What are the advantages of spec-driven development compared to vibe coding with an LLM? Are these recent trends a move toward declarative programming? This week on the show, Marc Brooker, VP and Distinguished Engineer at AWS, joins us to discuss specification-driven development and Kiro. Marc describes the process of developing an application by writing specifications, which outline what a program should do and what needs it should meet. We dig into a bit of computer science history to explore the differences between declarative and imperative programming. We also discuss Kiro, a new integrated development environment from Amazon, built around turning prompts into structured requirements. We examine the various types of documents used to specify tasks, requirements, design, and steering. Real Python Resource Spotlight: Python Coding With AI - Learning Path Explore tools and workflows for AI in Python: coding partners, prompt engineering, RAG, ChromaDB, FastAPI chatbots, and MCP integrations. Stay current and start today. Topics: 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:02:41 – How did you get involved in open source? 00:07:23 – How would you describe spec-driven development? 00:10:49 – Balancing the desire to start coding with defining the project 00:13:06 – What does this documentation look like? 00:18:27 – Declarative vs imperative programming 00:24:13 – Infrastructure as part of the design 00:27:03 – Getting started with a small project 00:29:05 – Committing the spec files along with the code 00:31:08 – What is steering? 00:34:17 – How to get better at distilling specifications? 00:38:59 – What are anti-patterns in spec-driven development? 00:41:08 – Should you avoid third-party libraries? 00:43:16 – Real Python Resource Spotlight 00:44:39 – Getting started with Kiro 00:51:00 – Neuro-symbolic AI 00:55:41 – What are you excited about in the world of Python? 00:58:36 – What do you want to learn next? 01:00:18 – How can people follow your work online? 01:00:57 – Thanks and goodbye Show Links: Kiro and the future of AI spec-driven software development - Kiro Marc Brooker’s Blog - Marc’s Blog Kiro: The AI IDE for prototype to production Beyond Prompts: The Future of AI-Assisted Development | Marc Brooker - YouTube Understanding Spec-Driven-Development: Kiro, spec-kit, and Tessl Declarative programming - Wikipedia Behaviour-Driven Development - Cucumber Steering - Docs - Kiro Best practices - Docs - Kiro CLI - Kiro Does your code match your spec? - Kiro Amazon takes on AI’s biggest nightmare: Hallucinations - Fast Company Neuro-symbolic AI - Wikipedia Spec-Driven Development: The Waterfall Strikes Back G-code - Wikipedia Marc Brooker (@MarcJBrooker) / X Marc Brooker (@[email protected]) Marc Brooker - LinkedIn Level up your Python skills with our expert-led courses: Getting Started With Claude Code First Steps With LangChain Building a Neural Network & Making Predictions With Python AI Support the podcast & join our community of Pythonistas