Prompt file imported from rhixecompany/sandbox (.github/prompts/development/create-technical-spike/create-technical-spike.prompt.md). Fill in {{SpikeTitle}}, {{Category_Technical}}, {{Priority_High}}, {{Timebox_1_week}}, {{Owner}} before use. Copyright stays with the author.

Table of Contents

Goal

Define a time-boxed technical spike with research questions, investigation plan, and deliverables.

Context

Phases

Table of Contents

• Goal

• Prerequisites

• Pitfalls

• Summary

• Research Question(s)

• Investigation Plan

  • Research Tasks
  • Success Criteria

• Technical Context

• Research Findings

  • Investigation Results
  • Prototype/Testing Notes
  • External Resources

• Decision

  • Recommendation
  • Rationale
  • Implementation Notes
  • Follow-up Actions

• Status History

• Categories for Technical Spikes

• File Naming Conventions

• Best Practices for AI Agents

• Research Strategy

  • Phase 1: Information Gathering
  • Phase 2: Validation & Testing
  • Phase 3: Decision & Documentation

• Tools Usage

• Template References

• Personas

• Personality

• Context

• Rules

  • Domain Rules
  • Standing Rules

• Phases

  • Phase 1: Intake
  • Phase 2: Execute
  • Phase 3: Verify
  • Phase 4: Hand Off

• Best Practices

• Verification Checklist

• Dependencies

• Subgoals

• Skills Required

• MCP Servers & Tools

• Tasks

• Hooks

• Scripts

• Related Prompts

• Goal

• Prerequisites

• Pitfalls

• Summary

• Research Question(s)

• Investigation Plan

• Research Tasks

• Success Criteria

• Technical Context

• Research Findings

• Investigation Results

• Prototype/Testing Notes

• External Resources

• Decision

• Recommendation

• Rationale

• Implementation Notes

• Follow-up Actions

• Status History

• Categories for Technical Spikes

• File Naming Conventions

• Best Practices for AI Agents

• Research Strategy

• Phase 1: Information Gathering

• Phase 2: Validation & Testing

• Phase 3: Decision & Documentation

• Tools Usage

• Template References

• Personas

• Personality

• Context

• Rules

• Domain Rules

• Standing Rules

• Phases

• Phase 1: Intake

• Phase 2: Execute

• Phase 3: Verify

• Phase 4: Hand Off

• Best Practices

• Verification Checklist

• Dependencies

• Subgoals

• Skills Required

• MCP Servers & Tools

• Tasks

• Hooks

• Scripts

• Related Prompts

Write time-boxed technical spike documents that research a single design question and produce a recommendation with evidence.

Prerequisites

• A codebase or system context to investigate
• Access to relevant documentation, APIs, and dependencies
• A clear timebox and decision deadline

title: "{{SpikeTitle}}"category: "{{Category_Technical}}"status: "🔴 Not Started"priority: "{{Priority_High}}"timebox: "{{Timebox_1_week}}"created: [YYYY-MM-DD]updated: [YYYY-MM-DD]owner: "{{Owner}}"---

{{SpikeTitle}}

Summary

Spike Objective: [Clear, specific question or decision that needs resolution]Why This Matters: [Impact on development/architecture decisions]Timebox: [How much time allocated to this spike]Decision Deadline: [When this must be resolved to avoid blocking development]

Research Question(s)

Primary Question: [Main technical question that needs answering]Secondary Questions:

• [Related question 1]- [Related question 2]- [Related question 3]

Investigation Plan

Research Tasks

• [Specific research task 1]
• [Specific research task 2]
• [Specific research task 3]
• [Create proof of concept/prototype]
• [Document findings and recommendations]

Success Criteria

This spike is complete when:

• [Specific criteria 1]
• [Specific criteria 2]
• [Clear recommendation documented]
• [Proof of concept completed (if applicable)]

Technical Context

Related Components: [List system components affected by this decision]Dependencies: [What other spikes or decisions depend on resolving this]Constraints: [Known limitations or requirements that affect the solution]

Research Findings

Investigation Results

[Document research findings, test results, and evidence gathered]

Prototype/Testing Notes

[Results from any prototypes, spikes, or technical experiments]

External Resources

• [Link to relevant documentation]
• [Link to API references]
• [Link to community discussions]
• [Link to examples/tutorials]

Decision

Recommendation

[Clear recommendation based on research findings]

Rationale

[Why this approach was chosen over alternatives]

Implementation Notes

[Key considerations for implementation]

Follow-up Actions

• [Action item 1]
• [Action item 2]
• [Update architecture documents]
• [Create implementation tasks]

Status History

| Date | Status | Notes || -----

• | -------------- | ------------------------ || [Date] | 🔴 Not Started | Spike created and scoped || [Date] | 🟡 In Progress | Research commenced || [Date] | 🟢 Complete | [Resolution summary] |---Last updated: [Date] by [Name]```

Categories for Technical Spikes

• Third-party API capabilities and limitations
• Integration patterns and authentication Full content:

File Naming Conventions

Use descriptive, kebab-case names that indicate the category and specific unknown.

Best Practices for AI Agents

1. One Question Per Spike: Each document focuses on a single technical decision or research question

Research Strategy

Phase 1: Information Gathering

1. Search existing documentation using search/fetch tools
2. Analyze codebase for existing patterns and constraints
3. Research external resources (APIs, libraries, examples)

Phase 2: Validation & Testing

1. Create focused prototypes to test specific hypotheses
2. Run targeted experiments to validate assumptions
3. Document test results with supporting evidence

Phase 3: Decision & Documentation

1. Synthesize findings into clear recommendations
2. Document implementation guidance for development team
3. Create follow-up tasks for implementation

Tools Usage

• search/searchResults: Research existing solutions and documentation- fetch/githubRepo: Analyze external APIs, libraries, and examples- codebase: Understand existing system constraints and patterns- runTasks: Execute prototypes and validation tests- editFiles: Update research progress and findings- vscodeAPI: Test VS Code extension capabilities and limitationsFocus on time-boxed research that resolves critical technical decisions and unblocks development progress.

Template References

Detailed templates in templates/:- categories_for_technical_spike.md

Personas

See templates/personas.md for shared persona templates.

Personality

See templates/personality.md for shared personality guidelines.

• Tone: Direct, practical, actionable
• Style: Structured with clear steps and verification
• Avoid: Ambiguity, assumptions, scope creep
• Encourage: Evidence-based decisions, minimal changes

Use when implementing, modifying, or debugging code. Read the codebase first, understand patterns, then apply changes with tests.

Rules

See core rules: templates/rules-core.md

Domain Rules

• Read existing code before writing new code.
• Match project conventions and style.
• Add tests for new functionality.

Standing Rules

1. Map before touch — Understand before making changes.
2. Smallest safe change — Minimal change that achieves the goal.
3. Verify before claim — Test before reporting complete.
4. Report blockers — State when something fails.

Phase 1: Intake

• Read the request and identify scope.
• Locate relevant files, diffs, references.

Phase 2: Execute

• Perform work with smallest safe change set.
• Keep steps explicit and reproducible.

Phase 3: Verify

• Check result against goal, rules, inputs.
• Confirm output is usable and complete.

Phase 4: Hand Off

• Return final artifact or findings .
• Stop once the requested result is delivered.

Best Practices

See templates/best-practices.md for cross-cutting best practices.

1. DRY — Reference shared templates instead of duplicating content.
2. Structured output — Use clear sections with consistent heading levels.
3. Verification gates — Always verify before claiming completion.
4. Minimal changes — Fix root cause, not symptoms.

Verification Checklist

Dependencies

See templates/deps-core.md for shared dependency patterns.

Subgoals

1. Prepare — Understand requirements and prerequisites.
2. Execute — Follow structured workflow with incremental progress.
3. Verify — Confirm output meets requirements and standards.
4. Document — Record results, decisions, and lessons learned.

Skills Required

See templates/skills-table-core.md for shared skills table.

MCP Servers & Tools

The following MCP servers and tools are available for this task. Use them in preference to native equivalents per MCP-first tooling policy.

| ast-grep | AST-based code search and replace | | filesystem | File read/write operations | | sequential-thinking | Structured reasoning for complex problems | | fetch | Web page content extraction | | playwright | Browser automation for interactive pages | | github | GitHub API operations |

Tasks

• Understand requirements and scope
• Plan approach and identify resources
• Execute work incrementally
• Verify against acceptance criteria
• Document results and decisions

Hooks

Shared workspace hooks run around this prompt's execution — see .github/hooks/README.md: session-logger, session-auto-commit, governance-audit, pre-exec-validate.sh, post-exec-state-log.py.

Scripts

Prompt-library tooling (see .enhance/):

• .enhance/analyze_prompts.py — prompt-library analyzer (Phase 5/7 gate)
• .enhance/verify_phase3.py, .enhance/fix_class_e.py, .enhance/fix_frontmatter_plan.py — Class C–E repair/verify tooling
• .github/hooks/* — hook implementations referenced in the Hooks section

Related Prompts

Workflow

Same-family prompts:

• create-agentsmd.prompt.md
• create-architectural-decision-record.prompt.md
• create-github-action-workflow-specification.prompt.md
• create-github-issue-feature-from-specification.prompt.md
• create-github-issues-feature-from-implementation-plan.prompt.md
• create-github-issues-for-unmet-specification-requirements.prompt.md
• create-github-pull-request-from-specification.prompt.md
• create-implementation-plan.prompt.md
• create-llms.prompt.md
• create-oo-component-documentation.prompt.md
• create-readme.prompt.md
• create-specification.prompt.md
• create-spring-boot-java-project.prompt.md
• create-spring-boot-kotlin-project.prompt.md
• create-tldr-page.prompt.md

# Prompt template
Execute the workflow defined in this file.