GRID is a framework for projects that commit to using coding agents in a specification-driven manner. This is of limited use to projects that employ vibe-coding. Accordingly, the GRID framework requires discipline on the part of the user to adhere to spec-driven development.

Given that discipline, GRID helps in:

• ensuring a certain degree of sanity in the specification, and
• ensuring a certain degree of honesty in the agreement between the specification, the code, and the tests.

GRID is small framework, by design. Also — by itself — GRID is not prescriptive; and, again, intentionally so!

However, this simplicity can be deceptive. GRID has consistently delivered value on projects of various sizes, architectures, and tech stacks.

Basic Usage

Your specification can be in a single file or spread over multiple files in a given directory. The entry point file must be named SPEC.md. In case the specification is broken into multiple files, SPEC.md must refer to all of them.

First, save a copy of GRID.md in the root of your git directory. Or, point your agent at this GitHub repository itself.

Then, whenever the specification changes independently of the code or the code changes independently of the specification, point your agent at GRID.md and ask it to perform as specified therein. For convenience, you can include a corresponding instruction in your project's AGENTS.md.

Create a file acceptable-deviations.md in the same directory as SPEC.md.

• For each coding agent available:
  • Perform GRID analysis.
  • For each observation:
    • If an observation is acceptable:
      • Address the observation.
    • Else:
      • Add it to acceptable-deviations.md.

Optionally, you can run the above loop another time (or as many times as needed). That can surface issues that get introduced in the process of addressing an observation.

Advanced Usage

You can make GRID an integral part of your CI/CD pipeline. Here are a few example possibilities.

• Alert different stakeholders for observations in different areas.
  • E.g. Security risks are sent to the security architect, while spec-test discrepancies are sent to the test lead.
• Alert appropriate stakeholders only upon the GRID analysis making one or more High severity observations.
  • Optionally, you could set a threshold on the number of High severity observations, beyond which the pipeline stops.
• You could pass an algorithmic inconsistency to the next stage, while choosing to block on a specification ambiguity.