Feature specifications are the foundation of everything Agiloop builds on your behalf. They capture what a feature should do, how it should be built, and what success looks like — giving both your team and the AI a shared, precise source of truth before a single line of code is written.
What Is a Functional Spec?
A functional spec describes a feature from the user's point of view. It answers the question: what does this feature do, and how do users interact with it?
A well-formed functional spec typically includes:
- User-facing requirements — the behaviors and capabilities the feature must support, written in plain language
- Acceptance criteria — specific, testable conditions that must be true for the feature to be considered complete
Agiloop generates functional specs automatically during the AI interview (Invent) process, where you collaborate with the AI Business Analyst assistant to define your feature. The resulting spec reflects the decisions made during that conversation.
What Is a Technical Spec?
A technical spec describes how the feature will be implemented. It is intended for engineers (and Agiloop's AI code generation agents) rather than end users.
A technical spec typically covers:
- Implementation architecture and design decisions
- Data models, APIs, and service interactions
- Dependencies and integration points
The AI Architect assistant generates the technical spec based on the functional requirements and your project's existing technical context.
Note: The technical spec is what Agiloop's build agents use when generating code. Keeping it accurate and up to date directly affects the quality of the generated implementation.
Editing Specifications
Both the functional and technical specs can be edited manually using a built-in markdown editor. This lets you refine AI-generated content, add context, or correct anything that doesn't match your intent.
To edit a spec:
- Open the feature you want to edit from the feature list.
- Navigate to the Specifications section of the feature detail view.
- Select either the Functional Spec or Technical Spec tab.
- Click into the editor and make your changes using standard markdown formatting.
- Your changes are saved as you work.
Note: Markdown formatting — including headers, bullet points, bold text, and code blocks — is fully supported in the editor.
Viewing Specs at Different Scopes
Specifications can be viewed at different levels depending on what you need:
- Feature level — the spec for a single feature, covering its specific requirements and implementation details
- Bundle level — an aggregated view across all features within a bundle (a logical group of related features), useful for understanding scope and coherence across a set of work
- Project level — a high-level overview of specifications across the entire project, helpful for onboarding new team members or communicating with stakeholders
Switch between these views using the scope selector within the Specifications area.
Refreshing and Regenerating Specs with AI
If a feature has evolved since its spec was first generated — or if you want the AI to incorporate new information — you can trigger a spec refresh.
Refreshing a spec causes Agiloop's AI to re-analyze the feature's conversation history, current context and implementation, then regenerate the spec content. This is useful when:
- You've had additional interview conversations that changed the scope
- You've manually edited requirements and want the technical spec to reflect those changes
- The original generation didn't fully capture the intent
- You edited code in the repo outside of Agiloop
To refresh a spec, locate the regenerate option within the Specifications section of the feature. You can refresh the functional spec, the technical spec, or both.
Note: Refreshing a spec will overwrite the current AI-generated content. If you've made manual edits you want to preserve, copy them before regenerating.
Downloading Specs as Documents
You can download a feature's specification as a document for sharing with stakeholders, archiving, or use in other tools. The download option is available within the feature's Specifications section.
Who Can Edit Specifications
Spec editing is controlled by your role within the project. Role-based permissions work as follows:
- Owner — full access to view and edit all specifications
- Admin — full access to view and edit all specifications
- Maintainer — can view and edit specifications
- Member — can view specifications; editing may be restricted depending on project settings
If you find you are unable to edit a spec, contact your project Owner or Admin to have your role adjusted.
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