linespec

LineSpec v3.28.1

Provenance Records - Structured YAML artifacts for documenting architectural decisions
LineSpec Testing - DSL-based integration testing for containerized services

Overview

LineSpec is a tool for managing Provenance Records - structured decision documents that capture the intent, constraints, and reasoning behind architectural changes - and for LineSpec Testing. Provenance Records are managed by the standalone provenance CLI; linespec provenance <command> forwards to it and is deprecated.

As of v3.28.1, LineSpec Testing is stable and included in the default installation alongside Provenance Records.

Installation

Homebrew (Recommended)

brew tap livecodelife/linespec
brew install linespec

No extra step is needed for LineSpec Testing. Protocol proxy sidecars run ghcr.io/livecodelife/linespec, pinned to your binary's version and pulled automatically the first time you run linespec test.

Go Install

go install github.com/livecodelife/linespec/v3/cmd/linespec@v3.28.1

GitHub Releases

Download pre-built binaries from the releases page.

• linespec_3.28.1_* - Full release (Provenance Records + LineSpec Testing)

Quick Start - Provenance Records (Stable)

# 1. Install the provenance CLI (pin to a full commit SHA; there is no release tag yet)
go install github.com/livecodelife/provenance/cmd/provenance@<commit-sha>

# 2. Set up your repo: config, records directory, git hooks
provenance init
provenance hooks install

# 3. Ask what to do next, then create your first provenance record
provenance next
provenance create --title "Add user authentication" --type blueprint --no-edit

# 4. View the record graph
provenance graph

# 5. Validate all records
provenance lint

Upgrading a repo that has v1 records (.linespec.yml with a provenance: block)? Run provenance migrate --plan, then provenance migrate; see Migrating from linespec provenance.

Example Provenance Record

id: prov-2026-1a2b3c4d
title: "Use PostgreSQL for primary data store"
status: open
version: 1
created_at: "2026-03-15"
author: "dev@example.com"

intent: >
  After evaluating options, we choose PostgreSQL for our primary
  data store due to better JSON support and concurrent write handling.

constraints:
  - All new tables must use PostgreSQL
  - Use connection pooling (min 10, max 100)

affected_scope:
  - pkg/db/**
  - migrations/**

associated_specs:
  - path: tests/db/postgres_integration_spec.rb
    type: rspec

tags:
  - architecture
  - database

Complete Provenance Records Reference →

Feature Overview

Provenance Records - Full Feature Set

CLI Commands

# Record management
provenance create            # Create new record (always pass --no-edit in scripts)
provenance open              # draft -> open: start enforcement
provenance edit / revise     # Change a record: a new version with a reason
provenance lint              # Validate records
provenance status            # View status
provenance graph             # Render the record graph
provenance history / diff    # Read a record's versions

# Agent guidance
provenance next              # Compute the correct next provenance action
provenance govern            # List the active records governing given files
provenance context           # Show which records govern given files
provenance search            # Offline lexical search over records

# Git integration
provenance check             # Check commits for violations
provenance hooks install     # Install git hooks
provenance install-skills    # Install the Claude Code provenance skill
provenance install-plugin    # Install the Claude Code provenance plugin (hooks + slash command)

# Lifecycle management
provenance complete          # Mark as implemented (runs specs, records evidence)
provenance stale / repin     # Find and confirm records behind their parent
provenance deprecate         # Mark as deprecated

# Shared repos and upkeep
provenance sync              # Fetch records of shared repos
provenance migrate           # Convert v1 records to v2

# Output formats
provenance lint --format json     # JSON output for CI
provenance lint --format sarif    # SARIF output for GitHub Code Scanning

linespec provenance <command> still works for each command above: it forwards to the provenance binary with a deprecation notice. audit, discover, generate, index, lock-layer, lock-scope, publish and install-hooks have no v2 counterpart yet; they stay in linespec and do not work on a migrated repository. linespec clone and linespec import are unchanged.

Key Features

• Structured YAML format - Clear, version-controlled decision records
• Versioned records - a change is a new version with a reason; imprints pin the parent version they implement, and provenance stale flags the ones that fell behind (details)
• Path exemptions - exclude_paths exempts generated/vendored files from governance (details)
• Scope enforcement - Automatic validation of what files can be modified
• Git integration - Pre-commit hooks and commit message validation
• Graph visualization - Query and visualize decision relationships
• Monorepo support - Service-specific records with ID suffixes
• CI/CD ready - JSON output and strict enforcement modes
• SARIF output - GitHub Code Scanning integration

SARIF Output for GitHub Code Scanning

provenance can emit lint results in SARIF (Static Analysis Results Interchange Format) 2.1.0 format for integration with GitHub Code Scanning:

# Generate SARIF output
provenance lint --format sarif > provenance-results.sarif

# Upload to GitHub Code Scanning (in your CI workflow)
- name: Lint provenance records
  run: provenance lint --format sarif > provenance-results.sarif
  continue-on-error: true

- name: Upload to Code Scanning
  uses: github/codeql-action/upload-sarif@v3
  with:
    sarif_file: provenance-results.sarif
    category: linespec-provenance

The SARIF output includes:

• Stable rule IDs (PROV001 onward) for consistent alerting
• File hashes for GitHub's deduplication
• %SRCROOT% base for proper path resolution
• Severity mapping (error→error, warning→warning, hint→note)

Documentation

• PROVENANCE_RECORDS.md - Complete reference guide
• CLAUDE.md - Guidelines for AI agents using LineSpec
• github.com/livecodelife/provenance - The provenance CLI

LineSpec Testing

LineSpec Testing is a DSL-based integration testing framework for containerized services. It intercepts database and HTTP traffic at the protocol level, making tests language-agnostic and framework-independent.

Commands

# Run integration tests (the proxy image is pulled automatically on first use)
linespec test <path-to-linespec-files>

# Start protocol proxies
linespec proxy mysql <listen> <upstream>
linespec proxy postgresql <listen> <upstream>
linespec proxy http <listen> <upstream>
linespec proxy kafka <listen> <upstream>
linespec proxy grpc <listen> <upstream>

Example LineSpec Test

TEST create-user
RECEIVE HTTP:POST http://localhost:3000/users
WITH {{payloads/user_create_req.yaml}}

EXPECT WRITE:MYSQL users
WITH {{payloads/user_db_write_record.yaml}}
VERIFY query MATCHES /\bpassword_digest\b/
VERIFY query NOT_CONTAINS '`password`'

RESPOND HTTP:201
WITH {{payloads/user_create_resp.yaml}}
NOISE
  body.id
  body.created_at

Documentation

• LINESPEC.md - DSL syntax reference
• CLAUDE.md - Contributor & AI-agent guidelines

Configuration

Create a .linespec.yml in your repository root for LineSpec Testing. Provenance Records are configured separately, in .provenance.yml (see Configuration):

# LineSpec Testing configuration
service:
  name: my-service
  type: web
  port: 3000
  framework: rails                    # rails, fastapi, django, express, chi, or custom
  start_command: bundle exec rails server  # Optional: override framework default
  migration_command: bundle exec rake db:migrate  # Optional: custom migration command
  warmup_endpoint: /health            # Optional: custom warmup endpoint
  warmup_delay_ms: 100                # Optional: warmup delay in milliseconds
  
database:
  type: mysql
  port: 3306
  database: my-service_development    # Database name (default: {service}_development)
  username: my-service_user           # Username (default: {service}_user)
  password: my-service_password       # Password (default: {service}_password)
  host: db                            # Host for external DBs

infrastructure:
  database: true
  kafka: false
  grpc: false # Start a gRPC proxy sidecar
  redis: false # Start a Redis proxy sidecar
  proxy_image: "ghcr.io/livecodelife/linespec:3.28.1" # Override the proxy image (default: local linespec:latest if present, else the published image pinned to your version)

# Protobuf descriptor set for gRPC binary protobuf mocks (optional)
grpc_descriptor_set: proto/workflow.pb

# Container naming configuration (optional)
# Defaults are isolated per run (see below). The values here are explicit
# overrides, used verbatim; only set the roles you need.
container_naming:
  database_container: linespec-shared-db
  network_name: linespec-shared-net
  network_alias: real-db
  migrate_container: linespec-migrate-

Default container and network names are isolated per run. Each default carries a suffix of 6 hex characters of the sha256 of the project root plus a 6 hex per-process token, so concurrent runs on one Docker host are isolated and never share names. Any container_naming value you set is an explicit override and is used verbatim for that role; roles you leave unset still get the isolated default. Cleanup removes only what the run created, so a crashed run's orphaned containers and network are not swept and must be removed by hand with docker rm -f <name> and docker network rm <name>.

Framework Support:

The Needs Warmup column shows the framework default for needs_warmup (and the default warmup_delay_ms where applicable); override any value per-service under service:.

Development

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/livecodelife/linespec.git
cd linespec

# Build (Provenance Records + LineSpec Testing — both included by default)
go build -o linespec ./cmd/linespec

# `make build-beta` / `-tags beta` remain only as backward-compatible aliases;
# they produce the same binary as the default build (identical since v2.0.0).

# Run unit tests
go test ./...

# Run integration tests (requires Docker)
make test-integration

# Run the example test suites
./linespec test ./examples/

Updating the Docs Site

The site at linespec.dev is built from source on every push to main (scripts/build-docs.sh + .github/workflows/pages.yml). Markdown is the single source of truth; the rendered docs/*.html and docs/llms*.txt are gitignored build artifacts — don't edit them by hand, they're regenerated on every push.

Preview locally before pushing — the output is identical to CI:

brew install pandoc        # one-time; CI installs it via apt
./scripts/build-docs.sh    # renders docs/*.html and docs/llms*.txt
open docs/index.html

Documentation Index

Reading Order

1. Start here (README.md) - Installation and overview
2. PROVENANCE_RECORDS.md - Complete reference for Provenance Records
3. LINESPEC.md - If using LineSpec Testing
4. CLAUDE.md - If contributing or using AI agents with LineSpec

FAQ

How do I migrate from the old repository?

The module path changed from github.com/calebcowen/linespec to github.com/livecodelife/linespec. Update your imports and use the new installation path.

Where are my compiled YAML files?

LineSpec doesn't generate YAML files. Provenance Records are the authoritative source and are executed directly.

Contributing

1. Check for an existing provenance record covering your work
2. If none exists, create a new record describing your decision
3. Make your changes
4. Run the linter: make lint (provenance lint)
5. Submit a pull request

See CLAUDE.md for detailed guidelines.

License

MIT License - See LICENSE for details.

Support

• Issues: https://github.com/livecodelife/linespec/issues
• Discussions: https://github.com/livecodelife/linespec/discussions
• Releases: https://github.com/livecodelife/linespec/releases

LineSpec v3.28.1 - Built with Provenance Records