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AI Sherpa Specification Review & Sign-off

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Overview

After you generate a specification from your brief, AI Sherpa automatically reviews it for quality, completeness, and implementation readiness. This automated quality gate helps you ship better products by catching issues early - before you commit resources to development. Sherpa scores your spec across five dimensions and either approves it for development, requests specific changes, or flags it for revision.

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Step-by-Step Guide

  1. Generate your specification - Navigate to the Spec Review page after your specification completes generation. Sherpa review triggers automatically in the background.
  2. Wait for Sherpa analysis - You’ll see “AI Sherpa is reviewing your specification…” with a loading indicator. Most reviews complete within 60 seconds.
  3. Review Sherpa’s decision - Once complete, you’ll see one of three outcomes at the top of the page: Approved (green), Changes Requested (yellow), or Rejected (red).
  4. Examine quality scores - Sherpa displays scores for five dimensions: clarity, completeness, technical feasibility, scope alignment, and implementation readiness. Each dimension shows a 0-100 score with color coding.
  5. Read flagged issues - If Sherpa requests changes or rejects the spec, you’ll see a prioritized list of issues marked as critical, important, or optional. Each issue includes the affected section, description, and suggested fix.
  6. Take action based on Sherpa’s decision:
    • If Approved: Click “Confirm Specification” to proceed to implementation planning
    • If Changes Requested: Edit the specification manually, then click “Request Re-review” to trigger a new Sherpa analysis
    • If Rejected: Click the acknowledgment button to return to the brief review page and make corrections at the source
  7. Track review history - All Sherpa reviews are preserved with timestamps. You can compare scores across iterations to see improvement over time.

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Common Questions

What do the five quality dimensions measure?
Clarity measures how well the spec communicates requirements. Completeness checks if all necessary sections and details exist. Technical feasibility evaluates whether requirements can be built. Scope alignment verifies the spec matches your brief. Implementation readiness assesses if developers can start work immediately. Can I proceed if Sherpa requests changes?
Not directly. Sherpa approval gates your progression to implementation planning. You must address flagged issues and pass re-review before confirming the spec. This protects you from building on shaky requirements. What happens if I edit an approved spec?
Your approval is automatically revoked and the spec returns to draft status. Any edits after approval require a fresh Sherpa review to ensure changes didn’t introduce problems. How long does a Sherpa review take?
Most reviews complete in under 60 seconds. If you see no response after two minutes, the review fails gracefully and you’ll get an option to retry. What if Sherpa rejects my spec multiple times?
Persistent rejections signal fundamental issues in your brief. Return to the brief review page and strengthen your problem definition, constraints, or requirements before regenerating the spec.

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Troubleshooting

Review status shows “review_failed”
The Sherpa review encountered a technical error. Click the retry option on the Spec Review page. If failures persist, a supervisor is automatically notified to perform manual review. I don’t see quality scores after review completes
Refresh the Spec Review page. If scores still don’t appear, the review data may not have saved properly. Request a new review using the “Request Re-review” button. Sherpa approved but I still see critical issues
Sherpa approves specs with overall scores ≥80 and no critical issues. Double-check the issue severity tags - you may be seeing “important” or “optional” issues that don’t block approval. If you believe critical issues were missed, report the review to your supervisor for override consideration. Changes I made aren’t reflected in re-review
Ensure you saved your edits before requesting re-review. Sherpa analyzes the current saved version of the spec, not unsaved drafts. Brief Review & Enhancement - Sherpa’s specification review connects directly to your brief quality. Rejected specs often indicate brief-level issues. Strengthen your brief first to improve spec quality. Implementation Planning - After Sherpa approves your spec, you proceed to break it into executable tasks and milestones. Approved specs accelerate planning by ensuring requirements are implementation-ready. Supervisor Dashboard - Supervisors can view all Sherpa reviews, override decisions with justification, and identify patterns in common issues. Request supervisor review if you disagree with Sherpa’s assessment.