Inspired by Antonio Goncalves’ interview with Vidocq’s creators.
🔸 TL;DR
AI can generate code quickly, but specifications, executable tests and senior judgment make the result trustworthy.
Vidocq turns formal standards into a development workflow: the specification defines the contract, the TCK verifies it, and humans protect the architecture.
🔸 ABOUT THE INTERVIEW
This 65-question interview features Vidocq creators Antoine Sabot-Durand and Yann Blazart. It covers Vidocq’s origins, Jakarta EE and MicroProfile, SDD (Spec Driven Dev), TCK validation, AI models, agents, tooling, costs, human supervision and the future of software engineering.
🔸 5 KEY QUESTIONS
1️⃣ What is SDD in Vidocq?
The formal specification becomes the requirements document, the official TCK becomes the oracle of truth, and TDD connects both through a red-green-refactor loop.
2️⃣ Why are AI and specifications inseparable?
AI produces plausible code when requirements are ambiguous. Detailed specs reduce ambiguity, while thousands of TCK tests prevent the agent from claiming success without proof.
3️⃣ What was the real bottleneck?
Human supervision; not code generation or model quality. Reviewing plans and diffs, defending architecture and deciding whether a failure is a bug or a TCK challenge remained senior responsibilities.
4️⃣ Can this work for Spring Boot?
Yes, but teams must first create their own “TCK”: acceptance tests, API contracts and behaviour checks. Build the verification harness before asking AI to migrate or generate code.
5️⃣ Where should a Java team start?
Choose a small scope, create an executable oracle, write verifiable constraints, require a reviewed plan before coding, demand proof before assertions, and record bugs and lessons from day one.
🔸 TAKEAWAYS
▪️ A specification without an executable oracle is not enough.
▪️ AI executes designs faster than it creates good architecture.
▪️ Passing tests does not prevent architectural drift.
▪️ Senior engineers increasingly steer, verify and arbitrate.
▪️ The limiting factor is the capacity to prove correctness.
The model proposes, the specification frames, but the oracle and the human decide.
#Java #JakartaEE #MicroProfile #Vidocq #SpecDrivenDevelopment #AI #SoftwareArchitecture #TDD #SoftwareEngineering
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