/speckit-clarify

name: "speckit-clarify"
description: "Identify underspecified areas in the current feature spec by asking up to 5 highly targeted clarification questions and encoding answers back into the spec."
argument-hint: "Optional areas to clarify in the spec"
compatibility: "Requires spec-kit project structure with .specify/ directory"
metadata:
  author: "github-spec-kit"
  source: "templates/commands/clarify.md"
user-invocable: true
disable-model-invocation: false

User Input

$ARGUMENTS

You **MUST** consider the user input before proceeding (if not empty).

Pre-Execution Checks

**Check for extension hooks (before clarification)**:

• Check if `.specify/extensions.yml` exists in the project root.
• If it exists, read it and look for entries under the `hooks.before_clarify` key
• If the YAML cannot be parsed or is invalid, do not skip silently: tell the user that `.specify/extensions.yml` could not be read (include the parser error) and that no hooks were checked, including any mandatory (`optional: false`) hooks registered there, then continue normally
• Filter out hooks where `enabled` is explicitly `false`. Treat hooks without an `enabled` field as enabled by default.
• For each remaining hook, do **not** attempt to interpret or evaluate hook `condition` expressions:
• If the hook has no `condition` field, or it is null/empty, treat the hook as executable
• If the hook defines a non-empty `condition`, skip the hook and leave condition evaluation to the HookExecutor implementation
• When constructing command invocations from hook command names, replace dots (`.`) with hyphens (`-`). For example, `speckit.git.commit` → `/speckit-git-commit`.
• For each executable hook, output the following based on its `optional` flag:
• **Optional hook** (`optional: true`):

    ## Extension Hooks

    **Optional Pre-Hook**: {extension}
    Command: `/{command}`
    Description: {description}

    Prompt: {prompt}
    To execute: `/{command}`

• **Mandatory hook** (`optional: false`):

    ## Extension Hooks

    **Automatic Pre-Hook**: {extension}
    Executing: `/{command}`
    EXECUTE_COMMAND: {command}

    Wait for the result of the hook command before proceeding to the Outline.

After emitting the block above you MUST actually invoke the hook and wait for it to finish before continuing. Run it the same way you would run the command yourself in this agent/session (the invocation may differ from the literal `{command}` id shown above, e.g. a skills-mode agent runs it as `/skill:speckit-...` or `$speckit-...`). Emitting the block alone does not run the hook.

• If no hooks are registered or `.specify/extensions.yml` does not exist, skip silently

Outline

Goal: Detect and reduce ambiguity or missing decision points in the active feature specification and record the clarifications directly in the spec file.

Note: This clarification workflow is expected to run (and be completed) BEFORE invoking `/speckit-plan`. If the user explicitly states they are skipping clarification (e.g., exploratory spike), you may proceed, but must warn that downstream rework risk increases.

Execution steps:

1. Run `.specify/scripts/bash/check-prerequisites.sh --json --paths-only` from repo root **once** (combined `--json --paths-only` mode / `-Json -PathsOnly`). Parse minimal JSON payload fields:

• `FEATURE_DIR`
• `FEATURE_SPEC`
• (Optionally capture `IMPL_PLAN`, `TASKS` for future chained flows.)
• If JSON parsing fails, abort and instruct user to re-run `/speckit-specify` or verify feature branch environment.
• For single quotes in args like "I'm Groot", use escape syntax: e.g 'I'\''m Groot' (or double-quote if possible: "I'm Groot").

2. **IF EXISTS**: Load `.specify/memory/constitution.md` for project principles and governance constraints.

3. Load the current spec file. Perform a structured ambiguity & coverage scan using this taxonomy. For each category, mark status: Clear / Partial / Missing. Produce an internal coverage map used for prioritization (do not output raw map unless no questions will be asked).

Functional Scope & Behavior:

• Core user goals & success criteria
• Explicit out-of-scope declarations
• User roles / personas differentiation

Domain & Data Model:

• Entities, attributes, relationships
• Identity & uniqueness rules
• Lifecycle/state transitions
• Data volume / scale assumptions

Interaction & UX Flow:

• Critical user journeys / sequences
• Error/empty/loading states
• Accessibility or localization notes

Non-Functional Quality Attributes:

• Performance (latency, throughput targets)
• Scalability (horizontal/vertical, limits)
• Reliability & availability (uptime, recovery expectations)
• Observability (logging, metrics, tracing signals)
• Security & privacy (authN/Z, data protection, threat assumptions)
• Compliance / regulatory constraints (if any)

Integration & External Dependencies:

• External services/APIs and failure modes
• Data import/export formats
• Protocol/versioning assumptions

Edge Cases & Failure Handling:

• Negative scenarios
• Rate limiting / throttling
• Conflict resolution (e.g., concurrent edits)

Constraints & Tradeoffs:

• Technical constraints (language, storage, hosting)
• Explicit tradeoffs or rejected alternatives

Terminology & Consistency:

• Canonical glossary terms
• Avoided synonyms / deprecated terms

Completion Signals:

• Acceptance criteria testability
• Measurable Definition of Done style indicators

Misc / Placeholders:

• TODO markers / unresolved decisions
• Ambiguous adjectives ("robust", "intuitive") lacking quantification

For each category with Partial or Missing status, add a candidate question opportunity unless:

• Clarification would not materially change implementation or validation strategy
• The item is specifically about implementation