Questions
Plain answers about specifying software.
What a build specification is, what discovery costs, and how to get an app specified before you hire anyone to build it. Each answer starts with the short version.
Can I use Mochlion for product design, or only business apps?
Mochlion specifies software applications. That includes internal business apps and software products you plan to sell. It isn't built for physical product design, and it leaves visual and screen design to whoever designs and builds the app.
Read the answer : Can I use Mochlion for product design, or only business apps?Can my AI agents use Mochlion, and what can they do?
Yes. Through an MCP server and a token API, an AI tool can read a specification by trace ID, check readiness and changes, ask a question back, and answer as an expert. It can't decide a disagreement, approve an item or sign off.
Read the answer : Can my AI agents use Mochlion, and what can they do?Do I need a business analyst or product manager before hiring a developer?
Not necessarily, but you need what they produce: a clear, approved description of what to build, gathered from the people who know the work, with disagreements settled. Someone has to do that work, whether it's an analyst, you, the developer or a guided process.
Read the answer : Do I need a business analyst or product manager before hiring a developer?How do I avoid scope creep on a software project?
Write the scope down and get it approved, including a list of what this version won't do. Then route every change through a request that someone with authority approves, with its effect on the rest of the work visible.
Read the answer : How do I avoid scope creep on a software project?How do I get my team to agree on what to build?
Ask each person separately about their part of the work, compare the answers, and put each real disagreement in front of one person who can decide. Record the decision and the reason, then have the experts confirm what was written down.
Read the answer : How do I get my team to agree on what to build?How do I hand off an app idea to a developer?
Hand over a written, approved description, not a conversation: the problem, the users, testable requirements, the rules and exceptions, data and integrations, what's out of scope, acceptance criteria, and who owns it afterward. Then agree how questions get answered.
Read the answer : How do I hand off an app idea to a developer?How do I know my developer built what I asked for?
Check the finished software against acceptance criteria agreed before the build. Each requirement gets a clear pass or fail, ideally tried by the people who do the work, using real cases and the awkward exceptions.
Read the answer : How do I know my developer built what I asked for?How do I replace legacy software without losing the business rules?
Write the rules down before you replace anything: from the people who use the system, from its data and structure, and from its reports. Then decide which rules to keep, change or drop, and test the new system against them.
Read the answer : How do I replace legacy software without losing the business rules?How do I spec an app before hiring a developer?
Write down the problem, who the app is for, what it must do and the rules it must follow, then have the people who do the work check it before any developer sees it. A good spec answers a developer's questions before they're asked.
Read the answer : How do I spec an app before hiring a developer?How do I turn a spreadsheet process into an app?
Start by writing down what the spreadsheet really does: who touches it, the rules hidden in its formulas, colors and notes, and the steps that happen outside it. Then specify the app from that, not from the sheet's layout.
Read the answer : How do I turn a spreadsheet process into an app?How do I write requirements an AI coding agent can follow?
Write one testable statement per requirement, give each an ID, spell out the rules and exceptions, say what's out of scope, and attach acceptance criteria the agent can turn into tests. Tell it to ask instead of guess.
Read the answer : How do I write requirements an AI coding agent can follow?How does the free spec check work?
Paste or upload a spec, PRD or requirements list and confirm your email with a code. Mochlion checks it for the places a builder would likely get stuck, and you get the count and the most serious few by email.
Read the answer : How does the free spec check work?How is my data and IP protected, and do you train AI on it?
You own your content and your Build Specifications. We don't train AI on them, and our AI providers are contractually barred from doing so. Each customer's data is walled off in the database, sign-in is by emailed link or code, and backups are encrypted.
Read the answer : How is my data and IP protected, and do you train AI on it?How is this different from a requirements template or an AI chat assistant?
A template gives you headings and an AI chat assistant writes from what one person types. Mochlion gathers answers from each person who knows the work, surfaces where they disagree for people to decide, and checks the result before handoff.
Read the answer : How is this different from a requirements template or an AI chat assistant?How much time do my experts need to give?
It varies with the application and with how much each person knows, so there's no fixed number. Experts answer short questions about their own part of the work, many with a tap, a few in words, whenever it suits them.
Read the answer : How much time do my experts need to give?Is vibe coding safe for business applications?
For a prototype or a personal tool, it can be fine. For software that runs part of a business, describing what you want loosely and accepting what the AI builds is risky unless the rules, data, access and tests are written down first and someone checks the result.
Read the answer : Is vibe coding safe for business applications?What are acceptance criteria?
Acceptance criteria are the conditions that show a requirement was built correctly, written so anyone can check them. A common form is "given" a situation, "when" something happens, "then" this is the result.
Read the answer : What are acceptance criteria?What does a bad spec really cost?
Nobody can put one reliable number on it, but the research points the same way. A 2014 PMI survey found 5.1 percent of project spending wasted through poor requirements management, and CISQ puts unsuccessful U.S. software projects at about $260 billion in 2022.
Read the answer : What does a bad spec really cost?What does a software discovery phase cost?
Agencies that publish their prices put a discovery phase for a custom app at about $2,500 to $25,000 or more, or roughly 5 to 12 percent of the project budget. Screens, user roles, integrations and compliance drive the price.
Read the answer : What does a software discovery phase cost?What exactly do I get with a Build Specification?
You get the Build Specification as PDF, Word or Markdown, a one-page executive summary, and an AI build package: a structured file with a trace ID on every item, its schema, a readable version, and optional instructions for AI coding tools.
Read the answer : What exactly do I get with a Build Specification?What happens after I buy a credit?
You're signed in with one credit for one application. When you start your project, you set the scope, invite the people who know the work, settle what they disagree on, sign off, and hand the Build Specification to your builder.
Read the answer : What happens after I buy a credit?What if my needs change after handoff?
For 90 days after your builder acknowledges the first handoff, changes you approve are included. Each one makes a new version of the specification with a report of what it affects. After that, a major revision needs a new credit.
Read the answer : What if my needs change after handoff?What is a build specification?
A build specification is an approved document that says exactly what a piece of software must do, written before anyone builds it. It covers the goal, the users, the rules, the data, the connected systems, and how everyone will know the software works.
Read the answer : What is a build specification?What should a software requirements document include?
The problem and goal, scope and what's out of it, the people and roles, each requirement as a testable statement, business rules and exceptions, data, connected systems, security, acceptance criteria, decisions and open questions, ownership and sign-off.
Read the answer : What should a software requirements document include?What's the difference between a PRD and a build specification?
A product requirements document (PRD) explains what a product should do and why, often to align a team. A build specification is written to be built from: every requirement testable and traced, disagreements settled, and approved before the build.
Read the answer : What's the difference between a PRD and a build specification?What's your refund policy?
A credit is fully refundable only if it's unused: you ask within 90 days of purchase and no project has been started with it. Once a project is started, or after 90 days, it isn't refundable. Add-ons aren't refundable.
Read the answer : What's your refund policy?Which builders and AI coding tools can use the spec?
Any developer or team, and AI coding tools in general. The build package is vendor-neutral: a structured JSON file with a published schema, readable Markdown, and an AGENTS.md instructions file. Tools that support MCP can also read the spec live.
Read the answer : Which builders and AI coding tools can use the spec?Who is Mochlion for?
Mochlion is for the owner or sponsor who has an idea for an application, the experts who know how the work is really done, and the builders and practitioners who build from the specification.
Read the answer : Who is Mochlion for?Who owns the Build Specification?
You do. Section 6.1 of the Terms of Service says that, between you and Mochlion, you own your content and your Build Specifications and everything in them. Mochlion owns the platform used to make them.
Read the answer : Who owns the Build Specification?
New to the terms? The glossary defines them in plain English.