Spec-Theater artwork showing a group on a theater stage gathered in reverence around a glowing oversized book of specifications.

Spec-Theater

When documentation stops being a tool and becomes a ritual.

Carousel continues in English

38 pages of AI-generated specs. Nobody reads them.

03
The Pattern

This theater predates AI.

Teams have asked for more requirements, more edge cases, and more certainty for years. AI just made the ceremony cheaper.

04
The Reflex

You never get all requirements.

You get enough constraints to start. Then reality teaches you the rest. That is what iteration is for.

05
What To Write

Set anchors. Not exhaustive prose.

Write down the pillars that must stay true. The AI can inspect the repo and inventory the rest in seconds.

If you trust the AI to write the spec—why don't you trust it to skip the spec?

07
The Damage

Stale specs create legacy ghosts.

Once the docs drift away from the current state, the AI starts preserving old paths, workarounds, and compatibility sludge.

Why we do it anyway

Absicherungs-
Mentalität

/ˈapzɪçəʁʊŋsmɛntaliˌtɛːt/

The instinct to cover yourself with paperwork. Documents don't create quality—they create the illusion of control.

09
The Alternative

Short plan. Clear anchors. Build. Then verify.

Keep docs small, high-level, and current. Tests and evals check behavior. The codebase provides the inventory.

Specs describe. Tests verify.

Plan + Tests. Not Spec + Hope.