--- title: Don't waste time on specs: /prototype instead | daily.dev description: Spec-driven development with AI is overrated — prototyping is a faster, higher-fidelity path to good software. Rather than spending time writing exhaustive... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-waste-time-on-specs-prototype-instead-ib3xrxw5h twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Don't waste time on specs: /prototype instead | daily.dev og:description: Spec-driven development with AI is overrated — prototyping is a faster, higher-fidelity path to good software. Rather than spending time writing exhaustive... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-waste-time-on-specs-prototype-instead-ib3xrxw5h og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/iB3xRXW5H.png og:image:alt: Don't waste time on specs: /prototype instead og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Don't waste time on specs: /prototype instead **[Matt Pocock](https://daily.dev/sources/mattpocock)** · 10 min read · 46 upvotes · 7 comments ## Summary Spec-driven development with AI is overrated — prototyping is a faster, higher-fidelity path to good software. Rather than spending time writing exhaustive specs before generating code, developers should use throwaway prototypes to answer design and logic questions concretely. A prototype skill is demonstrated using a TLDraw-based diagramming app, where multiple UI variants for a search feature are generated and iterated on in real time. The approach applies to both UI and backend logic (e.g., terminal apps that stress-test state machines). The key insight: the gap between a spec and production code is large, but the gap between a working prototype and production code is small. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why do detailed upfront specs often fail when working with AI coding agents? Detailed specs fail because discussions about how something should look or behave happen at too low a fidelity to resolve real design questions. The gap between a spec and production-ready code is large, whereas building a working prototype first makes the jump to production much smaller since design decisions get road-tested in semi-working code rather than described in text. _Developers weighing spec-first versus prototype-first AI workflows can compare approaches on daily.dev._ ### How can I use a low-cost prototype to resolve UI design questions with an AI coding agent? Generate multiple throwaway prototype variants of a feature, such as several versions of a search bar UI, then react to and give feedback on each one to converge on a final design. One example took about 100,000 tokens to produce three variants, after which feedback was compacted and merged into a further iteration before handing the resulting code to an implementer to finalize. _Anyone iterating on AI-assisted UI design can track prototyping workflows like this via daily.dev._ ### Can AI-generated prototypes be used for backend or logic-heavy problems, not just UI? Yes, prototypes work well for backend and state-machine logic, not only front-end UI. One approach is building a tiny interactive terminal app that pushes a state machine through edge cases that are hard to reason about on paper, turning an abstract logic question into a concrete, testable artifact before implementation. _Backend developers exploring AI-assisted state modeling can follow related workflow ideas on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@augustus\_benny** · 5 upvotes > Wasn't Matt preaching to write Product Requirement Documents? **@oaklegsober** · 5 upvotes > I'm tired of these AI Tech bros making every month the last month's "trend" to be considered deprecated **@rahulkumar23** · 0 upvotes > Makes sense! **@jntnlima** · 0 upvotes > This guy is a genius! ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Empirical software prototyping](https://daily.dev/posts/empirical-software-prototyping-0sp0zqrel) · ploeh blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The Prototype Isn't the Product](https://daily.dev/posts/the-prototype-isn-t-the-product-7wurc7xbu) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The AI-Ready Redesign: How Spec-Driven Development Is Changing the Way Teams Build](https://daily.dev/posts/the-ai-ready-redesign-how-spec-driven-development-is-changing-the-way-teams-build-wqgzt63ey) · RUBYLAND · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-coding), [#agile](https://daily.dev/tags/agile), [#vibe-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/vibe-coding) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-waste-time-on-specs-prototype-instead-ib3xrxw5h) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Don't waste time on specs: /prototype instead","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-waste-time-on-specs-prototype-instead-ib3xrxw5h","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-waste-time-on-specs-prototype-instead-ib3xrxw5h"},"datePublished":"2026-07-23T14:16:45.568Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T08:03:44.290Z","description":"Spec-driven development with AI is overrated — prototyping is a faster, higher-fidelity path to good software. 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