atman-33/kiro-for-codex: VS Code extension for spec-driven development with Codex CLI. Manage specs, steering docs, and prompts visually, tightly integrated with Codex.

VS Code extension for spec-driven development with Codex CLI. Manage specs, steering docs, and prompts visually, tightly integrated with Codex. - atman-33/kiro-for-codex

Summary

Spec for Codex is a VS Code extension that adds a visual workflow for spec-driven development on top of the Codex CLI. It provides sidebar views for managing feature specifications, steering documents, and reusable prompts, and routes generated artifacts to a .codex/ folder in the workspace. The project is MIT-licensed, written in TypeScript, and requires Codex CLI v0.28.0+ alongside VS Code 1.84.0+.

What it is useful for

The extension is useful when you want a structured, reviewable workflow around Codex CLI instead of typing ad-hoc prompts in a terminal. It helps teams that already follow a requirements → design → tasks sequence to keep those documents versioned alongside code under .codex/specs/<name>/, with requirements.md, design.md, and tasks.md generated one stage at a time. The STEERING view keeps product, tech, and structure conventions in reusable Markdown files under .codex/steering/, and the PROMPTS view scaffolds team-shared prompts in .codex/prompts/ that can be run with a single click.

A sidebar CHAT view supports one-shot and streamed conversations with Codex in a dedicated terminal session, and an OVERVIEW view surfaces availability checks and entry points. A full-auto approval mode runs non-destructive commands without prompting, while yolo skips approval entirely.

How engineers can use it

Install it from the Marketplace (Spec for Codex) or via code --install-extension atman-33.spec-for-codex, or download a .vsix from GitHub Releases. Make sure codex is on your PATH, then open the Spec for Codex activity bar icon.

A typical session:

1. In the SPEC view, click + Create New Spec, describe the feature in the webview editor, and let Codex CLI draft requirements.md.
2. Review and approve, then generate design.md, review, and finally generate tasks.md.
3. From tasks.md, use the inline CodeLens action to run a single task with Codex and auto-check it off.
4. Add reusable instructions via the PROMPTS view (+ Create Prompt) and run them with the inline ▶ button, or open the CHAT view for quick back-and-forth.

Customization lives in two places: UI and runtime behavior under the specCodex.* namespace in VS Code settings, and paths in .codex/settings/specCodex-settings.json. Prompts are always stored under .codex/prompts, and on Windows you can set specCodex.codex.windowsShellPath to override the terminal.

Documented limitations: the AGENTS, HOOKS, and MCP views are hidden in this build, the "New Spec with Agents" flow is disabled, and Windows PowerShell support is marked beta. The README also notes the author plans to focus development on a successor, spec-for-codex-ide. See the project README for the full command reference and configuration options.