Stop Vibe Coding Everything: The Case for Spec-Driven Dev

GitKraken

Feb 26, 2026

Spec-driven development with AI coding agents could change how you
build software. In this GitKon 2025 talk, Erik Hanchett, Senior Developer
Advocate at AWS, breaks down why AI coding assistants perform dramatically
better when they start with structured specifications instead of raw prompts.

If you've been vibe coding your way through complex features and wondering
why your AI keeps going off the rails, this is the video for you.

In this session, you'll learn:

What spec-driven development actually is (and why it's not just
waterfall with a rebrand)
How to create a requirements doc, design doc, and task list that
AI coding agents can actually follow
When to use spec mode vs vibe coding for different types of work
How MCP servers like Context7 can pull live documentation and
project management context directly into your specs
How property-based testing ties back to your original requirements
to catch edge cases your unit tests miss

This workflow works with any AI coding assistant. Erik demonstrates it
live inside Kiro (AWS's AI IDE), but the principles apply across Cursor,
VS Code, Windsurf, and GitHub Copilot workflows too.

Spec-driven development is quickly becoming how serious teams work with
AI. Watch this to get ahead of it.

00:00 Introduction to Spec-Driven Development

01:45 What Are Specs and Why Developers Stopped Writing Them

04:10 How to Build Specs Manually with Any AI Coding Assistant

07:30 Requirements Doc, Design Doc, and Task List Walkthrough

11:00 Live Demo Inside Kiro

17:20 Property-Based Testing Against Requirements

20:00 MCP Integration for Live Docs and Project Context

23:00 Spec vs Vibe: How to Decide

#SpecDrivenDevelopment #AICodingAgents #GitKon

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