fix: clarify openspec/README.md in tasks (AI instructions file)

The diff command now applies deltas and shows side-by-side
requirement comparison rather than just displaying delta instructions.

openspec/changes/adopt-delta-based-changes/proposal.md

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+# Adopt Delta-Based Changes for Specifications
+
+## Why
+
+The current approach of storing complete future states in change proposals creates a poor review experience. When reviewing changes on GitHub, reviewers see entire spec files (often 100+ lines) as "added" in green, making it impossible to identify what actually changed. With the recent structured format adoption, we now have clear section boundaries that enable a better approach: storing only additions and modifications.
+
+## What Changes
+
+Store only the requirements that actually change, not complete future states:
+
+- **ADDED Requirements**: New capabilities being introduced
+- **MODIFIED Requirements**: Existing requirements being changed (must match current header)
+- **REMOVED Requirements**: Deprecated capabilities
+- **RENAMED Requirements**: Explicit header changes (e.g., `FROM: Old Name` → `TO: New Name`)
+
+The archive command will programmatically apply these deltas using normalized header matching (trim leading/trailing whitespace) instead of manually copying entire files.
+
+## Impact
+
+**Affected specs**: openspec-conventions, cli-archive, cli-diff
+
+**Benefits**:
+- GitHub diffs show only actual changes (25 lines instead of 150+)
+- Reviewers immediately see what's being added, modified, or removed
+- Conflicts are more apparent when two changes modify the same requirement
+- Archive command can programmatically apply changes
+
+**Format**: Delta format only - all changes must use ADDED/MODIFIED/REMOVED sections.
+
+## Example
+
+Instead of storing a 150-line complete future spec, store only:
+
+```markdown
+# User Authentication - Changes
+
+## ADDED Requirements
+
+### Requirement: OAuth Support
+Users SHALL authenticate via OAuth providers including Google and GitHub.
+
+#### Scenario: OAuth login flow
+- **WHEN** user selects OAuth provider
+- **THEN** redirect to provider authorization
+- **AND** exchange authorization code for tokens
+
+## MODIFIED Requirements
+
+### Requirement: Session Management
+Sessions SHALL expire after 30 minutes of inactivity.
+
+#### Scenario: Inactive session timeout  
+- **WHEN** no activity for 30 minutes ← (was 60 minutes)
+- **THEN** invalidate session token
+- **AND** require re-authentication
+
+## RENAMED Requirements
+- FROM: `### Requirement: Basic Authentication`
+- TO: `### Requirement: Email Authentication`
+```
+
+This makes reviews focused and changes explicit.
+
+## Conflict Resolution
+
+Git naturally detects conflicts when two changes modify the same requirement header. This is actually better than full-state storage where Git might silently merge incompatible changes.

openspec/changes/adopt-delta-based-changes/specs/cli-archive/spec.md

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+# CLI Archive Command - Changes
+
+## MODIFIED Requirements
+
+### Requirement: Spec Update Process
+
+Before moving the change to archive, the command SHALL apply delta changes to main specs to reflect the deployed reality.
+
+#### Scenario: Applying delta changes
+
+- **WHEN** archiving a change with delta-based specs
+- **THEN** parse and apply delta changes as defined in openspec-conventions
+- **AND** validate all operations before applying
+
+#### Scenario: Validating delta changes
+
+- **WHEN** processing delta changes
+- **THEN** perform validations as specified in openspec-conventions
+- **AND** if validation fails, show specific errors and abort
+
+#### Scenario: Conflict detection
+
+- **WHEN** applying deltas would create duplicate requirement headers
+- **THEN** abort with error message showing the conflict
+- **AND** suggest manual resolution
+
+### Requirement: Display Output
+
+The command SHALL provide clear feedback about delta operations.
+
+#### Scenario: Showing delta application
+
+- **WHEN** applying delta changes
+- **THEN** display for each spec:
+  - Number of requirements added
+  - Number of requirements modified
+  - Number of requirements removed
+  - Number of requirements renamed
+- **AND** use standard output symbols (+ ~ - →) as defined in openspec-conventions:
+  ```
+  Applying changes to specs/user-auth/spec.md:
+    + 2 added
+    ~ 3 modified
+    - 1 removed
+    → 1 renamed
+  ```

openspec/changes/adopt-delta-based-changes/specs/cli-diff/spec.md

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+# CLI Diff Command - Changes
+
+## REMOVED Requirements
+
+### Requirement: Display Format
+
+**Reason for removal**: The standard unified diff format is replaced by requirement-level side-by-side comparison that better shows semantic changes rather than line-by-line text differences.
+
+## MODIFIED Requirements
+
+### Requirement: Diff Output
+
+The command SHALL show a requirement-level comparison displaying only changed requirements.
+
+#### Scenario: Side-by-side comparison of changes
+
+- **WHEN** running `openspec diff <change>`
+- **THEN** display only requirements that have changed
+- **AND** show them in a side-by-side format that:
+  - Clearly shows the current version on the left
+  - Shows the future version on the right
+  - Indicates new requirements (not in current)
+  - Indicates removed requirements (not in future)
+  - Aligns modified requirements for easy comparison
+
+### Requirement: Validation
+
+The command SHALL validate that changes can be applied successfully.
+
+#### Scenario: Invalid delta references
+
+- **WHEN** delta references non-existent requirement
+- **THEN** show error message with specific requirement
+- **AND** continue showing other valid changes
+- **AND** clearly mark failed changes in the output

openspec/changes/adopt-delta-based-changes/specs/openspec-conventions/spec.md

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+# OpenSpec Conventions - Changes
+
+## ADDED Requirements
+
+### Requirement: Header-Based Requirement Identification
+
+Requirement headers SHALL serve as unique identifiers for programmatic matching between current specs and proposed changes.
+
+#### Scenario: Matching requirements programmatically
+
+- **WHEN** processing delta changes
+- **THEN** use the `### Requirement: [Name]` header as the unique identifier
+- **AND** match using normalized headers: `normalize(header) = trim(header)`
+- **AND** compare headers with case-sensitive equality after normalization
+
+#### Scenario: Handling requirement renames
+
+- **WHEN** renaming a requirement
+- **THEN** use a special `## RENAMED Requirements` section
+- **AND** specify both old and new names explicitly:
+  ```markdown
+  ## RENAMED Requirements
+  - FROM: `### Requirement: Old Name`
+  - TO: `### Requirement: New Name`
+  ```
+- **AND** if content also changes, include under MODIFIED using the NEW header
+
+#### Scenario: Validating header uniqueness
+
+- **WHEN** creating or modifying requirements
+- **THEN** ensure no duplicate headers exist within a spec
+- **AND** validation tools SHALL flag duplicate headers as errors
+
+## MODIFIED Requirements
+
+### Requirement: Change Storage Convention
+
+Change proposals SHALL store only the additions, modifications, and removals to specifications, not complete future states.
+
+#### Scenario: Creating change proposals with additions
+
+- **WHEN** creating a change proposal that adds new requirements
+- **THEN** include only the new requirements under `## ADDED Requirements`
+- **AND** each requirement SHALL include its complete content
+- **AND** use the standard structured format for requirements and scenarios
+
+#### Scenario: Creating change proposals with modifications  
+
+- **WHEN** creating a change proposal that modifies existing requirements
+- **THEN** include the modified requirements under `## MODIFIED Requirements`
+- **AND** use the same header text as in the current spec (normalized)
+- **AND** include the complete modified requirement (not a diff)
+- **AND** optionally annotate what changed with inline comments like `← (was X)`
+
+#### Scenario: Creating change proposals with removals
+
+- **WHEN** creating a change proposal that removes requirements
+- **THEN** list them under `## REMOVED Requirements`
+- **AND** use the normalized header text for identification
+- **AND** include reason for removal
+- **AND** document any migration path if applicable
+
+
+The `changes/[name]/specs/` directory SHALL contain:
+- Delta files showing only what changes
+- Sections for ADDED, MODIFIED, REMOVED, and RENAMED requirements
+- Normalized header matching for requirement identification
+- Complete requirements using the structured format
+- Clear indication of change type for each requirement
+
+#### Scenario: Using standard output symbols
+
+- **WHEN** displaying delta operations in CLI output
+- **THEN** use these standard symbols:
+  - `+` for ADDED (green)
+  - `~` for MODIFIED (yellow)
+  - `-` for REMOVED (red)
+  - `→` for RENAMED (cyan)
+
+### Requirement: Archive Process Enhancement
+
+The archive process SHALL programmatically apply delta changes to current specifications using header-based matching.
+
+#### Scenario: Archiving changes with deltas
+
+- **WHEN** archiving a completed change
+- **THEN** the archive command SHALL:
+  1. Parse RENAMED sections first and apply renames
+  2. Parse REMOVED sections and remove by normalized header match
+  3. Parse MODIFIED sections and replace by normalized header match (using new names if renamed)
+  4. Parse ADDED sections and append new requirements
+- **AND** validate that all MODIFIED/REMOVED headers exist in current spec
+- **AND** validate that ADDED headers don't already exist
+- **AND** generate the updated spec in the main specs/ directory
+
+#### Scenario: Handling conflicts during archive
+
+- **WHEN** delta changes conflict with current spec state
+- **THEN** the archive command SHALL report specific conflicts
+- **AND** require manual resolution before proceeding
+- **AND** provide clear guidance on resolving conflicts
+
+## REMOVED Requirements
+
+### Requirement: Future State Storage
+
+**Reason for removal**: Replaced by delta-based change storage which provides better review experience and clearer change tracking.
+
+**Migration path**: All new changes must use delta format.

openspec/changes/adopt-delta-based-changes/tasks.md

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+# Implementation Tasks
+
+## 1. Update Conventions
+- [ ] 1.1 Update openspec-conventions spec with delta-based approach
+- [ ] 1.2 Add Header-Based Requirement Identification
+- [ ] 1.3 Define ADDED/MODIFIED/REMOVED/RENAMED sections
+- [ ] 1.4 Document standard output symbols (+ ~ - →)
+- [ ] 1.5 Update openspec/README.md with delta-based conventions
+- [ ] 1.6 Update examples to use delta format
+
+## 2. Update Diff Command
+- [ ] 2.1 Update cli-diff spec with requirement-level comparison
+- [ ] 2.2 Parse specs into requirement-level structures
+- [ ] 2.3 Apply deltas to generate future state
+- [ ] 2.4 Implement side-by-side comparison view (changes only)
+- [ ] 2.5 Add tests for requirement-level comparison
+- [ ] 2.6 Add tests for side-by-side view formatting
+
+## 3. Update Archive Command
+- [ ] 3.1 Update cli-archive spec with delta processing behavior
+- [ ] 3.2 Implement normalized header matching (trim whitespace)
+- [ ] 3.3 Parse delta sections (ADDED/MODIFIED/REMOVED/RENAMED)
+- [ ] 3.4 Apply changes in order: RENAMED → REMOVED → MODIFIED → ADDED
+- [ ] 3.5 Validate delta operations:
+  - [ ] 3.5.1 MODIFIED/REMOVED requirements exist
+  - [ ] 3.5.2 ADDED requirements don't already exist
+  - [ ] 3.5.3 RENAMED FROM headers exist, TO headers don't
+  - [ ] 3.5.4 No duplicate headers within specs
+  - [ ] 3.5.5 Renamed requirements aren't also in ADDED
+- [ ] 3.6 Display operation counts (+ 2 added, ~ 3 modified, etc.)
+- [ ] 3.7 Add tests for header normalization
+- [ ] 3.8 Add tests for applying deltas in correct order
+- [ ] 3.9 Add tests for validation edge cases
+
+## Notes
+- Archive command is critical path - must work reliably
+- All new changes must use delta format
+- Header normalization: normalize(header) = trim(header)
+- Diff command shows only changed requirements in side-by-side comparison