Validate Specification

Validate a specification against the canonical schema and quality rules.

Workflow

1. Load Specification

   • Read the specification file
   • Parse YAML frontmatter and content

2. Schema Validation

   • Spawn spec-reviewer validate agent
   • Check required fields present
   • Validate field formats
   • Check requirement ID patterns

3. EARS Pattern Validation

   • Verify all requirements use EARS format
   • Check pattern syntax correctness
   • Identify malformed requirements

4. Acceptance Criteria Validation

   • Verify all requirements have acceptance criteria
   • Check Given/When/Then format
   • Identify missing or incomplete criteria

5. Quality Assessment

   • Calculate INVEST scores per requirement
   • Check for ambiguous language
   • Identify missing sections

6. Report Results

   • Show validation status (PASS/FAIL)
   • List issues by severity
   • Provide remediation guidance

Arguments

• $ARGUMENTS - Path to specification file

Examples

# Validate specific specification
/spec-driven-development:validate .specs/user-auth/spec.md

# Validate all specifications
/spec-driven-development:validate --all

Validation Report

# Validation Report: user-auth

**Status:** ⚠️ PASS WITH WARNINGS
**Timestamp:** 2024-01-15T10:30:00Z

## Schema Compliance
✓ All required fields present
✓ Valid frontmatter format
✓ Requirement IDs follow pattern

## EARS Format
✓ FR-1: Valid Event-Driven pattern
✓ FR-2: Valid State-Driven pattern
⚠️ FR-3: Missing SHALL keyword

## Acceptance Criteria
✓ All requirements have criteria
✓ Given/When/Then format correct
⚠️ FR-2.AC-3: Vague "then" clause

## INVEST Scores
| Req | I | N | V | E | S | T | Total |
| --- | - | - | - | - | - | - | ----- |
| FR-1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 12/12 |
| FR-2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 10/12 |
| FR-3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 11/12 |

## Recommendations
1. FR-3: Add SHALL keyword for EARS compliance
2. FR-2.AC-3: Make outcome more specific

Related Commands

• /spec-driven-development:audit - Full quality audit with scoring
• /spec-driven-development:refine - AI-assisted refinement
• /spec-driven-development:specify - Generate new specification