Back to Spec Kit

Coding Agent Context Extension

extensions/agent-context/README.md

0.9.12.6 KB
Original Source

Coding Agent Context Extension

This bundled extension manages the coding agent context/instruction file (e.g. CLAUDE.md, .github/copilot-instructions.md, AGENTS.md, GEMINI.md, …) for the active integration.

It owns the lifecycle of the managed section delimited by the configurable start/end markers (defaults: <!-- SPECKIT START --> / <!-- SPECKIT END -->).

Why an extension?

Not every Spec Kit user wants Spec Kit to write into the coding agent's context file. Extracting this behavior into a dedicated extension lets users:

  • Opt out entirely with specify extension disable agent-context — Spec Kit will then never create or modify the agent context file.
  • Customize the markers by editing .specify/extensions/agent-context/agent-context-config.yml — both the Python layer and the bundled scripts honor the same context_markers value.
  • Refresh on demand with /speckit.agent-context.update, or automatically through the hooks declared in extension.yml (after_specify, after_plan).

Commands

CommandDescription
speckit.agent-context.updateRefresh the managed section in the agent context file with the current plan path.

Configuration

All configuration flows through the extension's own config file at .specify/extensions/agent-context/agent-context-config.yml:

yaml
# Path to the coding agent context file managed by this extension
context_file: CLAUDE.md

# Delimiters for the managed Spec Kit section
context_markers:
  start: "<!-- SPECKIT START -->"
  end: "<!-- SPECKIT END -->"
  • context_file — the project-relative path to the coding agent context file, written by specify init and specify integration install.
  • context_markers.start / .end — the delimiters around the managed section. Edit these to use custom markers.

Requirements

The bundled update scripts require Python 3 with PyYAML for YAML/upsert processing (PowerShell can also use ConvertFrom-Yaml when available).

PyYAML ships with the specify CLI and is normally available via the same python3 interpreter. If a hook reports "PyYAML is required … not available in the current Python environment", it means the system python3 differs from the one used to install Spec Kit. To resolve, run:

bash
pip install pyyaml
# or target the specific interpreter Spec Kit uses:
/path/to/speckit-python -m pip install pyyaml

Disable

bash
specify extension disable agent-context

When disabled, Spec Kit skips context file creation, updates, and removal (the gates are inside upsert_context_section() and remove_context_section()).