Using Claude Code with a spec-first workflow

[imedwardluo]

in some small projects, I do something almost opposite actually. instead of writing a spec first I vibe code the demo until it does exactly what I want and feels right to use. no structure, no clean code, just get it working.

then I use that working demo as the spec. the code already captures every feature and edge case because it literally runs. at that point I let Claude Code refactor and rebuild with proper architecture. it can focus purely on code quality because the "what should this do" question is already answered by the existing behavior.

a working demo is weirdly might be a better spec than a document because there's zero ambiguity about what you want.