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Strategic Init Guide

SpecWeave's AI-Powered Strategic Planning Session

Strategic Init transforms specweave init from a simple configuration tool into an intelligent planning session that analyzes your product vision, detects compliance needs, recommends architecture, and delivers a perfectly tailored development setup.

What is Strategic Init?​

Strategic Init is SpecWeave's research-driven initialization flow that:

  1. Analyzes your product vision using AI to extract market insights
  2. Detects compliance requirements automatically (HIPAA, GDPR, PCI-DSS, etc.)
  3. Recommends team structure with serverless alternatives to save costs
  4. Suggests architecture based on your specific needs (viral potential, compliance, scale)
  5. Provides cost estimates at different user scales (1K, 10K, 100K, 1M users)
  6. Generates project structure ready for development

Time to Complete: 2-5 minutes Questions Asked: 8-12 (smart follow-ups based on your answers)

When to Use Strategic Init​

✅ Perfect For:​

  • New projects: Starting from scratch with clear vision
  • Product pivots: Reassessing architecture for new direction
  • Compliance projects: Healthcare, finance, government applications
  • Viral products: Apps expecting rapid growth (10x - 100x scaling)
  • Bootstrapped startups: Need to minimize fixed costs

⚠️ Not Needed For:​

  • Existing projects: Already have architecture in place
  • Simple scripts: Small utilities or automation scripts
  • Learning projects: Just exploring SpecWeave features

The 6-Phase Flow​

Phase 1: Vision & Market Research​

What it does: Analyzes your product description to extract market insights

Questions:

What is your product vision?
Example: "A design collaboration tool like Figma but for remote teams"

AI Analysis:

  • Extracts keywords: ["design", "collaboration", "remote", "teams"]
  • Detects market: productivity-saas
  • Finds competitors: ["Figma", "Miro", "Whimsical"]
  • Calculates opportunity score: 8/10 (high market, moderate competition)
  • Detects viral potential: true (network effects, sharing features)

Output:

✓ Market: Productivity SaaS
✓ Competitors: Figma (real-time, plugins), Miro (whiteboarding)
✓ Opportunity: 8/10 - Large market, moderate competition
✓ Viral Potential: High (collaboration = network effects)

Phase 2: Scaling & Performance Goals​

Questions:

How many users do you expect?
  ○ Learning project (0-100 users)
  ○ Small product (100-10K users)
  ● Viral potential (10K-1M+ users)     ← Selected

How quickly will you grow?
  ○ Gradual (months to scale)
  ● Rapid (could go viral overnight)    ← Selected

Impact: Influences architecture recommendation (viral → serverless for instant scaling)

Phase 3: Data & Compliance Detection​

Questions:

What type of data will your application handle?
  ☑ Personal user data (emails, names, profiles)
  ☐ Healthcare records (HIPAA)
  ☐ Payment/credit card data (PCI-DSS)
  ☐ Government data (FedRAMP, FISMA)

Where will your users be located?
  ☑ United States
  ☑ European Union
  ☐ Global/Multiple regions

AI Detection:

📋 Compliance Standards Detected:

• GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
  Region: European Union
  Data: Personal user data
  Requirements: Consent management, data portability, right to deletion
  Team Impact: Need Privacy Engineer or DPO (Data Protection Officer)
  Cost: $500/month (DPO) + $200/month (consent management tools)

• CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act)
  Region: United States (California)
  Data: Personal user data
  Requirements: Privacy policy, opt-out mechanisms, data disclosure
  Team Impact: Legal review + privacy controls
  Cost: $100/month (compliance tools)

Phase 4: Budget & Cloud Credits​

Questions:

What's your budget situation?
  ● Bootstrapped (self-funded, minimal budget)
  ○ Pre-seed ($50K-$500K raised)
  ○ Series A+ ($1M+ raised)
  ○ Learning (free tier only)

Cloud Credits Presented:

☁️  Available Cloud Credits for Bootstrapped Startups:

• AWS Activate Portfolio: $1,000 (12 months)
  Requirements: Join incubator/accelerator
  Apply: https://aws.amazon.com/activate/

• Google Cloud for Startups: $2,000 (24 months)
  Requirements: Self-service signup
  Apply: https://cloud.google.com/startup

• Vercel Pro: $20/month free (6 months)
  Requirements: Self-service signup
  Apply: https://vercel.com/startups

Phase 5: Methodology & Organization​

Questions:

How will you organize work?
  ● Agile (Increments = Sprints, 1-2 week cycles)
  ○ Waterfall (Increments = Phases, sequential delivery)

Impact: Changes increment terminology and workflow

Phase 6: Repository Selection (Multi-Repo Only)​

Triggers when: You have 3+ repositories

Questions:

How many repositories are in this project?
  ○ Single repository (monorepo)
  ○ 2-5 repositories
  ● 10+ repositories                     ← Selected

How would you like to select repositories?
  ● Pattern-based (prefix, keyword, org)  ← RECOMMENDED for 10+ repos
  ○ All repositories from my GitHub account
  ○ Manual selection (enter each URL)

What's the repository naming pattern?
  Examples:
  - Prefix: "myapp-" (myapp-frontend, myapp-backend, myapp-api)
  - Owner: "my-company" (all repos from GitHub org)
  - Keyword: "service" (all repos containing "service")

  Your pattern: myapp-

Preview: Found 12 repositories matching "myapp-*"
  • myapp-frontend (TypeScript, 145 stars, updated 2 days ago)
  • myapp-backend (Node.js, 89 stars, updated 1 week ago)
  • myapp-api (TypeScript, 67 stars, updated 3 days ago)
  ... (9 more)

Exclude any repositories? (optional)
  Examples: deprecated, archived, old, legacy

  Your exclusions: deprecated, archived

Final selection: 10 repositories (excluded 2)

Time Saved: ~5 minutes (vs manual entry of 10 URLs)

Architecture Recommendation​

After all phases, Strategic Init provides a comprehensive architecture recommendation:

Example Output:​

🏗️  ARCHITECTURE RECOMMENDATION
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

📐 Architecture: Serverless

💡 Rationale:
   Your product has viral potential (network effects from collaboration)
   and you're bootstrapped (need $0 fixed costs). Serverless provides
   instant auto-scaling from 10 to 100K users with pay-per-use pricing.

🔧 Infrastructure:
   • AWS Lambda (compute)
   • Supabase (PostgreSQL database + auth)
   • Vercel (frontend hosting)
   • S3 (file storage)
   • CloudFront CDN (global distribution)

💰 Cost Estimates:
   • At 1K users:   $10/month (mostly free tier)
   • At 10K users:  $250/month
   • At 100K users: $850/month
   • At 1M users:   $5,000/month

☁️  Cloud Credits Available:
   • AWS Activate: $1,000 (12 months) - Apply: https://aws.amazon.com/activate/
   • Vercel Pro: $20/month free (6 months) - Apply: https://vercel.com/startups

📦 Generated Projects:
   • frontend (Vercel)
   • backend-functions (AWS Lambda)
   • api-gateway (API Gateway + Lambda)

👥 Team Recommendations:
   • Core: 2-5 engineers (full-stack or frontend + backend split)
   • Optional: Auth team (OR use AWS Cognito - saves $185/month)
   • Optional: DevOps (OR use Vercel/AWS managed services)

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Accept this recommendation? (y/n/modify)

Decision Logic Examples​

Strategic Init uses intelligent decision trees to recommend architecture:

Case 1: Viral + Bootstrapped → Serverless​

IF viral_potential = true AND budget = "bootstrapped"
THEN recommend serverless
BECAUSE instant scaling + $0 fixed costs

Case 2: HIPAA + Healthcare → Traditional + Compliance​

IF compliance includes HIPAA AND handles PHI
THEN recommend traditional-monolith with compliance controls
BECAUSE HIPAA requires BAA, audit logs, encryption, network isolation

Case 3: Learning Project → YAGNI + Free Tier​

IF budget = "learning"
THEN recommend modular-monolith with free tier services
BECAUSE simplicity + zero cost for learning

Case 4: Enterprise Scale → Microservices​

IF team_size > 15 AND expected_services > 10 AND funding = "series-a-plus"
THEN recommend microservices with Kubernetes
BECAUSE team autonomy + service isolation at scale

What Gets Saved​

Strategic Init saves all insights to .specweave/config.json:

{
  "research": {
    "vision": {
      "keywords": ["design", "collaboration", "remote"],
      "market": "productivity-saas",
      "competitors": [...],
      "opportunityScore": 8,
      "viralPotential": true
    },
    "compliance": [
      { "id": "GDPR", "regions": ["EU"], ... },
      { "id": "CCPA", "regions": ["US-CA"], ... }
    ],
    "teams": [
      { "teamName": "backend-team", "required": true, ... },
      { "teamName": "auth-team", "serverlessAlternative": {...} }
    ],
    "scaling": {
      "expectedUsers": 100000,
      "growthRate": "viral"
    },
    "budget": "bootstrapped",
    "methodology": "agile"
  },
  "architecture": {
    "type": "serverless",
    "infrastructure": ["AWS Lambda", "Supabase", "Vercel"],
    "rationale": "...",
    "costEstimate": {...},
    "projects": ["frontend", "backend-functions", "api-gateway"]
  },
  "repositories": {
    "selectionRules": {
      "type": "prefix",
      "pattern": "myapp-",
      "excludePatterns": ["deprecated", "archived"]
    },
    "repositories": [...]
  }
}

Why This Matters: Future increments can reference this research data for consistent decision-making.

Tips for Best Results​

1. Be Specific in Your Vision​

❌ BAD: "A social media app"
✅ GOOD: "A social media app for local businesses to connect with customers,
         like Nextdoor but focused on small business discovery"

2. Don't Overestimate Compliance Needs​

❌ BAD: "We'll handle payment data" (when using Stripe)
✅ GOOD: "We'll use Stripe for payments" (no PCI-DSS needed!)

3. Be Realistic About Scale​

❌ BAD: "We'll have 1 million users in 6 months"
✅ GOOD: "We're aiming for 10K users in year 1, with potential for viral growth"

4. Use Pattern Selection for Multi-Repo​

❌ BAD: Manually entering 50 repository URLs
✅ GOOD: Use prefix pattern "myapp-" to select all at once

Skipping Strategic Init​

If you want basic init without research:

# Standard init (no AI analysis)
specweave init

# Or provide basic info upfront
specweave init --quick \
  --name "MyApp" \
  --tech-stack "Node.js, React, PostgreSQL" \
  --projects "backend,frontend"

Troubleshooting​

"LLM analysis failed"​

Cause: Network issue or LLM API unavailable Fix: Strategic Init falls back to keyword matching. You'll still get architecture recommendations, just without AI-powered market insights.

"No repositories found with pattern 'myapp-'"​

Cause: Pattern doesn't match any repositories Fix: Check your GitHub org/username and repository naming. Try a different pattern or use manual selection.

"Compliance detection showing too many standards"​

Cause: You selected multiple data types (personal + healthcare + payment) Fix: Be selective - only choose data types you'll actually handle. If using third-party services (Stripe, Auth0), you DON'T need those compliance standards.

Next Steps After Strategic Init​

  1. Review generated projects: Check .specweave/docs/internal/specs/ for project folders
  2. Start first increment: specweave increment "Setup authentication"
  3. Invite team: Share .specweave/config.json with team for consistent setup
  4. Apply for cloud credits: Use URLs provided in Architecture Recommendation

Learn More​

Ready to start? Run specweave init in your project directory!