Openspec Context Loading

forztf/open-skilled-sdd/skills/openspec-context-loading

by forztf792f48807c192d740968f56b474e79612c51a98aNo license10 starsListed Oct 9, 2026Updated Oct 9, 2026Repository updated 10 months ago

Loads project context, lists existing specs and changes, searches capabilities and requirements. Use when user asks about project state, existing specs, active changes, available capabilities, or needs context discovery. Triggers include "openspec context", "what specs exist", "show changes", "list capabilities", "project context", "find specs", "what's in the spec", "show me specs".

Instructions onlySoftware DevelopmentProductivity & Workflow
AI-generated overview

Loads project specification context by listing specs, active changes, requirements and capabilities.

What it does
This skill discovers and summarizes a project's specification files, active and archived changes, requirements and scenarios. It provides shell command patterns for listing capabilities, searching by keyword, and producing a dashboard-style overview. Outputs are structured summaries and navigation hints rather than modified files.
When to use it
Use it when a user asks what specs exist, which changes are active, what capabilities the system has, or where a feature is specified. It fits context discovery before working on a specification or change.
Requirements
Requires a project laid out with spec/specs, spec/changes and spec/archive directories, plus shell utilities such as find, grep, ls and optionally tree and bc. It ships no scripts; all commands are instructions only.

Specification Context Loading

Discovers and loads project specifications, active changes, and requirements to provide context.

Quick Start

Context loading helps answer:

  • What specs exist in this project?
  • What changes are currently active?
  • What requirements are defined?
  • What capabilities does the system have?
  • Where is a specific feature specified?

Basic pattern: Search → Read → Summarize

Discovery Commands

List All Specifications

bash
# Find all spec filesfind spec/specs -name "spec.md" -type f
# Find all capability directoriesfind spec/specs -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d
# Show spec treetree spec/specs/  # if tree is installed# orls -R spec/specs/

Output format:

spec/specs/├── authentication/│   └── spec.md├── billing/│   └── spec.md└── notifications/    └── spec.md

List Active Changes

bash
# Show all active changesfind spec/changes -maxdepth 1 -type d -not -path "spec/changes" -not -path "*/archive" | sort
# Show with modification datesfind spec/changes -maxdepth 1 -type d -not -path "spec/changes" -not -path "*/archive" -exec ls -ld {} \;
# Count active changesfind spec/changes -maxdepth 1 -type d -not -path "spec/changes" -not -path "*/archive" | wc -l

List Archived Changes

bash
# Show all archived changesls -1 spec/archive/
# Show with datesls -la spec/archive/
# Find recently archived (last 7 days)find spec/archive/ -maxdepth 1 -type d -mtime -7

Search for Requirements

bash
# Find all requirementsgrep -r "### Requirement:" spec/specs/
# Find requirements in specific capabilitygrep "### Requirement:" spec/specs/authentication/spec.md
# List unique requirement namesgrep -h "### Requirement:" spec/specs/**/*.md | sed 's/### Requirement: //' | sort

Search for Scenarios

bash
# Find all scenariosgrep -r "#### Scenario:" spec/specs/
# Count scenarios per specfor spec in spec/specs/**/spec.md; do    count=$(grep -c "#### Scenario:" "$spec")    echo "$spec: $count scenarios"done

Search by Keyword

bash
# Find specs mentioning "authentication"grep -r -i "authentication" spec/specs/
# Find requirements about "password"grep -B 1 -A 5 -i "password" spec/specs/**/*.md | grep -A 5 "### Requirement:"
# Find scenarios about "error"grep -B 1 -A 10 -i "error" spec/specs/**/*.md | grep -A 10 "#### Scenario:"

Common Queries

Query 1: "What specs exist?"

bash
# List all capabilitiesfind spec/specs -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -exec basename {} \;
# Count requirements per capabilityfor cap in spec/specs/*/; do    name=$(basename "$cap")    count=$(grep -c "### Requirement:" "$cap/spec.md" 2>/dev/null || echo "0")    echo "$name: $count requirements"done

Response format:

markdown
## Existing Specifications
The project has specifications for the following capabilities:
- **authentication**: 8 requirements- **billing**: 12 requirements- **notifications**: 5 requirements
Total: 3 capabilities, 25 requirements

Query 2: "What changes are active?"

bash
# List with proposal summariesfor change in spec/changes/*/; do    if [ "$change" != "spec/changes/archive/" ]; then        id=$(basename "$change")        echo "=== $id ==="        head -n 20 "$change/proposal.md" | grep -A 3 "## Why"    fidone

Response format:

markdown
## Active Changes
Currently active changes:
### add-user-auth**Why**: Users need secure authentication...
### update-billing-api**Why**: Payment processing requires v2 API...
Total: 2 active changes

Query 3: "Show me the authentication spec"

bash
# Read full speccat spec/specs/authentication/spec.md
# Or show summaryecho "Requirements:"grep "### Requirement:" spec/specs/authentication/spec.md
echo "\nScenarios:"grep "#### Scenario:" spec/specs/authentication/spec.md

Response format:

markdown
## Authentication Specification
(Include full content of spec.md)
Summary:- 8 requirements- 16 scenarios- Last modified: [date from git log]

Query 4: "Find specs about password"

bash
# Search for keywordgrep -r -i "password" spec/specs/ -A 5
# Show which specs mention itgrep -r -i "password" spec/specs/ -l

Response format:

markdown
## Specs Mentioning "Password"
Found in:- spec/specs/authentication/spec.md (3 requirements)- spec/specs/security/spec.md (1 requirement)
Relevant requirements:### Requirement: Password Validation### Requirement: Password Reset### Requirement: Password Strength

Query 5: "What's in change X?"

bash
# Show full change contextCHANGE_ID="add-user-auth"
echo "=== Proposal ==="cat spec/changes/$CHANGE_ID/proposal.md
echo "\n=== Tasks ==="cat spec/changes/$CHANGE_ID/tasks.md
echo "\n=== Spec Deltas ==="find spec/changes/$CHANGE_ID/specs -name "*.md" -exec echo "File: {}" \; -exec cat {} \;

Dashboard View

Create a comprehensive project overview:

bash
#!/bin/bash# Project specification dashboard
echo "===  Specification Dashboard ==="echo ""
# Capabilitiesecho "## Capabilities"CAPS=$(find spec/specs -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d | wc -l)echo "Total capabilities: $CAPS"for cap in spec/specs/*/; do    name=$(basename "$cap")    reqs=$(grep -c "### Requirement:" "$cap/spec.md" 2>/dev/null || echo "0")    echo "  - $name: $reqs requirements"doneecho ""
# Requirementsecho "## Requirements"TOTAL_REQS=$(grep -r "### Requirement:" spec/specs/ | wc -l)TOTAL_SCENARIOS=$(grep -r "#### Scenario:" spec/specs/ | wc -l)echo "Total requirements: $TOTAL_REQS"echo "Total scenarios: $TOTAL_SCENARIOS"echo "Avg scenarios per requirement: $(echo "scale=1; $TOTAL_SCENARIOS/$TOTAL_REQS" | bc)"echo ""
# Changesecho "## Changes"ACTIVE=$(find spec/changes -maxdepth 1 -type d -not -path "spec/changes" -not -path "*/archive" | wc -l)ARCHIVED=$(ls -1 spec/archive/ | wc -l)echo "Active changes: $ACTIVE"echo "Archived changes: $ARCHIVED"echo ""
# Recent activityecho "## Recent Activity"echo "Recently modified specs:"find spec/specs -name "spec.md" -type f -exec ls -lt {} \; | head -5

Response format:

markdown
# Specification Dashboard
## CapabilitiesTotal capabilities: 3  - authentication: 8 requirements  - billing: 12 requirements  - notifications: 5 requirements
## RequirementsTotal requirements: 25Total scenarios: 52Avg scenarios per requirement: 2.1
## ChangesActive changes: 2Archived changes: 15
## Recent ActivityRecently modified specs:- spec/specs/billing/spec.md (2 days ago)- spec/specs/authentication/spec.md (1 week ago)

Advanced Queries

Find Related Requirements

bash
# Find requirements that mention another requirementgrep -r "User Login" spec/specs/ -A 10 | grep "### Requirement:"
# Find cross-referencesgrep -r "See Requirement:" spec/specs/

Analyze Coverage

bash
# Find requirements without scenariosfor spec in spec/specs/**/spec.md; do    awk '/### Requirement:/ {req=$0; getline; if ($0 !~ /#### Scenario:/) print req}' "$spec"done
# Find scenarios without proper Given/When/Thengrep -A 5 "#### Scenario:" spec/specs/**/*.md | grep -v "GIVEN\|WHEN\|THEN"

Compare Active vs Archive

bash
# Show evolution over timeecho "Archive history:"ls -1 spec/archive/ | head -10
echo "Recent archives (last 30 days):"find spec/archive/ -maxdepth 1 -type d -mtime -30 -exec basename {} \;

Search Patterns

Pattern 1: Capability Discovery

User asks: "What can the system do?"

bash
# List capabilitiesfind spec/specs -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -exec basename {} \;
# Show high-level requirementsfor cap in spec/specs/*/; do    echo "=== $(basename $cap) ==="    grep "### Requirement:" "$cap/spec.md" | head -3done

Pattern 2: Feature Search

User asks: "Is there a spec for password reset?"

bash
# Search for keywordgrep -r -i "password reset" spec/specs/ -B 1 -A 10
# If found, show full requirementgrep -B 1 -A 20 "Requirement:.*Password Reset" spec/specs/**/*.md

Pattern 3: Change Tracking

User asks: "What's being worked on?"

bash
# Show active changes with statusfor change in spec/changes/*/; do    if [ "$change" != "spec/changes/archive/" ]; then        id=$(basename "$change")        echo "$id:"        test -f "$change/IMPLEMENTED" && echo "  Status: Implemented" || echo "  Status: In Progress"        echo "  Tasks: $(grep -c "^[0-9]\+\." "$change/tasks.md")"    fidone

Best Practices

Pattern 1: Provide Context Before Details

Good flow:

markdown
1. Show dashboard (high-level overview)2. User asks about specific capability3. Show that capability's requirements4. User asks about specific requirement5. Show full requirement with scenarios

Pattern 2: Use Grep Efficiently

bash
# Combine filters for precisiongrep -r "### Requirement:" spec/specs/ | grep -i "auth"
# Use context flags for readabilitygrep -B 2 -A 10 "#### Scenario:" spec/specs/authentication/spec.md

Pattern 3: Aggregate Information

Don't just dump file contents. Summarize:

markdown
**Bad**: (dump entire spec file)
**Good**:"The authentication spec has 8 requirements covering:- User login- Password management- Session handling- Multi-factor authentication
Would you like details on any specific requirement?"

Anti-Patterns to Avoid

Don't:

  • Read entire spec files without user request
  • List every single requirement by default
  • Show raw grep output without formatting
  • Assume user knows capability names

Do:

  • Start with high-level overview
  • Ask which area user wants to explore
  • Format output clearly
  • Provide navigation hints

Reference Materials

  • SEARCH_PATTERNS.md [blocked] - Advanced grep/find patterns

Token budget: This SKILL.md is approximately 460 lines, under the 500-line recommended limit.

Source and attribution

Source:forztf/open-skilled-sddinskills/openspec-context-loadingat commit792f488

License: No license

Content belongs to its original authors. SourceWeft indexes it from a public repository.

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