The Spec Cockpit is the control panel for one change: the one whose document is open in the active editor. Open a different change’s file and the Cockpit follows. With no change document open it says Open a spec or task file to see the cockpit.

Live

  • Change name and a status chip: Draft (no proposal yet), Spec (proposed, nothing run), Plan (tasks exist), Running, Review, Complete (all tasks done), Archived.
  • Worktree row: the branch (⎇), main tree or worktree, and — while a worktree exists — Commit, Merge with a Choose branch… dropdown. A note appears if the worktree has uncommitted changes.
  • Actions for the whole change, depending on state:
    • ▷ Run Next Step and ▷▷ Run All — see Running tasks.
    • Stop while a run is live; Cancel Auto-Run while a chain is queued.
    • Refine Spec — revise the documents from your comments (Authoring a change).
    • Sync / Sync and archive ▾ — Finishing a change.
    • Open log — the change’s Agent Log.
    • Comments (n) — jumps to the Comments tab.

Steps

One row per ## section of tasks.md — state icon, number, title, and for a done task its duration and file count. The row’s actions appear on hover, in a fixed order so your hand learns where they are:

  • rerun / refine — the chooser with Refine Code · Refine Plan and Code · Rollback Code and Refine Plan;
  • rollback — on the last completed task only;
  • ▷ run — Run this step or Run all steps up to this step.

A queued row says Queued and offers Cancel from here. A done row whose section text has changed since carries the outdated warning.

Diff

Under the list: the files changed by the run under review, with line counts, as a tree. Whole run | Step N switches between the change’s cumulative diff and the last task’s. Double-click a file for the diff viewer; Display Options groups by directory or module, or shows the list flat. The same panel shows document diffs for a proposal or refine.

Docs

The change’s documents, grouped:

  • Change artifacts — proposal.md, design.md, tasks.md.
  • Delta specs — each specs/<capability>/spec.md in the change, tagged with the main spec it targets (→ openspec/specs/<capability>) or new capability.
  • Main specs — every capability in openspec/specs/, so the current truth is one click away while you read a delta.

Click to open. The list is live — a propose in progress fills it in.

Comments

All pending inline comments of the change, as cards: file, line range, the quoted text, your comment. Click one to jump to it. Comments stay here until a refine sends them to the agent (or you delete them); once sent, they move into the revision’s record in History.

History

Every run of the change, newest first: propose, each task, each refine, sync, archive, and the git operations — when, how long, and whether it completed, failed or was interrupted. Select a run to see:

  • the documents it changed, diffed against their state before the run — or This run changed no documents;
  • the comments that were sent with a refine;
  • Open agent log for that run’s session.

History survives archiving and IDE restarts — it lives outside the repository, under ~/.specbuddy/. Clear Revision History in the tab’s menu deletes it for the change; the code and documents are not affected.

Which surface when

The Cockpit is one of three places that show the same state; they are consistent, so use whichever is under your hand:

  • reading tasks.md — the banner and the task cards have run/review right there;
  • looking at what changed — the Cockpit;
  • watching the agent or talking to it — the Agent Log;
  • with several changes at once — the Spec Explorer icons tell you which one needs you.