Some day we won't even need coders any more. We'll be able to just write the specification and
the program will write itself.
Oh wow, you're right! We'll be able to write a comprehensive and precise spec and bam, we won't
need programmers any more!
Exactly!
And do you know the industry term for a project specification that is comprehensive and precise enough
to generate a program?
Code It's called code.
hleichsenring 2 minutes ago [-]
there's two things about that. One hand I couldnt believe coding it being replaced when I started agent smith in January 2026. One the other hand I wanted a prove.
after 500k lines of code in agent smith where I didnt touch any line of code, I have to confess, it is true, coding is kind of solved. But that doesnt mean, architects, developers, devops guys and all the others are not needed anymore. I believe that are even more needed than ever.
because just implement something isnt good enough. the specification needs to point to sensible approaches and procedures. the code should be structured well (from my point of view). then specs can be just executed in parallel the whole night.
so the actual part I have for implementation of agent smith is not coding at all. it is thinking what is the right thing to do and how in terms of design and architecture. I dont even review the code. but I test it, there are 10k tests, harness, commit hook, the whole story.
and that, unluckily, works pretty well. I also think, last year's programming was more romantic :-D
woeirua 2 hours ago [-]
I have not seen spec first development work well in real world environments at all. The problem is that you typically don't know what you don't know upfront for most product based decisions. Going back and forth in the spec to fix problems is a huge mistake, it just leads to contradictory sets of requirements for the agent.
What does work well is using AI to generate a quick and dirty prototype ala vibecoding, and then using that as a basis to regenerate the final code. Some might say it's still spec driven development, but the spec is a working prototype.
hleichsenring 30 minutes ago [-]
they do work well in production. have a look at https://github.com/holgerleichsenring/agent-smith. While writing that the methodology had been created. Obviously, I didnt know upfront what I wanted to generate here. Also features are changed or removed on the way. that's not a problem, when the specifications are part of the git repository as it is done here. Actually it's the other way around: it is an advantage as the agent can have a look at everything that had been done previously and can understand what, why and how it had been implemented. give it a try :-)
cassianoleal 3 hours ago [-]
If your specs are not executable or are editable by the agent, they are as non-deterministic as any code that comes out of them.
hleichsenring 25 minutes ago [-]
the agent creates and maintains the specs, doing this manually doesn't make sense. The specs are written for the agents. after execution of create-spec, review-spec skill will check against the code and add evidence of the spec's aims. Only when the aims fits to the evidence, the specs is going to be validated successful. after that apply and deliver skills can be executed. finally there is commit hooks and tests that shall ensure quality and functionality. have a look at https://github.com/holgerleichsenring/agent-smith for the quality gates.
TimmyatLoadout 30 minutes ago [-]
[flagged]
meMohamedAtef 1 hours ago [-]
[dead]
Rendered at 19:51:08 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
Some day we won't even need coders any more. We'll be able to just write the specification and the program will write itself.
Oh wow, you're right! We'll be able to write a comprehensive and precise spec and bam, we won't need programmers any more!
Exactly!
And do you know the industry term for a project specification that is comprehensive and precise enough to generate a program?
Code It's called code.
after 500k lines of code in agent smith where I didnt touch any line of code, I have to confess, it is true, coding is kind of solved. But that doesnt mean, architects, developers, devops guys and all the others are not needed anymore. I believe that are even more needed than ever.
because just implement something isnt good enough. the specification needs to point to sensible approaches and procedures. the code should be structured well (from my point of view). then specs can be just executed in parallel the whole night.
so the actual part I have for implementation of agent smith is not coding at all. it is thinking what is the right thing to do and how in terms of design and architecture. I dont even review the code. but I test it, there are 10k tests, harness, commit hook, the whole story.
and that, unluckily, works pretty well. I also think, last year's programming was more romantic :-D
What does work well is using AI to generate a quick and dirty prototype ala vibecoding, and then using that as a basis to regenerate the final code. Some might say it's still spec driven development, but the spec is a working prototype.