EARS Pattern Authoring Skill

EARS Pattern Authoring

Interactive assistant for creating requirements using EARS (Easy Approach to Requirements Syntax) patterns.

EARS Patterns Overview

| Pattern | Use When | Template | | --- | --- | --- | | Ubiquitous | Always true | The system SHALL [action] | | Event-Driven | Triggered by event | WHEN [event], the system SHALL [action] | | State-Driven | Depends on state | WHILE [state], the system SHALL [action] | | Unwanted | Handle failures | IF [condition], THEN the system SHALL [action] | | Optional | Feature-dependent | WHERE [feature], the system SHALL [action] | | Complex | Multiple conditions | Combination of above |

Workflow

Gather Context
- If argument provided, analyze the requirement description
- If --interactive, prompt for requirement details
Pattern Selection
- Spawn spec-author ears agent
- Agent guides through pattern selection based on:
  - Is this always true? → Ubiquitous
  - Triggered by an event? → Event-Driven
  - Depends on system state? → State-Driven
  - Handling an error/failure? → Unwanted
  - Optional feature? → Optional
  - Multiple conditions? → Complex
Construct Requirement
- Fill in pattern template
- Validate EARS syntax
- Check for common anti-patterns
Generate Acceptance Criteria
- Create Given/When/Then scenarios
- Cover happy path and edge cases
Output
- Display formatted requirement
- Optionally append to specification file

Arguments

$ARGUMENTS - Requirement description to convert to EARS
--interactive - Step-by-step guided authoring
--append - Append to specification file
--pattern - Force specific pattern (ubiquitous, event, state, unwanted, optional, complex)

Examples

# From description
/spec-driven-development:ears-author "User can log in with email and password"

# Interactive mode
/spec-driven-development:ears-author --interactive

# Force pattern
/spec-driven-development:ears-author "Handle timeout errors" --pattern unwanted

# Append to spec
/spec-driven-development:ears-author "Session expires after 30 minutes" --append .specs/auth/spec.md

Pattern Selection Guide

                    ┌─────────────────────┐
                    │ What triggers this? │
                    └─────────┬───────────┘
                              │
           ┌──────────────────┼──────────────────┐
           │                  │                  │
           ▼                  ▼                  ▼
    ┌──────────┐       ┌──────────┐       ┌──────────┐
    │ Nothing  │       │ An event │       │ A state  │
    │(always)  │       │          │       │          │
    └────┬─────┘       └────┬─────┘       └────┬─────┘
         │                  │                  │
         ▼                  ▼                  ▼
    Ubiquitous         Event-Driven       State-Driven


    ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
    │ Is this handling an error or failure case? │
    └─────────────────────┬───────────────────────┘
                          │
                    ┌─────┴─────┐
                    │    Yes    │
                    └─────┬─────┘
                          │
                          ▼
                      Unwanted

Output Format

## FR-X: [Generated Title]

WHEN the user submits valid login credentials,
the system SHALL authenticate the user
AND create a session token.

### Acceptance Criteria

- [ ] AC-X.1: Given valid email and password, when submitted, then user is authenticated
- [ ] AC-X.2: Given valid credentials, when authenticated, then session token is returned
- [ ] AC-X.3: Given invalid password, when submitted, then authentication fails with error

Related Commands

/spec-driven-development:ears-convert - Convert between EARS and other formats
/spec-driven-development:gherkin-author - Create Gherkin scenarios
/spec-driven-development:specify - Generate full specification

Agent Skills: EARS Pattern Authoring

Install this agent skill to your local

Skill Files