Comparison
Bystep vs Spec Kit
GitHub’s free, open-source spec-driven development toolkit — CLI templates and slash commands that make your own coding agent write spec.md → plan.md → tasks.md.
What Spec Kit is
GitHub’s free, open-source spec-driven development toolkit — CLI templates and slash commands that make your own coding agent write spec.md → plan.md → tasks.md.
- Pricing
- Free, MIT license. No hosted service — it runs entirely inside your own repo and agent.
Feature matrix
Where the two actually differ
Every Bystep item here is live in the product today — not a roadmap promise. Competitor claims we couldn't verify first-hand are marked “as far as we know.”
| Bystep | Spec Kit | |
|---|---|---|
| PRD generation | Yes | PartialTemplates, not a wizard: spec.md is written by whichever agent you run the slash command in |
| Acceptance criteria per task | Yesids like AC-checkout-1, derived from the PRD, editable by hand | Partialspec.md has a Given-When-Then acceptance scenarios section, but nothing checks it automatically |
| Verification gate | Yes`task complete` returns 409 without passing evidence or a recorded override | NoNothing blocks a task from being marked done |
| Evidence panel | Yestest output, diff stat, files touched, optional screenshot — stored, not just claimed | No |
| Works with any coding agent | YesClaude Code, Cursor, Codex, Copilot, OpenCode, Gemini CLI via CLI + MCP | YesThis is Spec Kit’s defining trait: same templates across Copilot, Claude, Gemini, Cursor and more |
| Import / export formats | YesSpec Kit, OpenSpec, Backlog.md, Task Master, Kiro, Claude Code Tasks, GitHub Issues, Linear | PartialIt is one of the formats Bystep imports/exports — as far as we know Spec Kit itself does not read other tools’ formats |
| Client mode / proposal | Yesclient-viewer share page + proposal for the Studio tier | No |
| Cost per feature | Yesper feature, not just per session | No |
| Indonesian language & payments | Yesen/id UI, IDR pricing, QRIS/VA | NoEnglish-only docs, no payments (it’s free) |
| Open-source CLI | Yes`@bystep/cli` + `@bystep/mcp`, MIT | YesThe entire tool is open source, not just a thin CLI |
Honest answer
When to choose Spec Kit instead
- You live entirely inside one coding agent already and don’t want another account or hosted service — Spec Kit is just files in your repo.
- Your team is happy maintaining spec.md/plan.md/tasks.md by hand in git, with no kanban, no client page, no gate.
- You want a fully open-source format with no company behind it holding your data — Bystep exports to this exact format if you change your mind later (`/integrations`).
Bring what you've got, add the gate
Import your existing spec or backlog, let Bystep add acceptance criteria and a verification gate, and keep working with the agent you already use.