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Definition of Ready & Definition of Done

This page names the toolkit's entry bar (Definition of Ready, DoR) and exit bar (Definition of Done, DoD) for a spec, and gives each the single address it previously lacked. The checks themselves already existed — scattered across the birth-gate, the review/test gates, and the finalize phase. This standard consolidates and names them; it introduces no new gate (SPEC-160, NFR-1).

This document is the canonical source. The ## Definition of Ready and ## Definition of Done sections rendered into every new spec.md, the DoR: line emitted by /vt-c-spec-from-requirements and /vt-c-shape, and the DoD confirmation in /vt-c-5-finalize all mirror the item lists and classifications below. When an item changes, change it here first; plugins/core-standards/tests/test-dor-dod.sh fails if any mirror drifts.

Definition of Ready (DoR)

Evaluated at spec birth — the end of /vt-c-spec-from-requirements (and again at the end of /vt-c-shape). It is soft: a WARN never blocks; the author decides whether to act (SPEC-160 NFR-2, EC-3). Each item is either machine-checked (verified by the SPEC-155 birth-gate) or author-attested (asserted by the author, not verified by a tool). The emitted DoR: line keeps these two groups separate so PASS never claims more than the birth-gate actually verifies (SPEC-160 Decision 2).

ID Item Classification Enforced by
DoR-1 Clarity & terminology (Trennschärfe) — no unresolved ambiguity findings machine-checked SPEC-155 birth-gate, Layer 1+2 (/vt-c-spec-check)
DoR-2 Planner-readiness — a downstream planner can act without misdirection machine-checked SPEC-155 birth-gate, Layer 3 (/vt-c-spec-check)
DoR-3 Scope and Non-Goals present author-attested author (not machine-checked)
DoR-4 Every acceptance criterion is testable author-attested author (not machine-checked)
DoR-5 Dependencies listed and resolvable author-attested author (not machine-checked)

If the SPEC-155 birth-gate is unavailable, DoR-1/DoR-2 degrade to author-attested and the DoR line says so — the standard degrades to a plain checklist rather than failing (SPEC-160 Dependencies).

Definition of Done (DoD)

Confirmed at finalize — a step in /vt-c-5-finalize before /vt-c-complete. Each item is either mechanical (deterministically hard-verified against actual repo state) or narrative (a non-blocking advisory judgement). Finalize reports each item's status and source; it never prints a bare "DoD checked" that conflates the two (SPEC-160 Decision 4).

ID Item Classification Enforced by
DoD-1 .review-gate.md present and PASS mechanical /vt-c-5-finalize Step 0 (review gate)
DoD-2 .test-gate.md PASS (or N/A for non-code deliverables) mechanical /vt-c-5-finalize Step 0b (test gate)
DoD-3 docs/change-ledger.md updated for this spec mechanical /vt-c-5-finalize Step 4.5 (doc-sync --log)
DoD-4 All acceptance criteria met narrative finalize advisory (LLM judgement, non-blocking)
DoD-5 No orphaned artifacts narrative finalize advisory (LLM judgement, non-blocking)

The N/A + justification exception

A DoD item may be marked N/A in a spec only with a one-line justification recorded inline in that spec's ## Definition of Done section. This is the audited escape hatch for deliverable-type variation — a document-only spec marks DoD-2 (.test-gate.md) as N/A — no code deliverable, matching existing review/test-gate behavior for non-code specs (SPEC-160 Decision 1, EC-1). Finalize honors the N/A and prints the justification; an N/A without a justification is reported as an unmet item.

Authors MAY add spec-specific items to their ## Definition of Done, but MAY NOT silently drop or weaken a canonical default — the exception is N/A + justification, nothing else. Finalize confirms the canonical default list (this page), not author-edited prose, so the exit bar cannot be gamed by lowering it in a single spec (SPEC-160 Decision 1).

Why reuse-only

  • DoR reuses the SPEC-155 spec-clarity birth-gate (/vt-c-spec-check) as its evaluator.
  • DoD reuses .review-gate.md, .test-gate.md, docs/change-ledger.md, and the finalize orphan scan.

No competing or duplicate gate is introduced (SPEC-160 NFR-1, Constitution IV). The value this standard adds is a single name and address for the bar, plus honest labeling of what is machine-verified versus attested — not a new enforcement mechanism.