Using a simplified online bookstore as one continuous example, this guide explains the software diagrams commonly used for requirements, business, architecture, data, interaction, and deployment design.
Drawing on 2025–2026 practices in AI coding agents and Spec-Driven Development, this article systematically explains the definition, value, essential components, workflow, and common pitfalls of a Software Spec, and provides a practical template for tools such as Claude Code, Codex CLI, and Cursor.
Starting from how AI coding agents execute work, this article explains why agent-native documentation has evolved from reference material into infrastructure, defines the responsibilities and organization of AGENTS.md, PRD, Architecture, Spec, and Plan documents, and shows how Context Engineering and Spec-Driven Development can produce a context-efficient system that reliably directs agent behavior.
This article systematically reviews frontline experience from OpenAI, Anthropic, HumanLayer, and other teams documenting AI coding-agent projects. It explains why entry-point files, layered knowledge bases, state-tracking files, and local documentation directly affect Agent performance, and provides an actionable path from a minimum viable documentation system to continuous maintenance.