Configuration

Tip
spec init writes a starter spec.toml. spec explain config prints this list from the CLI itself.

Layout and owners

table	controls
`[spec]`	format version and the document directory name (`.spec`)
`[owners]`	the root owner, owner patterns, manifests and retired directories
`[public]`	published paths that hold no documents, and where their documents go
`[local]`	the git-ignored directory for drafts and private notes
`[external.<name>]`	directories outside the repository whose citations are checked
`[remotes.<name>]`	other repositories on disk whose documents are named `<name>:<id>`, read-only

Documents

table	controls
`[types.<name>]`	override, disable or add a type: key, statuses, fields, transitions, required sections
`[forbid]`	retired layouts and identifiers (rule Z1)
`[aliases]`	the frozen alias table written by `spec import`
`[files]`	the attachment size limit and the store for larger files
`[[assets]]`	agent skills, rules, subagents and instruction files

Checks

table	controls
`[check]`	baseline, strict paths, rule severity, `extra_keys`, `count_paths`
`[[guards]]`	named checks over files and commit messages (rule U1)
`[[plugins]]`	external programs speaking `specfold.plugin.v1`
`[translations]`	translations paired by place: `layout`, `languages`, `source_lang`, `strict` (rule R2)
`[audit]`	thresholds for stale, stalled and draft documents
`[verify]`	deadline, parallel jobs and shell for `spec verify`
`[cites]`	files outside documents whose citations rule L6 checks

Example

[owners]
root = "root"

[[owners.kinds]]
pattern = "services/*"
id = "{1}"
manifest = false

[check]
extra_keys = ["team", "review_*"]
count_paths = ["README.md", "docs/**/*.md"]

[translations]
layout = "suffix"   # guide:shop/setup-ko translates guide:shop/setup
languages = ["ko", "ja"]

[remotes.org]
path = "../shared-decisions"   # [[org:adr:root/20261030000000]] names a document there