continue

Continue — Create Next Artifact (Expanded Workflow)

You are creating the next ready artifact for an active change based on its dependency graph. You create ONE artifact, then show what's been unlocked.

Note: This is part of the expanded workflow. For the simple path, use /openspec:propose or /openspec:ff.

Upstream source: Fission-AI/OpenSpec

Workflow

Step 1: Identify Active Change

• If the user specified a change name, use that
• Otherwise, find the most recently modified change in openspec/changes/ that has a .openspec.yaml but has incomplete artifacts
• If multiple changes are active, list them and ask which to continue

Step 2: Assess Current State

Read the change's .openspec.yaml for the schema name, then evaluate the state of each artifact:

For the spec-driven schema, check which files exist:

Artifact	File(s)	Status
proposal	proposal.md	DONE if file exists, else READY (no deps)
specs	specs/**/*.md	DONE if ≥1 file exists, READY if proposal.md exists, else BLOCKED
design	design.md	DONE if file exists, READY if proposal.md exists, else BLOCKED
tasks	tasks.md	DONE if file exists, READY if specs AND design exist (or skipped), else BLOCKED

Status definitions:

• DONE: File exists on the filesystem
• READY: All dependencies are DONE (can be created now)
• BLOCKED: One or more dependencies are not yet DONE

Display current state:

Change: [change-name]
Schema: spec-driven

Artifacts:
  ✓ proposal.md   — DONE
  → specs/        — READY (first ready artifact)
  → design.md     — READY
  ⋯ tasks.md      — BLOCKED (waiting for specs, design)

Step 3: Select Artifact to Create

If only one artifact is READY: create it automatically.

If multiple artifacts are READY, ask the user which to create next:

Multiple artifacts are ready to create:
  1. specs/     — Requirements and scenarios
  2. design.md  — Technical approach

Which would you like to create? (1/2)

Step 4: Create the Artifact

Generate the selected artifact. See artifact instructions from the schema:

For proposal.md: Create a proposal document that establishes WHY this change is needed. Sections:

• Why: 1-2 sentences on the problem or opportunity
• What Changes: Bullet list of specific changes (mark breaking changes with BREAKING)
• Capabilities: New and modified capabilities (each becomes a spec file)
• Impact: Affected code, APIs, dependencies, or systems

For specs/<capability>/spec.md: Create specification files (one per capability in the proposal):

## ADDED Requirements

### Requirement: [Name]
[Description — the system SHALL/MUST do X]

#### Scenario: [Name]
- **WHEN** [action or event]
- **THEN** [expected outcome]

• Read proposal.md to know which capabilities need specs
• Create one spec file per capability at specs/<capability>/spec.md
• Every requirement MUST use ### and every scenario MUST use #### (4 hashtags)

For design.md: Create a technical design document. Sections:

• Context: Background, current state, constraints
• Goals / Non-Goals: What this achieves and explicitly excludes
• Decisions: Key technical choices with rationale and alternatives
• Risks / Trade-offs: Known limitations with mitigations
• Migration Plan: Steps to deploy, rollback strategy (if applicable)
• Open Questions: Outstanding decisions or unknowns

For tasks.md: Create an implementation checklist. Reference specs for WHAT and design for HOW:

## 1. Setup
- [ ] 1.1 [specific task with file reference]

## 2. Core Implementation  
- [ ] 2.1 [specific task with file reference]
- [ ] 2.2 [specific task]

## 3. Integration
- [ ] 3.1 [specific task]

## 4. Polish
- [ ] 4.1 [documentation, cleanup]

Read proposal.md, specs/, and design.md (if available) to generate relevant tasks.

Step 5: Show What's Unlocked

After creating the artifact, display the updated state:

Created: openspec/changes/[change-name]/[artifact-file]

Updated state:
  ✓ proposal.md   — DONE
  ✓ specs/        — DONE (just created)
  → design.md     — READY
  → tasks.md      — READY (specs complete; design optional but recommended)

Continue with:
  /openspec:continue  → create design.md (recommended)
  /openspec:continue  → create tasks.md (skip design)
  /openspec:ff        → create all remaining artifacts at once

Notes

• Each /openspec:continue call creates exactly ONE artifact
• Dependencies are enablers, not hard gates — if design.md isn't critical for your task generation, you can skip it and tasks.md will still become READY once specs/ exists
• After all planning artifacts are done, use /openspec:apply to start implementing