[Extension]: Add ado #5311

Extension ID

ado

Extension Name

Spec Kit for Azure DevOps — human-gated lifecycle

Version

0.3.0

Description

Azure DevOps story to Done through Spec Kit, with a human sign-off before every board change.

Author

praveenlavu

Repository URL

https://github.com/praveenlavu/spec-kit-ado

Download URL

https://github.com/praveenlavu/spec-kit-ado/archive/refs/tags/v0.3.0.zip

License

MIT

Homepage (optional)

https://github.com/praveenlavu/spec-kit-ado

Documentation URL (optional)

https://github.com/praveenlavu/spec-kit-ado/blob/v0.3.0/README.md

Changelog URL (optional)

https://github.com/praveenlavu/spec-kit-ado/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md

Required Spec Kit Version

=1.2.1

Required Tools (optional)

- ado (>=0.3.0) - required; the CLI from the same repository and tag: pipx install git+https://github.com/praveenlavu/spec-kit-ado@v0.3.0
- git - required
- gh - optional; only to open PRs on GitHub

Number of Commands

13

Number of Hooks (optional)

2

Tags

azure-devops, issue-tracking, hitl, workflow, governance

Key Features

• Pulls an Azure DevOps story into a per-story Definition-of-Done ledger with the acceptance criteria copied verbatim, then hands specify, plan, tasks and implement to the installed stack kit or core Spec Kit
• Mirrors tasks.md into child Tasks on the story; a dry run by default, applied only after an explicit yes
• DoD gate: acceptance criterion to named-test traceability, assertion-free tests, AC drift, missing evidence, business-rule coverage; advisory unless a check is opted in to blocking
• Optional strict mode for teams that want hard stops: red/green commit evidence re-run in CI, approved test command, stack profiles and kit pinning
• Eight-plane review of the branch diff with a verification pass, logged in the ledger
• Opens the PR with AB# (GitHub or Azure Repos) and closes the story with the ledger attached, each after an explicit yes
• ado doctor explains what is wrong with a setup; CI templates for GitHub Actions and Azure Pipelines

Testing Checklist

• Extension installs successfully via download URL
• All commands execute without errors
• Documentation is complete and accurate
• No security vulnerabilities identified
• Tested on at least one real project

Submission Requirements

• Valid extension.yml manifest included
• README.md with installation and usage instructions
• LICENSE file included
• GitHub release created with version tag
• All command files exist and are properly formatted
• Extension ID follows naming conventions (lowercase-with-hyphens)

Testing Details

Environment: macOS (Apple silicon), Python 3.9 and 3.12, Spec Kit 1.2.4.dev0 (specify); GitHub-hosted Ubuntu CI on Python 3.9 and 3.13; a weekly contract job against Spec Kit 1.2.1 (the minimum) and the latest release.

At the tagged commit (v0.3.0, fcc41df): 5515 tests passed, 15 skipped; hosted CI green; contract job green on both Spec Kit versions. A static security scan (bandit) over about 11,000 lines found no medium or high issue except one raw bidirectional character inside a regex (hygiene, no behaviour effect, fix queued) and two false positives; the project has no runtime dependencies. This is not an independent audit.

Clean-project install from the download URL: specify extension add ado --from https://github.com/praveenlavu/spec-kit-ado/archive/refs/tags/v0.3.0.zip gives v0.3.0 with 13 commands, 2 hooks and 13 skills. All 187 ado command-line invocations in the 13 command files were checked against the real CLI (verbs and flags).

Live end-to-end run on 2026-11-08 using only the published v0.3.0 artifacts (CLI from the tag, this extension zip, the ado-lifecycle workflow), against a real Azure DevOps organization and Azure Repos repository created for testing (not a customer project), advisory mode:

• All 13 commands ran with exit 0 and no error text: pull, plan, tasks, implement, gate, review and pr inside the workflow run (plus its ado push steps); push (preview), done (3 turns), constitution and status headless; setup stopped as designed and asked the human to run ado setup in their own terminal (it reads no token); stack stopped because a profile was already approved and approved or installed nothing.
• Story A: the workflow paused at 12 gates with no TTY, each was answered with specify workflow resume <run> --input verdict_<gate>=approve, the run completed, 8 Tasks were created and synced, a pull request was opened and linked to the story; after the PR was merged, done attached the ledger and closed the story.
• Story B: a rejected gate aborted the run; the work item was unchanged (revision 1, no relations, no comments) and resume refused the aborted run.

Not covered by this run: strict mode and comment-approval mode (strict mode was exercised in earlier live runs on 0.3 development builds; comment approvals with a second human identity were never run live), the Azure Pipelines templates on a hosted agent, and Windows (the test suite and strict mode are POSIX-only; use WSL). The product owner's answers were simulated with comments, and the pull request was completed through the REST API. Known open issue: a decision cannot be superseded before it has been posted.

Example Usage

pipx install git+https://github.com/praveenlavu/spec-kit-ado@v0.3.0
specify extension add ado --from https://github.com/praveenlavu/spec-kit-ado/archive/refs/tags/v0.3.0.zip
ado setup --profile starter      # in your own terminal: it asks for the PAT
/speckit.ado.pull 1001

Proposed Catalog Entry

{
  "ado": {
    "name": "Spec Kit for Azure DevOps — human-gated lifecycle",
    "id": "ado",
    "description": "Azure DevOps story to Done through Spec Kit, with a human sign-off before every board change.",
    "author": "praveenlavu",
    "version": "0.3.0",
    "download_url": "https://github.com/praveenlavu/spec-kit-ado/archive/refs/tags/v0.3.0.zip",
    "sha256": "8506838e8b2c38ec73239276b30c996170d4182e618dc15811e23e09e86db54a",
    "repository": "https://github.com/praveenlavu/spec-kit-ado",
    "homepage": "https://github.com/praveenlavu/spec-kit-ado",
    "documentation": "https://github.com/praveenlavu/spec-kit-ado/blob/v0.3.0/README.md",
    "changelog": "https://github.com/praveenlavu/spec-kit-ado/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md",
    "license": "MIT",
    "requires": {
      "speckit_version": ">=1.2.1",
      "tools": [
        {
          "name": "ado",
          "version": ">=0.3.0",
          "required": true
        },
        {
          "name": "git",
          "required": true
        },
        {
          "name": "gh",
          "required": false
        }
      ]
    },
    "provides": {
      "commands": 13,
      "hooks": 2
    },
    "tags": [
      "azure-devops",
      "issue-tracking",
      "hitl",
      "workflow",
      "governance"
    ],
    "verified": false,
    "downloads": 0,
    "stars": 0,
    "created_at": "2026-11-08T00:00:00Z",
    "updated_at": "2026-11-08T00:00:00Z"
  }
}

Additional Context

The ado command-line program (Python standard library only) ships in the same repository at the same version. The ado-lifecycle workflow is submitted to the workflow catalog by pull request, and an "ado" bundle that installs both is submitted separately. Two other Azure DevOps extensions are listed (azure-devops, maqa-azure-devops) and focus on syncing work items; this one covers the story-to-Done lifecycle with a person approving every board or PR change. This is a community project, not affiliated with or endorsed by GitHub or Microsoft. I would be glad to learn whether a verified-flag process exists and what it asks for.