openspec-explore

Invoke explore mode and describe your idea in natural language. The Skill investigates your codebase, asks clarifying questions, draws ASCII diagrams, and offers to capture crystallized decisions as an OpenSpec change proposal when you are ready.

Explore mode is a thinking stance for investigating problems and clarifying requirements without implementing anything. It can read code and run read-only openspec commands, but never writes code; it only creates or updates OpenSpec change artifacts after explicit user confirmation.

Yes, the Skill requires the openspec CLI to be installed. It uses commands like openspec list, status, instructions, and new change to inspect existing changes and scaffold new ones with proper metadata.

No, explore mode never writes code or implements features. It may only create or update OpenSpec change artifacts such as proposals, designs, and specs within a scope you explicitly confirm, and it asks before any write-capable action.

Tell the Skill you want to capture the exploration as a change. It runs openspec new change to scaffold the change, then follows status and instructions output to create requested artifacts like proposal.md, design.md, and specs in dependency order.

Avoid explore mode when you already know exactly what to build and want immediate implementation. It is designed for open-ended thinking, so for direct coding tasks you should exit explore mode and create a change proposal first.