LeanSpec v0.3 - Performance & AI Agent Optimization

Status: 🗓️ Planned · Priority: Critical · Created: 2025-11-11 · Tags: release, planning, milestone, v0.3.0, performance, ai-agents

Project: lean-spec
Team: Core Development

Overview

v0.3 focuses on AI agent performance optimization and programmatic spec management. With v0.2 successfully launched, we've identified key bottlenecks in AI agent workflows and opportunities to improve developer/AI collaboration through better tooling.

Why now? v0.2 validated LeanSpec's core philosophy and received positive feedback. Usage analytics show AI agents spending significant time on spec discovery and parsing. v0.3 optimizes these workflows while adding features users are requesting.

Key Goals:

1. 10x faster spec operations for AI agents (programmatic APIs)
2. Live documentation preview for better feedback loops
3. Enhanced AI agent workflows (improved context delivery)
4. Performance benchmarking to measure and maintain gains

Design

v0.3 Theme: "Performance & Intelligence"

Core Focus Areas:

1. Programmatic Spec Management (spec 059) - CRITICAL

   • JSON-based APIs for AI agents
   • Batch operations for efficiency
   • Structured queries (filter/search without parsing all files)
   • Performance benchmarks and optimization

2. Intelligent Search Engine (spec 075) - CRITICAL

   • Relevance ranking and scoring algorithms
   • Field-weighted search (title > tags > content)
   • Fuzzy matching for typo tolerance
   • Boolean operators (AND/OR/NOT)
   • Phrase search with quotes
   • Replaces primitive substring matching

3. Live Specs Showcase (spec 035) - HIGH PRIORITY

   • Real-time documentation preview
   • Embedded dogfooding showcase
   • Performance optimization for large spec sets
   • Deep dive into rendering/build optimization

4. MCP Server Enhancements

   • Optimize context delivery
   • Add caching layer
   • Reduce token usage in responses
   • Better structured output

Release Criteria:

• All critical specs complete
• Performance benchmarks show >5x improvement
• Documentation updated with new APIs
• Migration guide for any breaking changes
• Test coverage maintained >80%

Plan

Phase 1: Core Performance (Week 1-2)

• Complete spec 059 (programmatic-spec-management)
• Complete spec 075 Phase 1-2 (intelligent-search-engine)
• Benchmark current performance (baseline metrics)
• Implement caching layer for spec parsing
• Optimize MCP server response times
• Add performance tests to CI

Phase 2: Live Preview & Showcase (Week 2-3)

• Deep dive analysis of spec 035 requirements
• Optimize Docusaurus build for large spec sets
• Implement live preview functionality
• Add interactive visualizations (Kanban, stats)
• Performance optimization for client-side rendering

Phase 3: Polish & Documentation (Week 3-4)

• Update documentation with v0.3 features
• Create migration guide
• Performance benchmark results page
• Blog post: "How We Made LeanSpec 10x Faster"
• Update CHANGELOG.md

Phase 4: Release (Week 4)

• Final testing and QA
• Version bump to 0.3.0
• Publish to npm
• Deploy docs updates
• Announce on social media

Test

Performance Benchmarks:

• Spec loading <10ms (from ~100ms)
• List operations <50ms for 100 specs
• Search operations <100ms across all specs
• MCP server responses <200ms average
• Docs build time <30s (with showcase)

Functionality Tests:

• All existing CLI commands work unchanged
• New programmatic APIs work as documented
• Live preview updates in real-time
• Showcase displays all specs accurately
• No breaking changes for existing users

Quality Gates:

• Test coverage >80%
• No critical bugs in staging
• Documentation 100% accurate
• Migration path tested

Notes

Priority Decisions:

• 059 (programmatic-spec-management): CRITICAL - Foundation for AI agent performance
• 075 (intelligent-search-engine): CRITICAL - Search is broken, blocks AI agent effectiveness
• 035 (live-specs-showcase): HIGH - User-requested, builds trust, needs deep optimization work

Dependencies:

• spec 059 → Must complete first (enables performance gains)
• spec 035 → Can parallel track after 059 design phase

Open Questions:

• Should we include Copilot slash commands (034) in v0.3 or defer to v0.4?
• Do we need breaking changes for performance gains?
• What's the migration strategy if APIs change?

Success Metrics:

• AI agent operations 10x faster
• Docs build time <30s (currently ~45s)
• User satisfaction: showcase gets >70% positive feedback
• Adoption: 5+ new users from showcase visibility

Related Specs:

• 059-programmatic-spec-management (critical path)
• 075-intelligent-search-engine (critical path)
• 035-live-specs-showcase (high priority)
• 043-official-launch-02 (just completed)
• Future: 034-copilot-slash-commands, 036-pm-integrations