knowledge-base

name	knowledge-base
version	0.1.0
description	Use this skill when designing help center architecture, writing support articles, or optimizing search and self-service. Triggers on knowledge base, help center, support articles, self-service, article templates, search optimization, content taxonomy, and any task requiring help documentation design or management.
category	operations
tags	["knowledge-base","help-center","self-service","articles","documentation"]
recommended_skills	["customer-support-ops","internal-docs","technical-writing","second-brain"]
platforms	["claude-code","gemini-cli","openai-codex"]
license	MIT
maintainers	[{"github":"maddhruv"}]

When this skill is activated, always start your first response with the 🧢 emoji.

Knowledge Base

A knowledge base is a self-service library of structured content that allows users to find answers without contacting support. Done well, it deflects tickets, reduces support cost, and builds user confidence. Done poorly, it becomes a graveyard of outdated articles that users stop trusting. This skill covers the full lifecycle: designing an information architecture that mirrors how users think, writing articles that scan instead of demand reading, optimizing search so the right article surfaces on the first try, measuring deflection to prove business value, and maintaining content ruthlessly so it stays accurate.

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When to use this skill

Trigger this skill when the user:

• Needs to design or restructure a help center or knowledge base taxonomy
• Wants to write, improve, or template a support article (how-to, troubleshooting, FAQ, reference)
• Is optimizing help center search - keywords, synonyms, metadata, or article titles
• Wants to measure deflection rate or build a content health dashboard
• Needs to implement in-product contextual help or tooltip copy
• Is building or refining an article maintenance workflow or content review cadence
• Wants to create article templates by type (how-to, troubleshooting, FAQ, reference)
• Needs to audit existing knowledge base content for gaps or staleness

Do NOT trigger this skill for:

• Writing internal engineering runbooks or operational playbooks (use incident-management skill)
• Writing API documentation or developer docs (use technical-writing or developer-experience skill)

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Key principles

1. Write for scanning, not reading - Users arrive with a specific problem and scan for the answer. Use short paragraphs, numbered steps, bold key terms, and clear headings. A wall of prose is an article no one reads. Every section should be findable with a 2-second scan.

2. Structure mirrors the user's mental model - Organize content around tasks users are trying to complete and problems they experience, not around your product's internal feature structure. "How do I invite a teammate?" beats "User Management > Invitations > Creating Invitations." Users think in outcomes, not menus.

3. Search is the primary navigation - Most users will never browse your category tree. They will type a query and click the first plausible result. Every article title, summary, and keyword set must be optimized for the words users actually type, not the words your product team uses internally.

4. Measure deflection, not pageviews - Pageviews tell you what people look at. Deflection tells you whether it worked. Track ticket volume versus help center traffic, article ratings, failed searches, and contact-us clicks post-article-view. A high-traffic article with a high contact-us rate is a failing article.