Contractor‑Ready Integration Brief: The Exact Fields That Produce Mocks, OpenAPI Stubs, and Acceptance Tests

Contractors price, schedule, and build from assumptions. Every unanswered question multiplies estimates or triggers change orders. A one‑page brief that’s both human readable and machine readable removes the common back‑and‑forth by producing the artifacts engineers actually run against: visual mocks, an OpenAPI contract, automated acceptance assertions, and a payment stub.

Machine‑readable outputs aren’t “nice to have” — they’re the operating currency for modern handoffs. Figma Dev Mode plus exported component JSON gives visual and token fidelity; an OpenAPI fragment describes surface and shape; Playwright assertions make acceptance criteria executable; and stripe-mock or a small payment stub keeps payment flow tests deterministic. Together they let a contractor bid against measurable scope, build to an agreed contract, and ship with confidence.

Treat the brief as structured data. Below is the minimal, repeatable schema you should attach to any ticket in your tracker (example keys shown in parentheses). Each field maps directly to an artifact generator (Figma JSON, OpenAPI, Playwright test, Stripe stub).

Implement these fields as a JSON or table attached to the ticket. Contractors can run a small generator script that creates: (a) Figma frames and named component instances for visual verification, (b) an OpenAPI paths/operation stub describing endpoints and payload shapes, (c) Playwright test files that assert happy‑path behaviors and critical error states, and (d) a stripe‑mock seed describing the test payment flow.

Fill the brief with a concrete example: title="Pay invoice", flow=[{screen:cart,action:"enter-card"},{screen:confirm,action:"submit-payment"}], api=[{method:POST,path:/payments,request:{amount:int, currency:str, sourceId:str},response:{status:str,id:str}}], acceptance=[{"step":"card form visible","selector":"#card-number","assert":"visible"}]. A generator script uses the ui and token fields to output a Figma JSON snapshot with named components and three states (default/processing/error) so the contractor can implement exact CSS/token values.

From api fields the tool emits an OpenAPI paths/operation stub with the POST /payments operation and JSON schemas for request/response. That OpenAPI stub can be used to create server stubs or client SDKs and to feed stripe‑mock seed data. Acceptance items become Playwright test assertions (expect(locator).toBeVisible(), expect(response.status()).toBe(200)) so QA or CI can run the same checks the contractor used to validate the implementation.

Attach the brief to the ticket and require contractors to produce a short deliverable checklist in the proposal: generated Figma JSON (link), OpenAPI YAML (file), Playwright tests (path), and a stripe‑mock seed (repo or curl). Evaluate bids on whether the contractor’s sample artifacts match the brief, not on vague deliverables. This makes quotes comparable and reduces negotiation friction.

Operationally, add this workflow to your PR template: link the brief id, check that generated artifacts are present in the repo, and run the Playwright suite in CI. If the Playwright assertions and OpenAPI schema pass, the visual check becomes a quick review of Figma snapshots against the deployed UI. Over time you’ll collect a library of briefs that act as repeatable building blocks for new features.