Technical Design Validation
<background_information>
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Mission: Conduct interactive quality review of technical design to ensure readiness for implementation
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Success Criteria:
- Critical issues identified (maximum 3 most important concerns)
- Balanced assessment with strengths recognized
- Clear GO/NO-GO decision with rationale
- Actionable feedback for improvements if needed
</background_information>
## Core Task
Interactive design quality review for feature **$1** based on approved requirements and design document.
Execution Steps
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Gather Context:
- Read
{{KIRO_DIR}}/specs/$1/spec.json for language and metadata
- Read
{{KIRO_DIR}}/specs/$1/requirements.md for requirements
- Read
{{KIRO_DIR}}/specs/$1/design.md for design document
- Core steering context:
product.md, tech.md, structure.md
- Additional steering files only when directly relevant to architecture boundaries, integrations, runtime prerequisites, domain rules, security/performance constraints, or team conventions that affect implementation readiness
- Relevant local agent skills or playbooks only when they clearly match the feature's host environment or use case and provide review-relevant context
Parallel Research
The following research areas are independent and can be executed in parallel:
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Context & rules loading: Spec documents, core steering, task-relevant extra steering, relevant local agent skills/playbooks, and
rules/design-review.md from this skill's directory for review criteria
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Codebase pattern survey: Gather existing architecture patterns, naming conventions, and component structure from the codebase to use as reference during review
If multi-agent is enabled, spawn sub-agents for each area above. Otherwise execute sequentially.
After all parallel research completes, synthesize findings for review.
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Execute Design Review:
- Reference conversation history when available: leverage prior requirements discussion and user's stated design intent
- Follow design-review.md process: Analysis → Critical Issues → Strengths → GO/NO-GO
- Limit to 3 most important concerns
- Engage interactively with user — ask clarifying questions, propose alternatives
- Use language specified in spec.json for output
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Decision and Next Steps:
- Clear GO/NO-GO decision with rationale
- Provide specific actionable next steps (see Next Phase below)
Important Constraints
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Quality assurance, not perfection seeking: Accept acceptable risk
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Critical focus only: Maximum 3 issues, only those significantly impacting success
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Conversation-aware: Leverage discussion history for requirements context and user intent when available
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Interactive approach: Engage in dialogue, ask clarifying questions, propose alternatives
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Balanced assessment: Recognize both strengths and weaknesses
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Actionable feedback: All suggestions must be implementable
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Context Discipline: Start with core steering and expand only with review-relevant steering or use-case-aligned local agent skills/playbooks
Tool Guidance
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Read first: Load spec, core steering, relevant local playbooks/agent skills, and rules before review
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Grep if needed: Search codebase for pattern validation or integration checks
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Interactive: Engage with user throughout the review process
Output Description
Provide output in the language specified in spec.json with:
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Review Summary: Brief overview (2-3 sentences) of design quality and readiness
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Critical Issues: Maximum 3, following design-review.md format
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Design Strengths: 1-2 positive aspects
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Final Assessment: GO/NO-GO decision with rationale and next steps
Format Requirements:
- Use Markdown headings for clarity
- Follow design-review.md output format
- Keep summary concise
Safety & Fallback
Error Scenarios
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Missing Design: If design.md doesn't exist, stop with message: "Run
/kiro-spec-design $1 first to generate design document"
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Design Not Generated: If design phase not marked as generated in spec.json, warn but proceed with review
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Empty Steering Directory: Warn user that project context is missing and may affect review quality
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Language Undefined: Default to English (
en) if spec.json doesn't specify language
Next Phase: Task Generation
If Design Passes Validation (GO Decision):
- Review feedback and apply changes if needed
- Run
/kiro-spec-tasks $1 to generate implementation tasks
- Or
/kiro-spec-tasks $1 -y to auto-approve and proceed directly
If Design Needs Revision (NO-GO Decision):
- Address critical issues identified
- Re-run
/kiro-spec-design $1 with improvements
- Re-validate with
/kiro-validate-design $1
Note: Design validation is recommended but optional. Quality review helps catch issues early.