​A Hands-On Workshop within Coding Agents: AI Driven Dev Conference

​Overview

​As coding agents become more capable, a fundamental question emerges: do we still need to share actual code, or is a specification and test suite sufficient? This workshop challenges conventional assumptions about software libraries and explores the emerging paradigm of spec-driven development. Using the whenwords open source library as a practical case study, we'll examine how coding agents are reshaping the way we think about library design, distribution, and collaboration—and what this means for your development workflow today.

​Key Topics

• ​The Code vs. Spec Debate: Examining whether traditional code sharing is becoming obsolete in an AI-first world, and what remains essential.

• ​Spec-Driven Development: How to design libraries as specifications paired with comprehensive test suites, letting agents generate the implementation.

• ​The whenwords Case Study: A deep dive into a real open source library built around this philosophy—how it works, what it unlocks, and where it breaks down.

• ​Practical Applications: Identifying use cases in your workflow where spec-driven approaches can increase velocity, reduce maintenance burden, and improve agent reliability.

• ​The Future of Code Distribution: Exploring the trajectory of this paradigm—what's possible today, what's still missing, and how to prepare your team for what's next.

​Expected Outcomes:

​Participants will leave with a clear understanding of spec-driven development and its trade-offs. You'll gain hands-on experience analyzing the whenwords library, learn when and how to apply this approach in your own projects, and walk away with a mental model for evaluating whether your next library should ship as code, spec, or something in between.

​Pre-workshop Requirements:

• ​Hardware: A laptop with internet access and a development environment set up.

• ​Software: Please have an AI coding tool (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, or similar) installed and authenticated. Familiarity with basic CLI workflows is helpful.

• ​Materials: No prior experience with whenwords is required, but come ready to explore how specifications and tests can replace traditional code distribution.

​Workshop Access & Eligibility

​This workshop is exclusively available to attendees of the main event and cannot be registered for separately.

​Workshop access is offered on a first come, first served basis with limited seats available and each workshop has a capped capacity.

​Conducted by: