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Add spec-review skill: independent, multi-model design/spec review#614

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Add spec-review skill: independent, multi-model design/spec review#614
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nmetulev-spec-review-skill

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What & why

Adds a new developer skill under .github/skills/spec-review/ that reviews a design or spec before any code is written — answering "should we build this, and is the approach right?"

This is the pre-code companion to the pr-review skill. pr-review reviews code that already exists and deliberately avoids the "should this exist" debate; spec-review is the opposite — it evaluates a proposal and makes the necessity + approach questions its whole point.

The motivating need: contributors want to validate a design with multiple sub-agents that use different model families (Opus / GPT / Gemini) and, crucially, get their information from their own research against reality — not by blindly trusting the spec. That independent-research + multi-model-family emphasis is the heart of this skill.

Scope note: this PR only adds files under .github/skills/spec-review/. It does not touch the pr-review skill (owned by #613). The .github/skills/README.md index and the top-level README skills blurb are intentionally left for a follow-up to avoid conflicts with #613.

How it works

Given a spec (usually a markdown file path) or a described feature, the orchestrator captures it, maps the real codebase areas it touches, establishes model-family diversity, fans out parallel sub-agents, and consolidates into a decision-oriented recommendation on stdout: proceed / proceed-with-changes / reconsider, plus top risks, the single best alternative, open questions to resolve before implementation, and per-dimension coverage. It does not write code or edit the spec.

Dimensions (kept lean — 6, not a sprawling set)

  1. necessity-and-scope — should this exist? fits winapp's mission? real need vs speculative generality? could it be smaller / staged?
  2. approach-and-alternatives — is this the simplest reasonable approach? names concrete in-repo (AppxManifestDocument, ManifestHelper, existing services) and ecosystem (SDK tools, Windows App SDK APIs) alternatives with tradeoffs.
  3. feasibility-vs-reality — do the spec's load-bearing assumptions actually match how the code / Windows APIs / build work today? The key anti-"trust the spec" dimension; each assumption is independently verified and labelled verified / unverified / false.
  4. risks-unknowns-edge-cases — what's underspecified, compat/migration concerns, and what needs a prototype/spike before committing.
  5. dx-and-user-impact — is the proposed CLI UX / API coherent with winapp conventions? breaking changes? comprehensible?
  6. multi-model — an independent pass from a different model family than the orchestrator (latest Opus / GPT / Gemini, no pinned versions), doing its own research, disputing weak conclusions, and recording which family ran.

Reuses pr-review's proven patterns

  • Parallel sub-agent fan-out and a self-contained sub-agent prompt template.
  • Its own adapted dimensions/_shared-contract.md (retargeted from "diff" to "spec") keeping the Team Lead Test signal-to-noise gate and the severity/confidence guides.
  • The no-quota principle — a well-researched "the approach is sound, proceed" is a complete, valuable result; findings are never manufactured to have something to say.
  • The latest-per-family multi-model approach — select the newest model in each family at run time rather than pinning version numbers, and record which families ran.

Files

.github/skills/spec-review/
  SKILL.md                                  (orchestrator; name: spec-review, infer: true)
  dimensions/_shared-contract.md
  dimensions/necessity-and-scope.md
  dimensions/approach-and-alternatives.md
  dimensions/feasibility-vs-reality.md
  dimensions/risks-unknowns-edge-cases.md
  dimensions/dx-and-user-impact.md
  dimensions/multi-model.md

These are hand-written developer skills (not the shipped winapp plugin skills), so there is nothing to auto-generate or build.

Opening as draft for review.

nmetulev and others added 2 commits July 10, 2026 14:32
Adds a new developer skill under .github/skills/spec-review/ that reviews a
design or spec BEFORE any code is written — answering "should we build this,
and is the approach right?". It is the pre-code companion to the pr-review
skill (which reviews already-written code).

The skill fans out parallel sub-agents, each doing its OWN research against
the real codebase and ecosystem rather than trusting the spec, across six lean
dimensions: necessity-and-scope, approach-and-alternatives, feasibility-vs-
reality, risks-unknowns-edge-cases, dx-and-user-impact, and a multi-model
cross-check from a different model family (latest Opus / GPT / Gemini, no
pinned versions). It emits a decision-oriented recommendation (proceed /
proceed-with-changes / reconsider) to stdout and does not write code or edit
the spec.

Reuses pr-review's proven patterns via its own adapted _shared-contract.md:
the Team Lead Test signal-to-noise gate, the no-quota principle (a reasoned
"the approach is sound" is a complete result), and the latest-per-family
multi-model approach.

Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
List the new spec-review skill in .github/skills/README.md, directly after the
existing pr-review row. Index-only change; the pr-review row is untouched.

Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
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Build Metrics Report

Binary Sizes

Artifact Baseline Current Delta
CLI (ARM64) 31.71 MB 31.71 MB ✅ 0.0 KB (0.00%)
CLI (x64) 32.04 MB 32.04 MB ✅ 0.0 KB (0.00%)
MSIX (ARM64) 13.30 MB 13.30 MB 📉 -0.2 KB (-0.00%)
MSIX (x64) 14.15 MB 14.15 MB 📉 -0.1 KB (-0.00%)
NPM Package 27.77 MB 27.77 MB 📈 +0.0 KB (+0.00%)
NuGet Package 27.79 MB 27.79 MB 📈 +0.5 KB (+0.00%)
VS Code Extension 20.60 MB 20.60 MB 📈 +0.5 KB (+0.00%)

Test Results

1545 passed, 1 skipped out of 1546 tests in 424.6s (-61.6s vs. baseline)

Test Coverage

18% line coverage, 37.2% branch coverage · ⚠️ -0.1% vs. baseline

CLI Startup Time

43ms median (x64, winapp --version) · ✅ no change vs. baseline


Updated 2026-07-10 22:22:38 UTC · commit 6f48ec9 · workflow run

Reverse the no-execution rule: dimensions now verify load-bearing mechanics
with cheap, temp-dir experiments (evidence hierarchy: experiment > authoritative
docs > code-read > spec assertion). Add load-bearing-assumption identification
and verified/refuted/unproven tagging to feasibility-vs-reality, backward-compat
verification framing, cross-model agreement counting (confirmed by N families)
as the strongest signal, evidence-based disagreement resolution, and a distinct
'Must prove before ship' report section for unclosed load-bearing assumptions.
Examples updated with generic, framework-agnostic content.

Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
nmetulev added a commit that referenced this pull request Jul 10, 2026
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
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