Phases.
The nine governed phases that turn an idea into a spec.
A phase is a structured chunk of the spec, owned by a single department. SpecGraph has nine phases, executed in order. Each one writes a section into the final spec file.
The nine phases #
| Code | Phase | Owner | Produces |
|---|---|---|---|
| P-01 | Vision & Scope | Business | What the product is, who it's for, why it matters |
| P-02 | Features & Stories | Product | Feature list with testable acceptance criteria |
| P-03 | Product Brief | Product | Vision + features consolidated into one narrative |
| P-04 | Design & UX | Design | Tokens, screens, components — enough for the agent to build UI |
| P-05 | Technical Architecture | Engineering | Stack, data model, API contracts, folder layout |
| P-06 | Quality & Testing | QA | Acceptance tests, edge cases, regression matrix |
| P-07 | Security & DevOps | Security | Threat model, auth flows, deployment / CI |
| P-08 | Handoff | System | Compiles every section into the final spec.md |
| P-09 | Progress | System | Tracks agent progress against the spec post-handoff |
P-08 and P-09 are fully automated. The other seven need human input — though every phase has AI-assisted drafting.
Locking and regeneration #
A phase has three states:
- Empty — no content written.
- Drafting — content exists, but isn't trusted by downstream phases.
- Locked — content is frozen and downstream phases assume it's true.
Locking a phase is the commit action. Until you lock P-01, P-02 doesn't see any vision content; it can't generate sensible feature stories. Each lock cascades a small "ready" signal to the next phase.
Unlocking a locked phase triggers two things:
- Any downstream AI-drafted content gets flagged "needs review."
- The owner of each affected downstream phase gets notified.
This is the regeneration loop. It exists so a late vision change doesn't quietly invalidate an architecture diagram you signed off on yesterday.
Wishes and amendments #
Two cross-department mechanisms feed phase content:
- Wishes — a request from anyone, tagged with a phase and a priority. Visible to the phase owner as a suggestion. The owner accepts, modifies, or rejects.
- Amendments — a concrete proposed change to a locked phase. Requires owner approval and creates an audit-log entry. Use this when something material has shifted after lock.
Both are queues, not edits. Neither rewrites the spec automatically.
Picking the right phase #
Most confusion comes from P-02 vs P-04, and P-05 vs P-07. Quick rules:
- A user-visible change → P-02 (it's a feature) or P-04 (it's a UX detail).
- A backend change → P-05 (it's structural) or P-07 (it's about safety / deployment).
- "It depends" → file a wish on P-02 and let the product owner route it.