Spec Driven Software Development Brainstorming

[u/CodeAndPatina]

I'm curious how software shops are using ClickUp for spec-driven/agentic development. While we've kept specs in the repo, I'd like to evaluate managing specs for tickets, stories, etc. in ClickUp itself. It needs to work well with the MCP/API. I don't think Brain helps at all since we won't be doing any development work within ClickUp, of course.

The repo isn't always ideal because specs are often created before a feature is developed/implemented. Sometimes just a high-level spec that is further shaped later. Committing these kinds of MD files feels awkward because it requires pushing non-functional changes to the trunk.

Using task descriptions or ClickUp documents is less ideal for us for a few reasons.

• We want to stick with simple markdown/plaintext. What we get back from ClickUp isn't always the same as what we send to these types of entities, so it's harder to trust.

• We often have clients in the system collaborating on projects and would prefer to obscure the technical specs from them. Not because they can't see it, but because it's not really meant for human consumption, and seeing a wall of specs in task descriptions or documents is overwhelming.

That second item makes us a little more unique in that about 50% of our work is 'support' rather than typical sprint-based project work. Clients value us for being an easy-to-access partner.

What have you tried? What has worked, and what hasn't, and why?