About SPECLAN
A specification engineering tool built for developers who believe requirements should be as structured, versioned, and reviewable as code.
Our Mission
“We believe specifications should be living documents that evolve with your software — not artifacts buried in a wiki that nobody reads.”
Origin Story
Why SPECLAN Exists
SPECLAN was born from a simple frustration: specs scattered across Google Docs, Jira tickets, Confluence pages, and Slack threads. Nobody could find the current version, nobody knew if a requirement had been tested, and AI coding assistants had no idea what to build. We wanted a system where specifications live in the repo, are structured enough for machines to process, and are human-friendly enough for developers to actually maintain. So we built SPECLAN — a VS Code extension that treats specifications as first-class engineering artifacts, not afterthoughts.
It started with a whiteboard sketch and a question: What if your specification was your prompt? We had been building software for years, and the same pattern kept repeating — someone would write requirements in a document, a developer would interpret them differently, QA would test against a third understanding, and the AI coding assistant would hallucinate a fourth. The problem was never the people. It was the medium. Requirements lived in tools that were disconnected from the codebase, unversioned, and invisible to the toolchain. SPECLAN puts specifications where they belong: in the repository, as structured Markdown files that humans can read, machines can process, and AI agents can act on.
The Journey
From Frustration to Framework
- 1
The Problem
Requirements scattered across wikis, tickets, docs, and Slack. No single source of truth.
- 2
The Idea
What if specs lived in git as structured Markdown — readable by humans, processable by machines?
- 3
The Build
A VS Code extension with tree views, WYSIWYG editing, status lifecycle, and AI agents.
- 4
The Vision
Your specification is your prompt. Describe what to build, and let AI agents make it real.
Philosophy
Design Principles
The beliefs that shape every decision in SPECLAN.
Specs Are Code
Specifications are engineering artifacts, not paperwork. They belong in the repository, versioned with git, reviewed in pull requests, and treated with the same rigor as source code.
Structure Enables AI
A well-structured spec tree is the best prompt an AI agent can receive. When your requirements are layered and traceable, AI generates better code, better tests, and better suggestions.
Developer-First
SPECLAN lives in VS Code because that is where developers live. No context switching, no browser tabs, no separate tools. Everything is a keyboard shortcut away.
No Lock-In
Your specifications are plain Markdown files with YAML frontmatter. If you stop using SPECLAN tomorrow, your specs are still readable, portable, and yours. No proprietary formats, no export gymnastics.
Built With
Tech Stack
Start Specifying Today
Install the extension and explore the docs to get started.