speckit-status

A CLI companion for GitHub's Spec Kit that visualizes and tracks progress on spec-driven development tasks.

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What is this?

When working with AI coding agents using the Spec-Driven Development workflow, Spec Kit generates tasks.md files containing phased implementation plans. This CLI tool parses those files to give you:

• Progress tracking with visual progress bars
• Phase status at a glance with completion counts
• Dependency awareness showing which phases are blocked or available
• Smart suggestions for what to work on next
• JSON export for CI/CD pipelines and automation

Features

• Parses Spec Kit's tasks.md format (phases, task IDs, checkboxes)
• Understands [P] parallel markers and phase dependencies
• Auto-detects spec folder from git branch name
• Beautiful colored terminal output
• Machine-readable JSON output
• Zero runtime dependencies
• Works as both CLI and Node.js library

Installation

# npm
npm install -g speckit-status

# pnpm
pnpm add -g speckit-status

# Or run directly without installing
npx speckit-status --help
pnpm dlx speckit-status --help

Quick Start

# In a project with specs/ directory and matching git branch
speckit-status

# Or specify the spec folder directly
speckit-status -s ./specs/001-my-feature

Usage

speckit-status [OPTIONS]

OPTIONS:
  -s, --spec-folder <path>   Override spec folder (instead of git branch detection)
  -j, --json                 Output as JSON
  -a, --all                  Show all tasks (including completed)
  -p, --phase <number>       Show only specific phase
  -n, --next                 Output only next phase number (for scripts)
  -h, --help                 Show help message
  -v, --version              Show version

Examples

# Auto-detect spec from git branch name
speckit-status

# Show specific phase details
speckit-status -p 2

# Export progress as JSON
speckit-status -j > progress.json

# Get next phase number for scripting
NEXT=$(speckit-status -n)
echo "Next phase: $NEXT"

# Show all tasks including completed ones
speckit-status -a -p 1

Integration with Spec Kit

This tool is designed to work with GitHub's Spec Kit workflow:

/speckit.specify  →  spec.md
/speckit.plan     →  plan.md
/speckit.tasks    →  tasks.md  ←  parsed by this CLI
/speckit.implement

Directory Structure

Spec Kit creates specs in a structured directory:

specs/
└── 001-my-feature/
    ├── spec.md
    ├── plan.md
    ├── tasks.md      # This is what gets parsed
    └── ...

Git Branch Detection

The CLI auto-detects the spec folder from your git branch name:

• Branch 001-my-feature → looks for specs/001-my-feature/
• Branch feature/001-my-feature → extracts 001-my-feature

Programmatic Usage

Use as a library in your Node.js projects:

import {
  parseTasksFile,
  formatOutput,
  formatJSON,
  getCurrentBranch,
  getSpecFolderFromBranch,
} from 'speckit-status';
import { readFileSync } from 'fs';

// Parse a tasks.md file
const content = readFileSync('./specs/001-feature/tasks.md', 'utf-8');
const result = parseTasksFile(content, './specs/001-feature');

console.log(`Progress: ${result.completedTasks}/${result.totalTasks}`);
console.log(`Next phase: ${result.nextPhase?.number}`);
console.log(`Available phases: ${result.availablePhases.map(p => p.number).join(', ')}`);

// Access phase details
for (const phase of result.phases) {
  console.log(`Phase ${phase.number}: ${phase.title}`);
  console.log(`  Tasks: ${phase.completedCount}/${phase.totalCount}`);
  console.log(`  Complete: ${phase.isComplete}`);

  if (phase.dependency) {
    console.log(`  Depends on: ${phase.dependency.dependsOn.join(', ')}`);
    console.log(`  Blocks: ${phase.dependency.blocks.join(', ')}`);
  }
}

Types

interface Task {
  id: string;           // T001, T002, etc.
  completed: boolean;
  title: string;
}

interface Phase {
  number: number;
  title: string;
  priority?: string;    // P1, P2, etc.
  tasks: Task[];
  completedCount: number;
  totalCount: number;
  isComplete: boolean;
  dependency?: PhaseDependency;
}

interface PhaseDependency {
  shortName: string;
  dependsOn: number[];
  blocks: number[];
  canRunParallelWith: number[];
  parallelTasks: string[];
  description: string;
}

interface ParseResult {
  specFolder: string;
  specName: string;
  phases: Phase[];
  totalTasks: number;
  completedTasks: number;
  nextPhase?: Phase;
  availablePhases: Phase[];
}

AI-Assisted Development

This project embraces the future. I welcome pull requests whether you wrote every line by hand, pair-programmed with an AI, or let Claude/GPT/Copilot do the heavy lifting while you sipped coffee.

The deal is simple:

• You hit the submit button, you own the code
• Review what you're submitting like it's going to production (because it is)
• Tests pass? Types check? Linting clean? Ship it
• If it breaks, it's on you - not your AI buddy

I don't gatekeep how code gets written. I care that it works, it's readable, and it doesn't break things. The future of development is hybrid - let's build it together.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read our Contributing Guide for details on how to submit pull requests, report issues, and contribute to the project.

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build
npm run build

# Run type checking
npm run typecheck

# Run linting
npm run lint

# Test locally
./dist/cli.js --help

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for a list of changes and version history.

License

MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

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Built for the Spec-Driven Development workflow.