spec-spine (npm)

The spec-spine CLI, distributed as a prebuilt binary through npm. No Rust toolchain required.

spec-spine turns a markdown spec corpus into a deterministic, hash-verifiable authority ledger and refuses code that drifts from its owning spec at PR time. This package lets a TypeScript/JS repo install and run the CLI like any other dev tool.

npm i -D spec-spine
npx spec-spine --version

npx spec-spine init                                  # scaffold a spec corpus
npx spec-spine compile                               # specs/*/spec.md -> registry.json
npx spec-spine index                                 # codebase index
npx spec-spine lint --fail-on-warn                   # corpus conformance
npx spec-spine couple --base origin/main --head HEAD # the PR-time drift gate

Add it to your CI / package scripts like any other binary CLI:

{
  "scripts": {
    "spec:check": "spec-spine compile && spec-spine index check && spec-spine lint --fail-on-warn"
  }
}

How it works

This is a binary-distribution shim, not a native (napi) addon. The package's bin is a tiny Node launcher that resolves the one prebuilt binary matching your platform and runs it as a child process, forwarding arguments and the exit code.

The binaries ship as optional dependencies (@spec-spine/cli-<os>-<cpu>), each gated by npm's os/cpu fields so only the one for your machine is installed. There is no postinstall script, no network access at install time, and no archive extraction, so it works under npm ci --ignore-scripts and fully offline (from a warm cache or a private mirror).

Supported platforms

| OS | Arch | Notes | |---|---|---| | macOS | arm64, x64 | | | Linux | x64, arm64 | glibc only (see below) | | Windows | x64 | |

Linux binaries are glibc, not musl. On Alpine or any musl host the launcher refuses with a clear message: use a glibc-based image, or install from source with cargo install spec-spine-cli. The same applies to any platform without a prebuilt binary (Windows on ARM, 32-bit, …).

Versioning

The npm version equals the binary release tag it ships: [email protected] runs the binary built from v0.1.0. There is no floating range, so a pinned npm version always runs a known binary.

Alternatives (no npm)

cargo install spec-spine-cli                                          # from crates.io
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bartekus/spec-spine/main/install.sh | sh

License

Apache-2.0. See the repository for full documentation, the Rust library API, and the design docs.