Vibe Coding to Enterprise Ready: Choosing the Right Spec-Driven Development Framework
A practical guide to navigating GitHub Spec Kit, OpenSpec, BMAD-Method, and the emerging SDD landscape
The Problem We’re All Facing
You’ve experienced it: That magical moment when Claude Code or GitHub Copilot generates exactly what you need in seconds. The dopamine hit of watching an AI agent scaffold an entire feature while you grab coffee. The thrill of “vibe coding” – where a conversational prompt becomes working code.
Then reality hits.
The AI-generated code works… until it doesn’t. The thousand-line pull request sits unreviewed because nobody understands what changed. The prototype that took an hour to build takes three weeks to harden for production. Your security team flags compliance issues. Your architect questions why the AI chose that pattern.
The question haunting engineering leaders in 2025: How do we keep the velocity of AI-assisted development while adding the governance, quality, and maintainability our organizations demand?
Enter spec-driven development (SDD) – the emerging answer that’s dividing the developer community.
The Spec-Driven Development Promise
The pitch is compelling: Instead of prompting an AI to “build a user authentication system,” you first:
1. Specify what you want (user journeys, requirements, success criteria)
2. Plan how to build it (architecture, tech stack, constraints)
3. Break it down into reviewable tasks
4. Let AI implement with clear guidance
Specifications become the source of truth. AI agents follow blueprints instead of vibes. Organizations encode governance (security, compliance, tech stack) into a “constitution” that guides all development
It sounds perfect. But as with all frameworks, the devil is in the details—and the choice of tool matters more than you think.
The Landscape: Not All SDD Tools Are Equal
The spec-driven development space exploded in late 2025. GitHub released Spec Kit. Startups launched alternatives. Amazon entered with Kiro. Each promises to solve the “vibe coding to production” problem, but they take radically different approaches.
Let me cut through the noise and give you what you actually need: a decision framework.
Decision Framework: Which Tool Should You Choose?
The Five Critical Questions
Are you building something new or modifying existing code?
If greenfield (new project):
- GitHub Spec Kit shines here
- Comprehensive constitution enforces standards from day one
- Full workflow (constitution → specify → plan → tasks) makes sense
- No legacy constraints to navigate
If brownfield (existing codebase):
- OpenSpec was built for this
- Separates current truth ( specs/) from proposed changes ( changes/)
- Excels at modifications (1→n) vs. brand new features (0→1)
- 3x faster with 250 lines of output vs. Spec Kit’s 800 lines
Real-world example: A team I know tried Spec Kit on their 5-year-old Rails app. Retrofitting specifications for existing functionality felt like documentation archaeology. They switched to OpenSpec and saw immediate productivity gains.
