Spec statuses
Every spec has a status: Backlog, Active, Review, or Done. The status
says whether the behavior the spec describes exists yet. Tiden reads it in two
places: the Quality Gate, and the agent sessions that run through the CLI.
What each status means
| Status | Meaning | Kind of work |
|---|---|---|
| Backlog | Planned. The behavior is not built yet. | Planned |
| Active | Built. The product does this today. | Built |
| Review | Your team's review step. Tiden treats the spec as not built yet. | Planned |
| Done | Delivered. | Built |
You can set any status on any spec, in the web UI, the CLI, or the API. Tiden changes a status in one direction only: from Backlog to Active, when it sees the behavior was built. It never sets Review or Done, and it never moves a spec out of them.
Spec history records every status change and who made it.
When Tiden marks a spec Active
Tiden moves a spec from Backlog to Active in three cases:
- A session records what it built. At the end of a session, the coding agent records the work it did. Each Backlog spec that work built becomes Active.
- A merged pull request is reconciled with your specs. When a pull request lands in a repository connected to Tiden and Tiden matches it to a Backlog spec, that spec becomes Active.
- Specs generated from your code start Active. The code already does what they describe.
A spec you write by hand, or push as a draft with tiden spec push, starts in
Backlog. Moving it on is your decision, and so are Review and Done.
How the Quality Gate uses status
The Quality Gate asks one question about each spec: should a test exist for it by now? Active and Done specs are built, so they need tests. Backlog and Review specs are planned work, so a missing test on them is not a coverage gap.
The gate shows how many planned specs it left out, next to the verdict, so the left-out specs stay visible. The traceability matrix marks them as planned. The same rule applies on main, on a branch, and for a release. A planned child spec with no test does not count against its parent either. See Parent specs.
Status changes only the coverage check. Tests linked to a planned spec still count. If one of them fails, the failure counts toward the gate like any other failing test, and the gate blocks.
Coding agents and sessions
When an agent starts a session, Tiden shows it the specs near the change, including planned ones. Planned specs inform the agent and never block the session.
If the agent builds one of those planned specs, it records the spec at the end of the session. The spec becomes Active, and the session check then expects tests for it, the same as for any other spec the agent built. See Plan work as specs for the full workflow.
The session check grades the built specs the change touches, including every spec the agent recorded. Planned specs the agent did not build stay out of the way.
Plan future work
Keep future work in Backlog. A Backlog spec records the plan, gives agents context, and leaves the Quality Gate alone until the behavior exists. When your team starts the work, move the spec on. When the work lands, Tiden moves it to Active, or you do.
Use Review for the step where your team checks built work, and Done when you accept it. Tiden treats Review as planned, so a spec in Review is not a coverage gap. If you want the gate to expect tests for a spec, move it to Active or Done.
FAQ
Why did my spec become Active? A session recorded that it built the spec, a merged pull request matched it, or Tiden generated the spec from your code. The spec history shows who changed the status. If it is wrong, set it back to Backlog.
The gate passed, but a spec has no tests. Why? The spec is probably in Backlog or Review. The gate counts planned specs separately and shows how many it left out. Open the traceability matrix to see which ones carry the planned tag.
Can a planned spec still fail the gate? Yes, through a failing test. A test linked to a Backlog or Review spec still counts in the gate's pass rate, so a failing one blocks the gate.
Does Tiden ever set Review or Done? No. Those two statuses belong to your team. Tiden only moves Backlog to Active.
Does an agent need to do anything for planned specs? No. It sees them, and nothing blocks it. It records a planned spec only when it built that spec.
For how verdicts are computed, see Quality gates and traceability. To make gate results useful for your product, see Configure quality gates.