SPARC Quality Gates and AI Infused Web App development

I use claude CLI to write my web application on the side that I love. It's a NextJS app with supabase. After creating my own system of writing features with .md docs I needed a better and more reliable system.

I started with a TDD approach being an old-school developer and I'll tell you why. TDD forced me to think about now only how the code SHOULD work but edge cases I would not normally consider when diving straight into code.

Using a pure TDD system helped, it WAS a progression from the .md document system BUT it didn't fill all my needs. That's when I started copying other people. That is I used claude to research what teams at Anthropic were doing. Turns out some of the teams were using SPARC. So what the heck is SPARC!?!

SPARC is a five-phase methodology that stands for:

• Specification
• Pseudocode
• Architecture
• Refinement
• Completion

But here's the thing - it's not just another rigid framework. SPARC scales based on what you're actually doing.

That's what hooked me.

See, TDD told me to write tests first. Great. But it didn't tell me HOW MUCH planning a bug fix needs versus building an entire feature. It didn't give me a framework for "okay, this is a 10-minute task" versus "okay, this is a 3-hour task."

SPARC does.

The Three Scales That Changed Everything

SPARC comes in three flavors, and this is where it clicked for me:

🔬 SPARC-MICRO (5-15 minutes)

Use this for: Bug fixes, typos, quick config changes

When a user reports "the recovery score shows NaN," I don't need 2 hours of planning. I need:

1. Specification: What's actually broken? (Check the browser console, reproduce it)
2. Pseudocode: Write a test that proves it's broken
3. Architecture: Fix it with the smallest possible change
4. Refinement: Clean up the file while I'm there (more on this later)
5. Completion: Make sure all tests pass

That's it. 12 minutes start to finish. But I still hit all five phases.

⚡ SPARC-STANDARD (30-60 minutes)

Use this for: New features, API endpoints, UI components

This is where SPARC really shines. When I'm adding a feature like "hide completed habits from the home page," I need MORE rigor than SPARC-MICRO, but not the full SYSTEM treatment.

Same five phases, just deeper:

1. Specification: Write user story + acceptance criteria
2. Pseudocode: Write comprehensive tests (this is where TDD lives!)
3. Architecture: Build the feature to pass those tests
4. Refinement: Refactor, extract shared logic, clean up
5. Completion: All tests pass, TypeScript happy, linter happy

This took me 47 minutes last week. Shipped a Premium feature, fully tested, zero tech debt.

🏗️ SPARC-SYSTEM (2-4 hours)

Use this for: Major features, new subsystems, complex integrations

This is the big leagues. When I built my wearable device integration system (think Fitbit, WHOOP, Oura), I needed:

1. Specification: Architecture planning, component breakdown, dependency mapping
2. Pseudocode: Parallel test writing for MULTIPLE components
3. Architecture: Multi-file implementation with shared patterns
4. Refinement: Cross-file refactoring, extract factories, create reusable types
5. Completion: Integration tests + documentation (critical for future me!)

3.5 hours. But when I was done? 44 tests passing, zero security issues, and a reusable architecture I used for 4 more providers.

The Secret Weapon: Automated Quality Gates

Here's where I went a bit crazy (in a good way).

I set up a pre-commit hook that runs AUTOMATICALLY every time I try to commit:

npm test # All tests must pass
npm run type-check # TypeScript must be happy

npm run lint # ESLint must be happy

If ANY of these fail, the commit is blocked.

No --no-verify escape hatch. No "I'll fix it later." No shortcuts.

Sounds harsh, right? But here's the thing:

Quality gates take 40 seconds. Debugging production bugs takes 2-8 hours.

The ROI is 100x. I'm not exaggerating.

Plus, I added AI-powered checks that run in parallel:

• Static analysis (TypeScript + ESLint)
• Security audit (SQL injection, XSS, auth issues)
• Architecture review (catches React anti-patterns)
• The test suite

40 seconds total. Every commit. Zero compromises.

The Boy Scout Rule (Automated Enforcement)

Part of SPARC's "Refinement" phase is cleaning up. I follow the Boy Scout Rule:

"Leave code cleaner than you found it"

What I Learned After 4 Months

I've been using SPARC for about 4 months now. Here's what changed:

Before SPARC:

• "Good enough" mentality
• Tests were optional
• Bugs shipped to production weekly
• Tech debt piling up
• Fear of touching old code

After SPARC:

• Test coverage: 80%+ (was 40%)
• Production bugs: 87% reduction
• TypeScript errors: 0 (was 200+)
• Time debugging: 71% reduction
• Confidence deploying: 10/10 (was 6/10)