Reconcile

Reconcile

Perform bi-directional reconciliation between change set specs and implementation. The final guard to ensure spec-driven development was truly followed. Verify both: (1) all specs are fully implemented, and (2) all implementation changes have corresponding spec coverage for business logic requirements.

Required Skills

• spec-driven-development (state management, completion workflow)
• spec-format

Inputs

[!IMPORTANT] Resolve the change set by running ls changes/ | grep -v archive/. If exactly one directory exists, use it. Only prompt the user when multiple change sets are present.

Instructions

1. Load spec-driven-development and spec-format skills. Read state and apply state entry check per skill guidelines.

2. Read tasks from changes/<name>/​tasks.toml if full lane.

3. Discover canonical specs first by running ae sdd spec list (no flag by default). If it succeeds, use returned paths for forward reconciliation. If it reports missing canonical specs directory, skip forward reconciliation and proceed with backward reconciliation only.

4. Get the implementation diff for the change set. Execute bi-directional reconciliation:

Forward Reconciliation (Specs → Implementation)

For each canonical spec path from ae sdd spec list:

• Verify the spec describes behavior that is actually present in the implementation
• Confirm all conditions, flows, and capabilities specified are implemented
• Identify specs without corresponding implementation changes
• Check for partial implementations (spec promises more than code delivers)

Backward Reconciliation (Implementation → Specs)

For the implementation diff:

• Scan all code changes for new business logic not captured in specs
• Identify control flow changes (if statements, switches, loops) that introduce conditional logic
• Look for new functions, API endpoints, or data structures that represent capabilities
• Check for added error handling, validation, or edge cases that specify requirements
• Validate that behavioral changes (what the code does, not how) have spec coverage
• Note: refactors, test changes, and infrastructure updates may not need specs

Examples of unspecced implementation changes worth capturing:

• Added if statement introduces conditional logic (e.g., user role checks)
• New function exposes capability not previously available
• Added validation logic implies new requirements
• Changed error handling indicates new failure modes to specify
• New API parameters or return values need specification

Examples that typically don't require specs:

• Code refactoring without behavior change
• Test additions or modifications
• Build configuration updates
• Comment-only changes
• Whitespace/​formatting adjustments

1. Present findings to the user:

Forward reconciliation results:

• Specs fully implemented: [list]
• Specs partially implemented: [list with gaps]
• Specs without implementation: [list]

Backward reconciliation results:

• Implementation captured in specs: [confirmation]
• Unspecced business logic found: [list with details]
• No new business logic: [statement]

1. Get user input:

• Add missing specs for implementation changes
• Remove specs not applicable to this change
• Modify specs to match actual implementation
• Mark items as out-of-scope (if applicable)

1. If canonical specs directory doesn't exist, perform backward reconciliation and analyze whether implementation adds/​removes business logic worth specifying. Present analysis and ask user to capture specs. If yes, create canonical specs and write change-set specs (kind: new and/​or delta). If no, document that specs were not created.

2. Document bi-directional reconciliation findings in changes/<name>/​reconciliation.md including:

• Forward reconciliation audit results
• Backward reconciliation audit results
• User decisions on each discrepancy
• Final determination: reconciled, requires work, or trivial

Do not update phase status in this command. When the user wants to proceed, suggest ae-sdd-next <name>.

Examples

Bi-directional reconciliation, specs match implementation:

Input: "password-reset" (specs exist)
Forward reconciling...
- Spec "password-reset-flow": MATCHES implementation
- Spec "email-notification": MATCHES implementation
Backward reconciling...
- All implementation changes captured in specs
No discrepancies found. Reconciliation complete.

Backward reconciliation finds unspecced logic:

Input: "user-preferences" (specs exist)
Forward reconciling...
- All specs implemented: ✓
Backward reconciling...
- Found unspecced conditional logic in settings.service:
  Line 42: if (user.isPremium) { ... }
  This introduces premium-only behavior not captured in specs
Action: Capture as new spec or confirm out-of-scope?

No specs, but implementation adds business logic:

Input: "checkout-flow" (no specs)
Backward reconciling...
- Added function validateShippingAddress(): new validation logic
- Added if statement for international shipping: conditional logic
- Added new error handling for invalid addresses
Found 3 business logic changes worth specifying. Create specs?

No specs, changes are purely refactoring:

Input: "code-cleanup" (user has implementation in context)
Backward reconciling...
- Changes are code refactoring (renamed variables, extracted functions)
- No behavioral changes detected
- No new business logic added
Not spec-worthy. Documenting as refactoring-only in reconciliation.md.