Glossary
Every term used in this section, defined in plain language.
Every term used in this section, in plain language. Nothing here assumes you have read the rest.
Application password — a revocable, per-integration credential in WordPress, separate from a user's login password. Used here so the pipeline's access can be withdrawn without disturbing anyone's account.
Canonical URL — the address a publisher declares as the authoritative one for a page. Used here as the identity of an item, so the same story arriving by two routes is recognised as one.
Constitution — in spec-kit, the file holding a project's governing principles. Read live by later commands rather than copied into them.
Contract — a stated interface between two parts of a system. Here, the JSON shape the AI writer must return and the WordPress step consumes.
Draft (WordPress) — a post that exists in the site's admin area and is not publicly visible. Every article this pipeline creates is a draft.
Editorial owner — the person whose agreement is required to change a principle in the constitution. Named in the constitution's Governance section, and the only role in this document that can reverse the draft-only rule.
MCP (Model Context Protocol) — a standard by which an AI agent is given access to external tools and data beyond the files in front of it.
RSS feed — a machine-readable list of a site's recent items. Preferred here over fetching pages, where a source publishes one.
Service account — an account that exists for a system rather than a person, holding only the permissions that system needs. Used here so the pipeline's access can be withdrawn without disturbing anyone's own login, and so machine-written drafts are not attributed to a colleague.
Spec-Driven Development (SDD) — writing what is to be built, and why, before building it, and generating the implementation from that rather than alongside it.
spec-kit — GitHub's open-source toolkit implementing SDD as a set of commands for AI coding agents. MIT-licensed.
User story — a requirement written from the point of view of the person who wants the outcome. In spec-kit, prioritised P1/P2/P3 and required to be independently testable.
spec-kit is published by GitHub under the MIT licence — github.com/github/spec-kit.
How is this guide?
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What This Buys You
The argument for adopting it, written for whoever signs off rather than whoever builds — plus a one-page reference to all seven commands.
Spec-Driven Development with OpenSpec
Agreeing what gets built, and why, before an AI coding agent builds it. A worked proposal you can adapt, from executive summary to the day-two change.