Spec Kit and IBM Bob: spec-driven app tutorial

Ash Minhas walks through spec-driven development with Spec Kit and IBM Bob, using a small shopping list app. The tutorial puts project documents before code: a constitution sets the rules, a specification describes behavior, an implementation plan defines the technical approach, and a task list breaks down the work for the AI agent.

The setup starts in an empty project folder. Minhas initializes the Spec Kit CLI, selects Bob as the coding integration, and chooses POSIX shell scripts. He then asks Bob to read the scaffolded project. The constitution calls for vanilla HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, keyboard accessibility, browser local storage, and avoiding unnecessary frameworks.

The feature specification covers adding items, marking purchases, deleting entries, and retaining data across sessions. It excludes authentication, sharing, device sync, and categories. Spec Kit turns the requirements into user stories with given-when-then acceptance criteria. Bob generates a plan checked against the constitution, then a tasks.md file before implementation begins.

Minhas reports that the resulting app supports the requested actions and preserves the list after a page refresh. He argues that explicit scope and smaller tasks reduce guesswork compared with repeated prompts. The example's browser storage does not establish that the coding assistant runs locally or offline; the tutorial focuses on guiding development through documents.