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Migrating to v0.19.0

v0.19.0 consolidates the skill system from 11 skills down to 4. If you're upgrading from v0.18.x or earlier, this guide covers what changed and what you need to do.

The Short Version

litespec upgrade
litespec update          # regenerates skills with new names

Done. The old skill directories are cleaned up automatically.

What Changed

Skills consolidated from 6 to 4

Before (v0.18.x) After (v0.19.0) What happened
litespec-explore merged into litespec-think Exploration is now a mode within think
litespec-grill merged into litespec-think Grilling is now a mode within think
litespec-workflow merged into litespec-think Workflow routing is now a mode within think
litespec-propose merged into litespec-plan Proposing is now a mode within plan
litespec-adopt merged into litespec-plan Adopting is now a mode within plan
litespec-patch merged into litespec-plan Patching is now a mode within plan
litespec-glossary merged into litespec-plan Glossary management is now part of plan
litespec-apply merged into litespec-build Implementation + review-finding fixes + research pauses
litespec-fix merged into litespec-build Fixing review findings is now a workflow within build
litespec-research merged into litespec-build Research is now an inline pause within build
litespec-review litespec-review Unchanged

The behavior is the same — no capabilities were lost. The skills just have fewer, more focused entry points.

Why

Eleven skills meant eleven files to maintain, eleven descriptions to keep in sync, and eleven decision points for agents figuring out which skill to invoke. In practice, explore and grill were always used together (think first, then stress-test). Propose and adopt shared most of their artifact-generation logic. Apply and fix were the same implementation cycle.

Four skills map cleanly to four stances: think (no artifacts), plan (materialize artifacts), build (implement code), review (evaluate).

New universal flags

--json and --minimal are now available on every command. Previously --json was limited to four commands.

New commands documented

These commands existed before v0.19.0 but weren't in the docs. They're now fully documented in the CLI Reference:

  • litespec decide <slug> — create architectural decision records
  • litespec patch <name> <capability> — create a lightweight delta-only change
  • litespec preview <name> — preview what archive would do without making changes

New flags

Flag Commands Purpose
--decisions list, validate List or validate architectural decision records
--backlog list List backlog items by section
--status <state> list Filter decisions by status (proposed/accepted/superseded)
--sort number list Sort decisions by number
--type decision validate Disambiguate name as a decision

Migration Steps

1. Upgrade

litespec upgrade

2. Regenerate skills

litespec update

This generates the four new skill directories:

.agents/skills/
├── litespec-think/
├── litespec-plan/
├── litespec-build/
└── litespec-review/

Old skill directories (litespec-explore/, litespec-grill/, litespec-propose/, litespec-apply/, litespec-adopt/, litespec-fix/, litespec-research/, litespec-workflow/, litespec-glossary/, litespec-patch/) are removed automatically. Any manually created skills (e.g., research-<topic>/, the-drill/, skill-creator/) are left untouched.

3. Refresh tool adapters

If you're using Claude Code:

litespec update --tools claude

This recreates the symlinks in .claude/skills/ to point at the new skill directories.

4. Update custom skills or prompts

If you have custom agent prompts, system prompts, or workflow instructions that reference the old skill names, update them:

Old reference New reference
"use the explore skill" "use the think skill (Exploration mode)"
"use the grill skill" "use the think skill (Grilling mode)"
"use the propose skill" "use the plan skill (Propose mode)"
"use the apply skill" "use the build skill"
"use the adopt skill" "use the plan skill (Adopt mode)"
"use the patch skill" "use the plan skill (Patch mode)"
"use the fix skill" "use the build skill"
"use the research skill" "use the build skill (research pause)"
"use the glossary skill" "use the think or plan skill (glossary management)"
litespec-explore litespec-think
litespec-grill litespec-think
litespec-workflow litespec-think
litespec-propose litespec-plan
litespec-adopt litespec-plan
litespec-patch litespec-plan
litespec-glossary litespec-plan
litespec-apply litespec-build
litespec-fix litespec-build
litespec-research litespec-build

Nothing Else Changed

  • Spec format is unchanged
  • Delta spec syntax is unchanged
  • Archive behavior is unchanged
  • CLI command names (other than skills) are unchanged
  • Directory structure is unchanged
  • Shell completions are unchanged

This is a documentation and skill-naming release. Your existing projects, specs, and changes will work exactly as before.