Give coding agents the right spec—and know what they delivered.
Approve one version, hand off clear context, and review the evidence that comes back.
SpecGate is a local-first governance layer for AI-assisted software delivery. It remembers exactly which version you approved, gives the coding agent a focused Context Pack, and checks the returned evidence against your acceptance criteria.
Keep writing specs where you already work—OpenSpec, Spec Kit, Superpowers, Markdown, or another tool. SpecGate does not take over authoring. It manages the handoff from approved intent to implementation and keeps the resulting evidence and review history together.
Run it on a trusted machine or private network. SpecGate ships no HTTP authentication layer, so put an authentication proxy and TLS in front of it before exposing it beyond that boundary — see Trust and security. Start with the CLI. Use the web UI to inspect artifacts, review work, manage settings, or use governance chat. SpecGate is pre-1.0: APIs and interfaces can change between minor versions.
Spec-driven tools help generate strong plans and specs. The hard part comes after: knowing which version was approved, whether an agent completed every acceptance criterion, and whether delivery evidence still matches the spec after changes.
SpecGate keeps that handoff outside your code repository. It records the approved artifact version, gives the coding agent a focused Context Pack, and makes delivery reviewable against the original acceptance criteria. Who SpecGate is for maps solo-developer and team pain points to the mechanism that answers each.
You do not need Docker, a source checkout, Go, Node.js, Python, or a model API key for the default Local CLI workflow.
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thanhtung2693/specgate/main/scripts/install-cli.sh | sh
specgate initUsing Claude Code? Install the plugin directly from this GitHub repository:
claude plugin marketplace add thanhtung2693/specgate
claude plugin install specgate@specgateSee IDE plugin installation for Codex, Cursor, updates, and uninstall. Use one installation method per IDE.
Prefer agent-led setup? Install the specgate bootstrap from
skills.sh, then ask your
agent: “Set up SpecGate.” The bootstrap requests approval before installing
the CLI and hands the selected IDE integration to specgate plugins install,
so one installer owns the finished plugin.
Interactive specgate init starts with Local CLI: SQLite state on this
machine, no Docker, server, browser, or TCP service. It creates a local user
and workspace, then prints the matching IDE-plugin command. Choose Full appliance in
the prompt, or run specgate init --mode full, when you need the browser,
governance chat, Knowledge, integrations, or shared server-backed workspaces.
If you skipped IDE setup during init:
specgate plugins install --agent codex --project-local
specgate doctor
specgate plugins doctor --agent codex --project-local
specgate statusRestart selected IDEs after plugin install so new skills, hooks, and rules load.
Continue with the full quickstart.
publish artifact
-> resolve governance
-> run readiness checks
-> approve the exact artifact version
-> hand a Context Pack to the coding agent
-> submit delivery evidence
-> review delivery against acceptance criteria
-> reconcile or complete
This workflow works without a server-side model, in both Local and Full mode.
Quick work items are available in both too; Local asks you to supply each
acceptance criterion with --ac.
Add a server-side model in Full mode when you want independent readiness judgment, model-backed delivery review, governance chat, or the platform to draft acceptance criteria for quick work instead of writing them yourself.
- Versioned artifact publishing and approval.
- Context Packs for coding agents.
- Local users, shared workspaces, and per-project workspace binding.
- CLI-first workflow for humans and IDE agents.
- IDE plugin files for Codex, Claude Code, and Cursor.
- Automatic governance policy, readiness gates, delivery evidence, and delivery review.
- Deterministic check bindings for acceptance criteria with
@check:<name>. specgate statsfor workflow signals — first-pass yield, rework depth, and cycle time — from recorded runs, in both Local and Full mode.- Full mode adds workspace-scoped Knowledge and Git/tracker integrations.
SpecGate does not replace your authoring tool, issue tracker, coding IDE, pull request review, or CI. It records the governed handoff and delivery review across those systems.
Most implementation work stays in your IDE. Open the web UI when you need to see what is waiting on you: work whose scope you have not approved, finished work waiting for you to accept it, what the agent was given, and what was checked.
| Module | Stack | Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
app/doc-registry |
Go | Artifacts, versions, policy, evidence, integrations, and REST |
app/agents |
Python / LangGraph | Governance-ops chat, model-judged gates, delivery review, and reconciliation |
app/ui |
Vite / React | Review, artifact inspection, governance chat, settings, and operations |
app/cli |
Go / Cobra | Human and coding-agent interface to SpecGate |
SpecGate expects a trusted network. Do not expose the general Doc Registry HTTP surface or web UI directly to the public internet.
- Documentation home
- Use SpecGate: User documentation, Quickstart, coding-agent workflow, and CLI reference.
- Contribute: Contributor documentation, setup, architecture, and contracts.
- Contributing
- Security
- Stabilize the newer browser UI, governance chat, Knowledge, and model-backed review surfaces around failure recovery, source attribution, and operator diagnostics.
- Improve team and repository-provider workflows without weakening the local-first path or trusted-network boundary.
Missing something? Open an issue.
Apache-2.0 - see LICENSE.