LLM-Assisted Repository-Level Generation with Structured Spec-Driven Engineering
arXiv:2605.02455 · doi:10.1145/3803437.3805567
Abstract
State-of-the-art Large Language Models (LLMs) excel in code generation at the function level. However, the output quality significantly declines when scaling to repository-level systems. Current workflows relying only on natural language prompts suffer from inherent ambiguity and a lack of verifiability. To address this, we propose structured spec-driven engineering (SSDE), a paradigm that leverages structured artifacts to guide LLM generation. We argue that structured specifications as LLM inputs make high-quality, repository-level code generation a tangible goal, while at the same time offering superior verifiability, leading to significant potential for improvement. We first investigate the feasibility of this vision through a pilot study generating Model-View-Controller (MVC) business logic for three software systems using five LLMs, and then highlight the potential, challenges, and future roadmap for SSDE.
Accepted to the 34th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE Companion '26)