refactor(sdd): align prompt instructions and implement legacy migration

[moisgobg]

Summary

This PR finalizes the migration for Spec-Driven Development (SDD) to a built-in extension. It ensures that the internal prompt instructions, directories, and variables correctly reflect the new "Spec" concept, avoids legacy "Conductor" terminology, and replaces lost abstract protocols with explicit file resolution steps.

Details

• Removed tracks: Replaced all instances of track and tracks with spec and specs across .toml command prompts and .md templates.
• Removed conductor: Scrubbed lingering internal references to conductor in prompts and replaced them with sdd.
• Legacy Migration Handling: Added a specific check inside setup.toml that detects if a user has a legacy conductor/ directory. If found, SDD will prompt the user to migrate the artifacts to the new .gemini/specs/ directory automatically. Furthermore, it silently renames any legacy tracks/ directories or tracks.md files to specs/ and specs.md respectively.
• Replaced Universal File Resolution Protocol: Removed references to this abstract protocol (which relied on a now-missing GEMINI.md file) across all commands (create, implement, revert, review, status). Replaced it with explicit instructions for the agent to resolve project artifacts by reading the .gemini/specs/index.md file.

Related Issues

• Closes SDD: Remove use of tracks #22695
• Closes SDD: Cleanup use of conductor within prompts #22850
• Closes SDD: Refine /spec setup to account for existing /conductor directory #22822
• Closes SDD: Replace abstract Universal File Resolution Protocol with explicit index.md resolution #23017

How to Validate

1. Switch to this branch: fix/sdd-terminology-cleanup.
2. Initialize a new project with /spec setup and confirm that all prompts, directories, and files (e.g. specs.md, specs/) use the new "spec" terminology.
3. Create a dummy conductor/ directory in the root of a project and run /spec setup to trigger and validate the legacy migration prompt.
4. Create a dummy .gemini/specs/tracks.md file and run /spec setup to ensure it is silently renamed to specs.md.
5. Run any SDD command (e.g., /spec create, /spec status) and observe the agent's behavior. Verify that it correctly reads .gemini/specs/index.md to resolve file paths without hallucinating or referencing the old "Universal File Resolution Protocol".

Pre-Merge Checklist

• Updated relevant documentation and README (if needed)
• Added/updated tests (if needed)
• Noted breaking changes (if any)
• Validated on required platforms/methods:
  • Linux
    • npm run

[gemini-cli]

Hi @moisgobg, thank you so much for your contribution to Gemini CLI! We really appreciate the time and effort you've put into this.

We're making some updates to our contribution process to improve how we track and review changes. Please take a moment to review our recent discussion post: Improving Our Contribution Process & Introducing New Guidelines.

Key Update: Starting January 26, 2026, the Gemini CLI project will require all pull requests to be associated with an existing issue. Any pull requests not linked to an issue by that date will be automatically closed.

Thank you for your understanding and for being a part of our community!

[gemini-code-assist]

Summary of Changes

Hello, I'm Gemini Code Assist¹! I'm currently reviewing this pull request and will post my feedback shortly. In the meantime, here's a summary to help you and other reviewers quickly get up to speed!

This pull request refactors the Spec-Driven Development (SDD) framework to ensure consistent terminology, aligning all internal references with the 'Spec' concept. It removes outdated 'Conductor' and 'Track' terms and introduces automated migration paths for users with existing legacy setups, streamlining the transition to the updated naming conventions and directory organization.

Highlights

• Terminology Standardization: Standardized internal prompt instructions, directories, and variables within the Spec-Driven Development (SDD) framework, replacing all instances of 'track' with 'spec' and 'conductor' with 'sdd'.
• Legacy Conductor Migration: Implemented a check in setup.toml to detect legacy conductor/ directories and prompt users for automatic migration to the new .gemini/specs/ directory structure.
• Silent Terminology Migration: Added functionality to silently rename legacy .gemini/specs/tracks.md files to specs.md and tracks/ directories to specs/ during setup.

Using Gemini Code Assist

The full guide for Gemini Code Assist can be found on our documentation page, here are some quick tips.

Invoking Gemini

You can request assistance from Gemini at any point by creating a comment using either /gemini <command> or @gemini-code-assist <command>. Below is a summary of the supported commands on the current page.

Feature	Command	Description
Code Review	/gemini review	Performs a code review for the current pull request in its current state.
Pull Request Summary	/gemini summary	Provides a summary of the current pull request in its current state.
Comment	@gemini-code-assist	Responds in comments when explicitly tagged, both in pull request comments and review comments.
Help	/gemini help	Displays a list of available commands.

Customization

To customize Gemini Code Assist for GitHub experience, repository maintainers can create a configuration file and/or provide a custom code review style guide (such as PEP-8 for Python) by creating and adding files to a .gemini/ folder in the base of the repository. Detailed instructions can be found here.

Limitations & Feedback

Gemini Code Assist may make mistakes. Please leave feedback on any instances where its feedback is incorrect or counter productive. You can react with 👍 and 👎 on @gemini-code-assist comments. If you're interested in giving your feedback about your experience with Gemini Code Assist for GitHub and other Google products, sign up here.

Footnotes

1. Review the Privacy Notices, Generative AI Prohibited Use Policy, Terms of Service, and learn how to configure Gemini Code Assist in GitHub here. Gemini can make mistakes, so double check it and use code with caution. ↩

[gemini-code-assist]

Code Review

This pull request does a great job of migrating the Spec-Driven Development (SDD) feature from the legacy "Conductor" and "Track" terminology to the new "SDD" and "Spec" concepts. The introduction of a migration path for legacy conductor/ directories is a thoughtful addition.

However, I've identified a few areas for improvement:

• There are a couple of leftover references to the old "track" terminology in prompt placeholders and path descriptions that need updating for consistency.
• A new mv command introduced for the legacy migration is not whitelisted in the SDD security policy, which will cause the migration to fail. This is a critical issue that needs to be addressed.
• One instance of the verb 'specs' is used awkwardly and could be rephrased for better clarity.

_{Note: Security Review has been skipped due to the limited scope of the PR.}

[mahimashanware]

im hesitant to change unrelated fields in the docs