A BriefingScript is the artifact Structured Agentic Software Engineering (SASE) (SASE) proposes as the primary specification an “Agent Coach” gives an agent, introduced in Agentic Software Engineering: Foundational Pillars and a Research Roadmap as the product of Briefing Engineering (BriefingEng). It is described as more than a specification of intent: a detailed work order comparable to what a senior developer would give a junior one, unlike a traditional, implementation-agnostic Software Requirements Specification.
Usage
A BriefingScript combines four kinds of content: What & Success Criteria, a verifiable checklist similar to Scrum’s “Definition of Done” but enriched with formal, testable pre-conditions and invariants; Architectural Context, clarifying where the work fits in the system, including key modules, data models, or APIs; Strategic Advice, recommending specific implementation approaches such as libraries to use or patterns to avoid; and Potential “Gotchas”, highlighting known pitfalls such as subtle business logic, performance constraints, or dependency issues. The paper describes it as a living, version-controlled document evolving through iterative dialogue between the human coach and the agent rather than a rigid, one-shot, waterfall-style specification, and states it may be serialized in Markdown, YAML, JSON, or a domain-specific schema. It frames this as an agent-oriented evolution of Donald Knuth’s “literate programming,” shifting the primary artifact from code to the human-readable script that explains the logic and intent from which the agent’s work is derived. A worked example implementing REST API rate limiting, structured into Goal & Why, What & Success Criteria, All Needed Context, Implementation Blueprint, and Validation Loop sections, is given in the paper’s appendix.
Related Terms
Briefing Engineering (BriefingEng), Product Requirement Prompt (PRP), LoopScript, MentorScript