openspec-explore

Requirement exploration without implementation code is done through guided design-thinking that surfaces questions, risks, and trade-offs. It investigates your codebase to frame problems clearly and produces OpenSpec artifacts like proposals and designs when requested.

OpenSpec is a stance for exploring ideas and mapping risks across project codebases without generating production code. It helps teams visualize structure with ASCII diagrams and produce design artifacts to reduce ambiguity and rework.

Start exploring a codebase by entering explore mode, which triggers deep, non-prescriptive investigation of your project. It surfaces divergent paths, dependencies, and trade-offs while keeping the focus on problem framing rather than implementation.

Generating production code is explicitly blocked by guardrails that keep exploration safe and focused. The tool enforces an OpenSpec stance by offering artifacts such as proposals, designs, and specs instead of implementation changes.

Design exploration should be used during early problem framing and risk assessment to reduce rework. It clarifies requirements and surfaces dependencies through curious, non-prescriptive questioning before any implementation begins.

Assessing risks and trade-offs in existing project codebases is the core use case. It investigates code and designs to surface dependencies, visualize flows with ASCII diagrams, and produce OpenSpec artifacts without altering the code.