speckit-constitution

Updating a project constitution requires filling the constitution template with concrete values while checking related templates and runtime guidance for consistency. This governance sync process ensures all dependent files remain aligned when your project principles or compliance rules change.

A project constitution in a spec-kit repository defines your governance rules, project values, and versioning policy. It lives within a .specify directory alongside constitution templates and command docs to drive governance-driven workflows and maintain cross-file consistency across your templates.

You need to validate placeholders and versioning policy for governance templates when creating or updating a project constitution. This validation ensures cross-file consistency across templates and runtime instructions, preventing misaligned documentation when your team modifies project principles or compliance rules.

Yes, this workflow requires a spec-kit repository containing a .specify directory with constitution templates and command docs. Without this specific directory structure, the cross-file consistency checks and governance synchronization cannot be performed.

The best way to draft project principles and synchronize runtime guidance is to apply a governance-driven workflow that fills constitution templates with your values. This approach automatically validates cross-file consistency, ensuring runtime instructions and dependent templates reflect your updated compliance rules.

Changing project compliance rules breaks cross-file consistency because dependent templates and runtime instructions are often updated manually. A governance sync workflow solves this by validating placeholders and versioning policies across the entire documentation ecosystem when the constitution is modified.