Software is becoming something you specify, not something you write. The code is still produced — but by agents, tools, and teams working from structured descriptions of what the system must be.
A spec is a structured description of a system — written for an agent. It is not instructions. It is not a prompt. It tells an agent enough about what the system is so that the agent can determine what to do next itself.
Catenator is the open standard for writing one.
A Catenator spec is what you give an agent instead of instructions.
What Catenator is
The code is still produced — but who produces it is changing. Agents, tools, and teams now build from structured descriptions. The spec is the primary artifact. The build is the consequence.
A Catenator spec is a structured description of a system. It describes what the system consists of, what it requires, and how its parts relate — in a format that any agent, tool, or team can read and build from.
The spec precedes the system. Given the same spec, the same system can be produced again. From any valid spec, build instructions can be generated. Every part of the system produced is traceable back to the spec decision that required it.
Specs compose. Any spec can connect with any other. Any vocabulary term can be referenced across domains. Systems can be assembled from existing parts without reinventing what already exists.
The coordinate model
A Catenator spec is a coordinate space. Every entry is a coordinate — a located description of one aspect of the system, examined through one lens, at one quality level. The coordinate space has three axes: descriptors, views, and -ilities.
Descriptors
Catenator defines thirteen descriptors — structured lenses for examining a system. No descriptor is mandatory. Use what the system requires. The descriptors are not a checklist. They are a vocabulary.