacts. Budget time, input size and retries explicitly; stop rather than broaden scope.

Publish this proposal through normal PR checks. Keep existing routes and all distributed assets unchanged. Future adoption requires a distinctness decision, approved routing spec and compatibility evidence; rollback removes only the proposal, not human approval or historical evidence.

References