Spec-Driven Development (Manning)

For AI coding agents, accurately specifying your intent is the whole ballgame! Spec-Driven Development: Engineering with intent teaches you how to close the gap between what you mean and what your agents actually build. In this practical, tool-agnostic playbook, author Hari Krishnan shows you how to make your intent clear through structured specifications and then make those specs the primary control surface for your projects, rather than the code itself.

Hari Krishnan

Spec-Driven Development by Hari Krishnan presents a practical, intent-driven approach to building software with AI. The book shows how to translate goals, requirements, and constraints into clear specifications that guide implementation and provide a durable source of shared context throughout development.

You’ll learn how specification-driven development works, how to write your first effective specification, and how to avoid the context debt that can accumulate during loosely directed “vibe coding.” The book also explores how to keep specifications alive as the codebase changes, identify gaps between intent and implementation, and prevent important decisions from getting lost as a project evolves.

Whether you’re already using AI coding agents or evaluating how they might fit into your workflow, Spec-Driven Development offers a structured way to move beyond one-off prompts and build software with greater clarity, alignment, and confidence.

The book is now available through Manning’s Early Access Program, with three chapters currently available.


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