Spek — Summary

Spek is a lightweight, read-only viewer for OpenSpec content available in three distinct delivery forms: a local web app (Express + React), a VS Code extension (Activity Bar icon + Webview Panel + sidebar TreeView), and an IntelliJ IDEA plugin (JCEF-based Tool Window). All three variants are strictly read-only and local-only — no data leaves the machine. The key differentiating feature is git worktree aggregation: spek discovers every git worktree of a repository via git worktree list and merges their in-flight OpenSpec changes into one unified view, making it purpose-built for the AI-agent era of parallel worktrees. It also functions as a GitHub Action to generate static OpenSpec sites for CI pipelines. Spek ships one Claude Code skill (for its own development) but no prompts, hooks, or orchestration — it is a pure UI/tooling layer.

differs_from_seeds: Unlike any of the 11 seed frameworks, spek adds no workflow logic, hooks, or prompts — its closest analog is the specboard dashboard in this batch (also an OpenSpec viewer), but spek is more featureful (BDD syntax highlighting, Gantt timeline, full-text search, VS Code extension, IntelliJ plugin, GitHub Action) and distinctly read-only across all forms. No seed framework provides multi-IDE viewing of OpenSpec content.

Spek — Overview

Origin

Spek (v1.3.0) is authored by kewang (with one additional contributor). It is a monorepo with packages for web, VS Code extension, and IntelliJ plugin. Published 2026 alongside the rise of AI-agent parallel worktree development patterns.

Philosophy

From the README: "spek turns your local OpenSpec directory into a navigable, searchable interface. Instead of reading raw Markdown files in a text editor, spek provides structured browsing with BDD syntax highlighting, task progress tracking, and full-text search."

The project explicitly frames its git worktree aggregation as the core innovation: "In the AI-agent era, a single repository often has several git worktrees in flight at once — each agent, or each parallel task, working on its own branch in its own worktree. The OpenSpec changes for that work scatter across those worktrees, and pointing a viewer at any one directory shows only a fraction of what's happening."

Manifesto-style statements

• "All are read-only and local-only. No server deployment, no authentication, no data leaves your machine."
• "spek discovers every worktree of a repository (via git worktree list) and aggregates their in-flight changes into one view."
• "Built for the AI-agent era of parallel worktrees"

Target user

Developers and teams using OpenSpec with parallel AI agents running in multiple git worktrees. Available from VS Code Marketplace and JetBrains Marketplace.

Spek — Architecture

Distribution

Three forms:

1. Web app: Clone + npm install && npm run dev → localhost:5173
2. VS Code Extension: VS Code Marketplace (kewang.spek-vscode)
3. IntelliJ Plugin: JetBrains Marketplace (plugin ID: 30600-spek--openspec-viewer)
4. GitHub Action: kewang/spek@v1 (generates static site in CI)

Install methods

# Web app
git clone https://github.com/kewang/spek.git && cd spek && npm install && npm run dev

# VS Code Extension
# Install from VS Code Marketplace (search "spek")

# IntelliJ Plugin  
# Install from JetBrains Marketplace (Settings > Plugins > Marketplace, search "spek")

# GitHub Action
- uses: kewang/spek@v1
  with:
    title: "My Project - OpenSpec"

Tech stack (monorepo)

packages/
├── core/       # @spek/core — scanner, tasks parser, types (pure Node.js)
├── web/        # @spek/web — Express.js + React 19 + Vite + TypeScript + Tailwind CSS v4
│   ├── server/ # Express REST API (reads local filesystem)
│   └── src/    # React SPA + API adapters
├── vscode/     # spek-vscode — VS Code Extension
│   ├── src/    # extension.ts, panel.ts, handler.ts
│   └── webview/ # Vite build output (from web build:webview)
└── intellij/   # spek-intellij — IntelliJ Platform Plugin
    ├── src/main/kotlin/  # Kotlin source
    └── src/main/resources/webview/  # Vite build output (from web build:intellij)

Required runtime

• Node.js (for web app + build tooling)
• npm
• For IntelliJ plugin build: Java 21 JDK
• For VS Code extension: VS Code 1.x+
• For IntelliJ plugin: IntelliJ IDEA 2024.2+

Target AI tools

None — spek does not invoke any AI model. It is a passive viewer.

Web app port

5173 (Vite dev server) + Express backend on 3001

VS Code activation

Activates automatically when workspace contains openspec/config.yaml

Spek — Components

Claude Code skills (.claude/skills/ → symlinks from .agents/skills/)

frontend-design

• Format: SKILL.md
• Purpose: Create distinctive, production-grade frontend interfaces with high design quality. Used internally for spek's own development. This is the superpowers frontend-design skill redistributed/linked.

electron (skill group)

• Listed under .claude/skills/electron — exact content not fetched but likely build guidance for Electron integration

release (skill group)

• Listed under .claude/skills/release — release process guidance

Web app features

• Dashboard — specs count, changes count, task completion rates, lifecycle stats
• Specs Browser — alphabetical listing with detail view and revision history
• Changes Browser — active and archived with tabbed views (Proposal / Design / Tasks / Specs)
• Timeline — horizontal Gantt-style chart of change lifecycles
• BDD Syntax Highlighting — WHEN/GIVEN (blue), THEN (green), AND (gray), MUST/SHALL (red)
• Task Progress — checkbox parsing with section-grouped progress bars
• Full-text Search — Cmd+K / Ctrl+K across all specs and changes
• Dark / Light Theme — toggle
• Git Worktree Aggregation — discovers all worktrees via git worktree list, merges in-flight changes
• Spec History — git-based timestamp tracking

VS Code extension features

• Activity Bar icon with TreeView sidebar
• Webview Panel (full spek UI in VS Code)
• Commands:
  • spek: Open spek — open viewer panel
  • spek: Search OpenSpec — open search dialog
  • spek: Open Dashboard — open dashboard from sidebar

IntelliJ plugin features

• Right sidebar Tool Window (JCEF-based)
• Action: Tools > Open spek

GitHub Action

• Input: title
• Output: static HTML site from OpenSpec directory, deployable to GitHub Pages
• fetch-depth: 0 recommended for accurate change timestamps

No hooks, commands (AI-facing), agents, or MCP servers

Spek — Uniqueness & Positioning

differs_from_seeds

None of the 11 seed frameworks provides a multi-IDE viewer for OpenSpec content. Spek is the most comprehensively cross-platform OpenSpec viewer in the ecosystem: web app, VS Code extension, IntelliJ plugin, and GitHub Action — all read-only, all local. The closest seed in spirit is openspec (which ships its own web UI via openspecui), but openspecui is a workflow execution surface, not a pure viewer. Spek explicitly avoids any workflow or orchestration role; its differentiating technical contribution is git worktree aggregation — merging OpenSpec changes from all parallel worktrees into a single view, which no seed framework attempts.

Positioning

• Category: OpenSpec ecosystem — multi-platform read-only viewer
• User: Developers and teams who want to inspect OpenSpec content without leaving their IDE
• Integration: Passive overlay on top of any OpenSpec project; requires no configuration changes to the project
• Value: BDD syntax highlighting, Gantt timeline, full-text search, and git worktree aggregation in three IDE contexts

Observable failure modes

1. VS Code extension requires openspec/config.yaml to activate — projects without this exact file don't trigger auto-activation
2. Worktree aggregation uses git worktree list — bare repositories or unusual worktree setups may produce incorrect results
3. IntelliJ plugin requires Java 21 JDK for building from source — higher barrier than typical npm tools
4. Read-only limitation: Some users may want to create/edit specs from the viewer — spek explicitly does not support this
5. Web app is not installable globally — no npm global install or CLI binary

Cross-references

• Closely related to specboard (this batch) — both are OpenSpec viewers, but spek is IDE-integrated and read-only while specboard is standalone with kanban and write access for Manual QA
• intellij-openspec (this batch) is a separate, heavier IntelliJ plugin for the full OpenSpec workflow (propose, generate, archive) — spek's IntelliJ plugin is view-only
• Spek uses the frontend-design skill from the superpowers plugin ecosystem for its own development