Pros and Cons of Spec Kit compared to OpenSpec - Greenfield/Browfield development

[morpheus9393]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this ecosystem and want to start with one of the available tools. I'm currently trying to understand the differences between Spec Kit and OpenSpec.

From what I've gathered:

• OpenSpec seems to be more geared toward "brownfield" scenarios
• Spec Kit appears to be the more general-purpose option

My questions:

1. What are the key pros and cons of each approach?
2. When you mention OpenSpec is "more for brownfield" – does that mean it doesn't make sense or is significantly harder to implement when starting a new greenfield project from scratch?
3. For someone developing a completely new piece of software (starting from 0), which would you recommend and why?

I'd really appreciate any insights from your experiences. Thanks for sharing your opinions!

[TabishB]

hey @morpheus9393

Here's some resources to help you compare:
https://medium.com/polarizertech/spec-driven-development-openspec-dbc5efe1d8ce
https://hashrocket.com/blog/posts/openspec-vs-spec-kit-choosing-the-right-ai-driven-development-workflow-for-your-team

While I think you could spend hours analyzing what makes one better than the other, I've found the best approach is to just try both out.

Go build a tiny new feature and see how it feels for you. OpenSpec takes less than 30 seconds to setup and install for example. The best way here is to just try something out.

I can promise you just trying any of these tools out for a few minutes will give you 10x more insight and knowledge than reading any blog post out there <3 You got this!