Because I don't trust LLMs to fully implement what I want on the first try unless I babysit them. And it's the hand holding that burns people out. I use detail

Because I don't trust LLMs to fully implement what I want on the first try unless I babysit them. And it's the hand holding that burns people out. I use detailed specs to implement but I don't maintain those specs as the source of truth afterwards, the code is indeed the source of truth. I've built a library (and products on top) that takes in requirements (programmatic or various spec formats) and forces an externally orchestrated implement -> review -> fix loop that doesn't stop until all requirements are met. So I'll write a detailed spec then I'll have GPT 5.5 implementing and a mix of opus 4.7 / GPT 5.5 / DeepSeek v4 pro reviewing at every phase until it produces the quality I want. I can let it run overnight or just during the day while I'm doing stuff that doesn't burn me out and that I actually enjoy. So tldr spec first for me but not as the source of truth afterwards. I'll be open sourcing and launching soon https://engine.build https://engine.build