What-if Analysis Extension

Preview the downstream impact of requirement changes before committing to them.

Overview

The What-if Analysis extension provides a read-only simulation tool for spec-driven development. It allows teams to preview how a proposed change will affect:

• Complexity: Heuristic scoring of project difficulty.
• Effort: Estimated person-hours for implementation.
• Tasks: Delta in the task list (added, removed, changed).
• Risks: Potential technical debt, breaking changes, or conflicts.

Installation

specify extension add whatif

Or for development:

specify extension add --dev path/to/whatif

Usage

Invoke the command through your AI assistant:

/speckit.whatif.analyze "Change the database from SQLite to PostgreSQL"

The agent will analyze your current artifacts (spec.md, plan.md, tasks.md, constitution.md) and generate a detailed impact report without modifying any files.

Commands

speckit.whatif.analyze

Performs the simulation and generates the report.

Arguments: The hypothetical scenario or requirement change to analyze.