Specification-first AI development with Ouroboros

Most AI coding tools fail before they write a single line of code. The prompt was vague, and the model quietly filled the gaps with assumptions you never agreed to. You ask for "a task management CLI." The model picks a data model, a priority scheme, a persistence layer — all reasonable, none of them yours. You find out three files in, during review, and you rework it. That's the loop most of us are stuck in: prompt, guess, rework, repeat. Ouroboros is an open-source Agent OS that fixes the input instead of the output. It's a local-first runtime layer that sits in front of Claude Code, Codex CLI, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, Kiro, Hermes, Pi, and Zcode, and replaces ad-hoc prompting with a five-stage, replayable workflow: interview, seed, execute, evaluate, evolve. The real problem is unclear intent Ouroboros' own framing of this is a simple table: Problem What happens Ouroboros fix Vague prompts AI guesses, you rework Socratic interview exposes hidden assumptions No spec Architecture drifts mid-build Immutable seed spec locks intent before code Manual QA "Looks good" isn't verification 3-stage automated evaluation gate The fix targets clarity, not capability. The loop Interview -> Seed -> Execute -> Evaluate ^ | +---- Evolutionary Loop ----+ Interview : Socratic questioning surfaces the assumptions you didn't know you were making. Seed : your answers crystallize into an immutable specification: acceptance criteria, ontology, constraints. Execute : the seed runs through a Double Diamond decomposition (Discover → Define → Design → Deliver). Evaluate : a 3-stage gate: Mechanical (free, deterministic checks) → Semantic → Multi-Model Consensus. Evolve : the evaluation output feeds back into the next generation's seed, and the cycle repeats until the system stops learning anything new. Each cycle is meant to converge, not just repeat. The stopping condition isn't a timer or a step count. It's math. The interview ends when the math says so This is the part I