Constitution for exists project

[vanthao03596]

I installed spec-kit using the --here option. Based on my understanding, I need to:

• Update constitution.md before running the /spectify command, correct?

• How can I generate or update constitution.md based on my existing project with prompt?

• Do I also need to update the constitution according to constitution_update_checklist.md?

Could someone guide me through this step by step?

[simongartz]

Yes you should update the constitution file before running /specify or /plan...

If you already have a project you need to build a custom prompt that fits that project to generate principles that fits that project.

But if you are for example creating a command line app the examples in the constitution.md should work great. In that case you could prompt something like update the constitution.md and the constitution_update_checklist with the example principles listed in the files.

After you need to execute the constitution_update_checklist.md, this will update the plan template and some other template files that is used to create your specs. Prompt run constitution_update_checklist.md, I don't think there is a specific command in spec-kit for this but that prompt has worked great for me.

Hope it helps :)

[vanthao03596]

Thanks for your reply! Could you please take a look at my PR, and let me know if I did it correctly?

I updated constitution.md with two prompt:

Help me create a constitution for my Node.js/Express/TypeScript API project. Based on the existing codebase patterns and CLAUDE.md guidelines, fill out the constitution template .specify/memory/constitution.md with appropriate principles for this backend API
skeleton.

Now, please have a look at .specify/memory/constitution_update_checklist.md and make other necessary adjustments as per this document.

[simongartz]

You can tell your code agent to update the .specify/memory/constitution_update_checklist.md with the updated constitution.md principles. I do that, it usually works :) Your constitution.md looks fine to me.

[cena261]

vậy nếu dự án có sẵn thì sau khi chạy "uvx --from git+https://github.com/github/spec-kit.git specify init " thì phải thay đổi file constitution và constitution_update_checklist trước rồi mới bắt đầu /specify hả ông

[vanthao03596]

ừ tôi nghĩ vậy á, đang test build thử feature, vì nếu không update constitution xong chạy constitution_update_checklist thì mấy cái plan template nó generate không chuẩn ý