The Spec — Part 4: Using AI to Draft & Critique the Spec

maang.io AI-Native Builder Series

📦 Artifacts for this topic — build against these, and check your own with them:
draft prompt → artifacts/prompts/01-draft-spec · critique prompt → artifacts/prompts/02-critique-spec (copy them) ·
reference spec → artifacts/reference/streakup-spec.md (the M1 deliverable) ·
check your work → artifacts/verify.md.
Build your spec first, then compare — the reference is a mentor's version to verify
against, not an answer key to paste.

What is this?

A great writer almost never writes alone. They write a draft, then hand it to an editor — someone whose entire job is to read it cold and find the holes: "this paragraph contradicts that one," "you never said what happens if the file's empty," "this is vague." The writer doesn't obey the editor blindly; they weigh each note and decide. But a draft that's been through a sharp editor is dramatically better than one that hasn't. The magic isn't the writing or the editing alone — it's the loop between them.

Your AI partner can play both roles for your spec, and that's the most powerful AI move in all of 101. You can ask it to draft the spec from your brief and stories. Then — and this is the part beginners miss — you can ask it to put on the editor's hat and critique its own draft, hunting for gaps. And through all of it, you stay the head chef: the AI cooks fast, but you taste every plate. You decide what's right.

The one-line idea: use the AI as a drafting partner and a critic — prompt it to draft the spec, then to tear it apart for gaps — but apply "trust, then verify" so every decision is one you made and understand.

This is the finale of 101. By the end of this chapter you'll have assembled the whole Spec Package — your Milestone 1.