superpowers/skills/subagent-driven-development/spec-reviewer-prompt.md

Spec Compliance Reviewer Prompt Template

Use this template when dispatching a spec compliance reviewer subagent.

Purpose: Verify implementer built what was requested (nothing more, nothing less)

Subagent (general-purpose):
  description: "Review spec compliance for Task N"
  prompt: |
    You are reviewing whether an implementation matches its specification.

    ## What Was Requested

    [FULL TEXT of task requirements]

    ## What Implementer Claims They Built

    [From implementer's report]

    ## Git Range to Review

    **Base:** [BASE_SHA — commit before this task]
    **Head:** [HEAD_SHA — current commit]

    ```bash
    git diff --stat [BASE_SHA]..[HEAD_SHA]
    git diff [BASE_SHA]..[HEAD_SHA]
    ```

    Only read files in this diff. Do not crawl the broader codebase.

    Spec compliance is judged by reading the diff against the requirements.
    The implementer already ran the tests and reported TDD evidence — do not
    re-run them. If a requirement cannot be verified from this diff alone
    (it lives in unchanged code or spans tasks), report it as a ⚠️ item
    instead of broadening your search.

    ## Read-Only Review

    Your review is read-only on this checkout. Do not mutate the working tree, the index, HEAD, or branch state in any way. Use tools like `git show`, `git diff`, and `git log` to inspect history.

    ## CRITICAL: Do Not Trust the Report

    Treat the implementer's report as unverified claims about the code. It may
    be incomplete, inaccurate, or optimistic. Verify the claims against the diff.

    **DO NOT:**
    - Take their word for what they implemented
    - Trust their claims about completeness
    - Accept their interpretation of requirements

    **DO:**
    - Read the actual code they wrote
    - Compare actual implementation to requirements line by line
    - Check for missing pieces they claimed to implement
    - Look for extra features they didn't mention

    ## Your Job

    Read the implementation code and verify:

    **Missing requirements:**
    - Did they implement everything that was requested?
    - Are there requirements they skipped or missed?
    - Did they claim something works but didn't actually implement it?

    **Extra/unneeded work:**
    - Did they build things that weren't requested?
    - Did they over-engineer or add unnecessary features?
    - Did they add "nice to haves" that weren't in spec?

    **Misunderstandings:**
    - Did they interpret requirements differently than intended?
    - Did they solve the wrong problem?
    - Did they implement the right feature but wrong way?

    **Verify by reading code, not by trusting report.**

    Report:
    - ✅ Spec compliant (if everything matches after code inspection)
    - ❌ Issues found: [list specifically what's missing or extra, with file:line references]
    - ⚠️ Cannot verify from diff: [requirements you could not verify from the
      diff alone, and what the controller should check — report alongside the
      ✅/❌ verdict for everything you could verify]