---
phase: requirements
title: Requirements & Problem Understanding
description: Clarify the problem space, gather requirements, and define success criteria
---

# Requirements & Problem Understanding

## Problem Statement
**What problem are we solving?**

- The CLI currently uses inconsistent `console.log` and `console.error` calls scattered across different commands (init, setup, skill, etc.)
- There is no standardized way to display different types of messages (info, success, warning, error)
- Progress indicators for long-running operations are implemented inconsistently or not at all
- The user experience feels fragmented and unprofessional due to varying message formats
- Developers have no clear guidance on how to display terminal output, leading to continued inconsistency

**Who is affected by this problem?**
- End users of the ai-devkit CLI who experience inconsistent messaging
- Developers contributing to the CLI who lack a standard UI utility

**What is the current situation/workaround?**
- Direct `console.log()` and `console.error()` calls throughout the codebase
- Some commands may use chalk for coloring, but inconsistently
- No standardized spinner or progress indicator implementation

## Goals & Objectives
**What do we want to achieve?**

**Primary goals:**
- Create a centralized Terminal UI utility that provides consistent message formatting
- Standardize the display of info, success, warning, and error messages across all commands
- Implement a standard spinner for async operations
- Replace all existing console.log/error calls with the new UI utility

**Secondary goals:**
- Make the UI utility easy to use and well-documented
- Ensure the utility is extensible for future enhancements
- Improve overall CLI user experience through visual consistency

**Non-goals (what's explicitly out of scope):**
- Verbosity levels (--verbose, --quiet flags)
- User input prompts (inquirer is already standardized)
- File logging
- Interactive progress bars (spinners are sufficient)

## User Stories & Use Cases
**How will users interact with the solution?**

1. **As a CLI user**, I want to see consistent formatting for informational messages across all commands so that I can easily understand what the CLI is doing

2. **As a CLI user**, I want clear visual distinction between info, success, warning, and error messages so that I can quickly identify the status of operations

3. **As a CLI user**, I want to see progress indicators for long-running operations so that I know the CLI hasn't frozen

4. **As a developer**, I want a centralized UI utility that I can import and use instead of console.log/error so that I don't have to think about formatting

5. **As a developer**, I want clear examples and documentation for the UI utility so that I can use it correctly

**Key workflows and scenarios:**
- Running `ai-devkit init` and seeing consistent status messages
- Running `ai-devkit setup` with clear progress indicators during file operations
- Running `ai-devkit skill add` with spinner during git clone operations
- Running `ai-devkit skill update` with spinner during git pull operations
- Encountering errors with clear, formatted error messages

**Edge cases to consider:**
- Nested spinners (if one operation calls another)
- Rapid message updates
- Very long messages that might wrap
- Terminal environments without color support

## Success Criteria
**How will we know when we're done?**

**Measurable outcomes:**
- All `console.log` and `console.error` calls in command files are replaced with the UI utility
- All async operations display a spinner
- All message types (info, success, warning, error) have consistent formatting
- Zero direct console calls in src/commands/* files

**Acceptance criteria:**
- ✅ Terminal UI utility is created and exported
- ✅ Utility supports: info(), success(), warning(), error(), spinner()
- ✅ All commands (init, setup, skill) use the new utility
- ✅ Spinners are used for all async operations (git clone, file operations, etc.)
- ✅ Messages use chalk for consistent coloring
- ✅ Unit tests cover the UI utility
- ✅ Documentation is updated with usage examples

**Performance benchmarks:**
- No noticeable performance impact on CLI operations

## Constraints & Assumptions
**What limitations do we need to work within?**

**Technical constraints:**
- Must use existing `chalk` dependency (already in package.json)
- Must work in standard terminal environments
- Must be compatible with existing TypeScript setup

**Business constraints:**
- Should not break existing command functionality
- Should be a non-breaking change (internal refactor)

**Assumptions we're making:**
- Users are running the CLI in a terminal that supports ANSI colors
- Spinners are sufficient for progress indication (no need for progress bars)
- The current inquirer implementation for prompts is satisfactory

## Questions & Open Items
**What do we still need to clarify?**

- ✅ Should we use chalk or another library? → **chalk (already a dependency)**
- ✅ Do we need progress bars or are spinners enough? → **spinners are sufficient**
- ✅ Should we support verbosity levels? → **no**
- ✅ Should we standardize input prompts too? → **no, focus on output only**
- ✅ Should messages be logged to a file? → **no, terminal only**
- ✅ Should the spinner library be ora, nanospinner, or another? → **use ora**
