DEV Community

Cover image for AI Turned My 5-Line Memo into Specs and Software in 45 Minutes
GoodRelax
GoodRelax

Posted on

AI Turned My 5-Line Memo into Specs and Software in 45 Minutes

#programming #showdev #ai #opensource

First, take a look at this.
👉 Earthquake Map

Built from a 5-line memo in 45 minutes. With a spec and tests.
And my actual hands-on time was under 10 minutes. Spent the rest drinking beer.
This is SDD meets Agentic SDLC.
According to PwC's 2026 report, by 2027 more than half of all teams will develop this way.

Terminology
  • Agentic SDLC = A development style where AI agents autonomously execute the entire SDLC. Proposed by PwC, Microsoft, and others.
  • Agentic = Given a goal, the AI keeps acting autonomously to achieve it.
  • SDLC = Software Development Life Cycle (requirements → design → implementation → testing → operations).
  • SDD = Spec-Driven Development. Covers only the design → implementation portion. Narrower scope than SDLC.
  • PwC = PricewaterhouseCoopers (Big Four consultancy).

Why?

I wanted to test a simple question: can AI go from a vague idea to a production-quality app — with specs and tests — in under an hour?

So I built an open-source framework called gr-sw-maker and put it to the test.

What?

A single .html file app that reads open data (USGS Earthquake API) and draws a world earthquake map.

  • Zoomable world map
  • Time range selection (1 hour to 30 days, plus custom)
  • Minimum magnitude filter
  • No server — runs entirely in the browser

How?

1. Install gr-sw-maker via npm

Details → README

> npm init gr-sw-maker earthquake-map
> cd earthquake-map
> node setup.js
> 1 : # Develop in English using Claude Code
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

2. Write a 5-line memo (requirements doc) for gr-sw-maker 

Earthquake Map
I want to see where and when earthquakes happened in the world.
Runs in the browser only. No server.
I want to zoom into any area.
I want to specify a time span.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

3. Answer the AI's interview questions and say "Do as you recommended!"

4. After that, I requested two spec changes (added an Update button, enabled file:// direct opening)

5. Also had it write a process improvement report

Time breakdown

Phase Time
Install gr-sw-maker & write requirements memo ~5 min
Interview → software delivery 20 min 10 sec
Acceptance testing & 2 revisions → done 20 min 15 sec ← 45 min total
Retrospective & improvement proposal report 16 min 54 sec

Deliverables

Item Count
Functional requirements 20
Gherkin scenarios 21
Unit tests 32 (100% pass)
Code coverage 98.93%
Vulnerabilities 0

Evidence

So... is it any good?

Honestly... It's a common enough app — but that's the point. It was built from a 5-line memo in 45 minutes.

And it comes with a proper spec, test results, and even a process improvement report.

Naturally, I didn't write or even look at a single line of code.

"But is it just a toy?"

Fair question. Speed means nothing if the output is garbage. Here's what's actually going on under the hood:

21 AI agents working as a team — not a single model chatting with you. There's an architect, a security reviewer, a test engineer, a risk manager, and more. Each owns a specific responsibility, just like a real dev team.

6 quality gates (R1–R6) block phase transitions. Critical or High findings = 0, or the project doesn't move forward. No shortcuts.

8-phase workflow covering the full SDLC — from requirements interview through design, implementation, testing, delivery, and even post-delivery retrospectives.

Process rules

AI-native spec format (ANMS) — not a dumbed-down template. It uses EARS for requirements, Mermaid for architecture diagrams, and Gherkin for acceptance criteria. Purpose-built for LLMs to both write and consume.

ANMS format

Portable — built for Claude Code, but roughly 70% of the framework runs as-is on Gemini CLI, Cursor, Windsurf, and others.

Porting guide included.

That's how a 5-line memo produced 98.93% coverage and 0 vulnerabilities.

It's not magic — it's process.

A set of rules

Thoughts

I know what some of you are thinking: "Great, another tool that's going to replace me."

But let's be real — someone somewhere has already built something like this earthquake map. Are you really excited to reinvent that wheel for the hundredth time? I'm not.

What excites me is: what do you do with the time you get back?

There's the microplastic crisis, fusion power instead of fossil fuels — we've got real problems worth solving. The boring plumbing shouldn't be what eats your week.

This was a simple demo. Next, I'm going to throw something harder at it — multi-service architecture, real-time data pipelines — and see where it breaks. That's where things get interesting.

The world's going to shift a lot in the next few years. If gr-sw-maker helps even one person skip the boring parts, that's a win.

Try it yourself

You need Node.js and Claude Code. That's it.

npm init gr-sw-maker my-app
cd my-app
node setup.js
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Write your own 5-line memo, answer the interview, and see what comes out. If you build something cool, open a PR to gr-sw-maker-examples — I'd love to see it.

Links

Top comments (0)