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arXiv · 2605.02455

LLM-Assisted Repository-Level Generation with Structured Spec-Driven Engineering

Shuzhao Feng·Boqi Chen·Brett H Meyer·Gunter Mussbacher
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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.

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Shuzhao Feng, Boqi Chen, Brett H Meyer, Gunter Mussbacher. 2026-05-04. LLM-Assisted Repository-Level Generation with Structured Spec-Driven Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1145/3803437.3805567

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