BOOTSTRAP.md

Prompt Bootstrapping

The MCP server automatically bootstraps Spec Kit prompts on first use.

How It Works

1. Check for Existing Prompts

On startup, the server searches for .kiro/prompts/ directory:

• Starts from current working directory
• Walks up the directory tree (up to 5 levels)
• If found with speckit.*.md files, uses them

2. Bootstrap if Not Found

If prompts don't exist, the server bootstraps them:

Option A: Local Source (Development)

If SPECKIT_SOURCE environment variable is set:

export SPECKIT_SOURCE=/path/to/spec-kit

The server copies prompts from $SPECKIT_SOURCE/templates/commands/*.md

Option B: GitHub (Production)

Downloads prompts from:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/github/spec-kit/main/templates/commands/

Downloads these files:

• constitution.md
• specify.md
• clarify.md
• plan.md
• tasks.md
• implement.md
• analyze.md
• checklist.md

3. Cache Prompts

Prompts are saved to .kiro/prompts/ as:

• speckit.constitution.md
• speckit.specify.md
• etc.

4. Serve via MCP

All prompts are exposed through the MCP protocol for use by Kiro CLI or other clients.

Configuration

Kiro CLI with Local Source

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "speckit": {
      "command": "mcp-speckit-kiro",
      "env": {
        "SPECKIT_SOURCE": "/Users/you/projects/spec-kit"
      }
    }
  }
}

Kiro CLI with GitHub (Default)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "speckit": {
      "command": "mcp-speckit-kiro"
    }
  }
}

Manual Bootstrap

You can also manually bootstrap prompts:

# From GitHub
cd your-project
mcp-speckit-kiro  # Will auto-bootstrap on first prompt list

# From local source
export SPECKIT_SOURCE=/path/to/spec-kit
cd your-project
mcp-speckit-kiro

Updating Prompts

To get the latest prompts:

1. Delete .kiro/prompts/ directory
2. Restart the MCP server
3. Prompts will be re-downloaded

Or manually update:

rm -rf .kiro/prompts
# Next MCP invocation will re-bootstrap