Features

Specifications that test themselves, before the PR ever opens.

Spectrace turns rough drafts into living requirements, generates the test cases that prove them, and verifies every pull request against the spec it claims to fulfill.

How it works

Three gates. A bug caught at any of them never reaches your users.

  1. At requirementBefore anything is built
  2. At test genBefore the editor opens
  3. At PR verifyBefore a human is paged

Ambiguous criteria, missing edge cases, two requirements that contradict, all caught before a single test or commit exists. The cheapest hour of engineering you can buy.

Generated tests reveal the shape of "done". Reviewers see whether a criterion is testable at all. Vague ones get rewritten and weak ones get tightened.

The diff is read against the spec. Per-criterion fit, missing coverage, scope creep and silently regressed criteria all surface in one verdict.

AI requirement extraction

Drop in a brief, a document, a URL or a Slack thread. Spectrace lifts the requirements, drafts acceptance criteria, flags ambiguities, and gives you something to argue with.

  • Docs, spreadsheets, URLs, Slack threads
  • Acceptance criteria and edge cases
  • Pick the depth, from a handful to exhaustive

Test cases written before code

Every requirement that reaches development gets Gherkin test cases generated against its acceptance criteria. Engineers see what "done" looks like before they open the editor.

  • Gherkin packs per requirement
  • Playwright code in your editor
  • Regenerate on demand

In your editor, not another tab

The Spectrace extension puts the backlog, acceptance criteria and linked files in the sidebar, and hands the full requirement to whichever AI agent you already use.

  • VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, VSCodium
  • CodeLens on files tied to a requirement
  • Branch names and commit messages that link back

An MCP server your agent can drive

Claude Code, Cursor and Codex read the spec, transition requirements, tick criteria and verify a diff before the branch is ever pushed, and Claude Desktop connects through a local bridge. 36 tools over the Model Context Protocol.

  • Hosted on paid plans, stdio or self-hosted
  • Verify a diff before you push
  • API keys that carry your organization role

Pre-merge PR verification

When a pull request opens, Spectrace reads the diff against the spec it claims to fulfill and posts a verdict before review. No more "works for me" merges.

  • A verdict per acceptance criterion
  • Cited file and line as evidence
  • GitHub check run, GitLab commit status

Traceability that maintains itself

Files link to requirements as you edit them, and every verified pull request strengthens the map. When code and spec drift apart, the next PR says so.

  • Automatic file linking while you work
  • Links reinforced by verified PRs
  • Drift called out on the PR

Issue sync with Jira and Linear

Requirements live in Spectrace, tickets stay where your team works. New and updated issues flow in, stage changes flow back to the Linear issue a requirement came from, and Push to Jira turns a requirement into a Jira issue.

Stages, versions and an audit trail

Backlog through done, with every edit, stage move and criterion tick written to an immutable history that names who did it and when, including changes made by an agent.

Workflow analytics

See how requirements move from backlog to done, which projects verify the most work, and which requirements have gone stale.

Plays well with

The tools your team already uses.

Code
  • GitHub
  • GitLab
Trackers
  • Jira
  • Linear
  • GitHub Issues
Editors
  • VS Code
  • Cursor
  • Windsurf
  • VSCodium
  • Copilot
AI agents
  • Claude Code
  • Claude Desktop
  • Codex
  • MCP server
Comms
  • Slack
Export to
  • PDF
  • Markdown
  • Word
  • Excel
  • Confluence
  • Azure DevOps

Stop catching bugs in production.
Catch them in the spec.