docs-check

name	docs-check
description	Validate documentation freshness, completeness, and quality against the current codebase state. This skill should be used when users want to check documentation health, find stale docs, detect hallucinations in documentation, or audit documentation quality.
metadata	{"author":"mgiovani","version":"1.0.0","source":"https://github.com/mgiovani/skills"}
disable-model-invocation	true
argument-hint	[focus]
allowed-tools	Read, Grep, Glob, Bash(git *, find *), Task
context	fork
agent	general-purpose

Docs Check

Cross-Platform AI Agent Skill This skill works with any AI agent platform that supports the skills.sh standard.

Check Documentation Quality

Validate documentation freshness, completeness, and quality against current codebase state.

Anti-Hallucination Detection

CRITICAL: This skill should DETECT hallucinations in existing docs:

1. Cross-reference claims - For each claim in docs, verify against actual code
2. Verify component counts - If docs say "5 services", count actual services
3. Check file references - Verify all referenced files actually exist
4. Validate diagrams - Ensure diagram components match real codebase

Workflow

Phase 1: Parallel Documentation Analysis (Use Parallel Analysis)

For Multiple Documents

Spawn parallel subagents for each documentation file:

For Single Document (Section-Level Verification)

Even when checking ONE document, spawn subagents for each logical section. See references/verification-patterns.md for detailed section-level verification patterns.

Verification categories to parallelize:

• Component/service names - Do they exist?
• Numeric counts - Are they accurate?
• Diagram entities - Are they real?
• File/path references - Do files exist?
• Technology claims - Are they in package files?
• Relationship claims - Do the connections exist in code?

Phase 2: Parse Arguments

1. Extract optional focus area from command arguments
2. Focus areas: core, data, infrastructure, all
3. Default: check all documentation

Phase 3: Scan and Analyze

1. Find all documentation files in docs/
2. Identify documentation types present
3. Check for ADRs and RFCs
4. Detect technology stack, database presence, deployment configs, project type

Phase 4: Perform Validation Checks

A. Relevance Check: Determine which docs are relevant, identify missing documentation for detected technologies.

B. Freshness Check: Compare doc last-modified dates with related code changes using git history. Flag docs not updated after significant code changes.

C. Completeness Check: Verify all required sections are present, check for unreplaced {{PLACEHOLDER}} values, ensure diagrams exist where expected.

D. Quality Check: Validate Mermaid diagram syntax, check for broken internal links, verify markdown formatting, check for empty sections.

For detailed verification commands and bash patterns, see references/verification-patterns.md.

Phase 5: Calculate Scores

See references/scoring-criteria.md for complete scoring rubrics.

Score categories per document:

• Freshness (0-100): Based on recency of updates relative to code changes
• Completeness (0-100): Based on section coverage and placeholder replacement
• Quality (0-100): Based on formatting, diagram validity, link integrity

Overall Score: Average of all document scores, weighted by importance (core docs > others).

Phase 6: Generate Report

Produce a comprehensive report containing:

• Status summary with overall score
• List of documents by status (Good, Needs Attention, Missing)
• Hallucination Report - Claims that do not match reality
• Quality issues with specific locations and line numbers
• Actionable recommendations with specific commands

Output Format

Status Summary

Documentation Health Report

Overall Score: 85/100

Good (3 docs):
 docs/architecture.md (Score: 95/100)
 docs/onboarding.md (Score: 92/100)
 docs/adr/ (5 records, Score: 88/100)

Needs Attention (2 docs):
 docs/data-model.md (Score: 65/100)
 docs/deployment.md (Score: 58/100)

Missing (2 docs):
 docs/security.md
 docs/api-documentation.md

Quality Issues:
 docs/data-model.md:42 - Invalid Mermaid syntax
 docs/architecture.md:15 - Broken link to [non-existent.md]
### Recommendations Format

Priority Recommendations:

1. HIGH: Update data model documentation Command: docs-diagram er Reason: Schema changed 5 days ago, ER diagram missing

2. MEDIUM: Fix deployment documentation placeholders Command: docs-update deployment Reason: Contains unreplaced placeholders

3. LOW: Add security documentation Command: docs-diagram security Reason: Good practice for complete documentation

Usage Examples

Check all documentation:

docs-check
With specific focus:

docs-check core docs-check data docs-check focus on database documentation Quick check:

docs-check quick
## Important Notes

- **Non-destructive**: Only reads, never modifies documentation
- **Git-aware**: Uses git history to assess freshness
- **Context-aware**: Understands project type and relevant docs
- **Actionable**: Provides specific commands to fix issues
- **Incremental**: Can be run frequently

## When to Run

- Before onboarding new team members
- During documentation reviews
- After major refactoring
- As part of pre-release checklist
- When documentation feels stale
- Regularly (weekly or bi-weekly)

## Additional Resources

- For detailed verification commands and bash patterns, see [references/verification-patterns.md](references/verification-patterns.md)
- For complete scoring rubrics and thresholds, see [references/scoring-criteria.md](references/scoring-criteria.md)

## Claude Code Enhanced Features

This skill includes the following Claude Code-specific enhancements:

## Workflow

### Phase 1: Parallel Documentation Analysis (Use SubAgents)

#### For Multiple Documents

Spawn parallel subagents for each documentation file:

Use Task tool with multiple parallel agents:

Agent 1 - Core Docs Verification:

• prompt: "Read docs/architecture.md and verify EVERY claim against the actual codebase. For each component mentioned, confirm it exists. For each count, verify with find/glob. Report any claims that cannot be verified."
• subagent_type: "general-purpose"

Agent 2 - Data Docs Verification:

• prompt: "Read docs/data-model.md and verify all entities exist in actual model files. Check each relationship claimed is real. Report mismatches."
• subagent_type: "general-purpose"

Agent 3 - Explore Codebase Reality:

• prompt: "Analyze the actual codebase structure. Count real components, services, models. This will be compared against documentation claims."
• subagent_type: "Explore"

#### For Single Document (Section-Level Verification)

Even when checking ONE document, spawn subagents for each logical section. See [references/verification-patterns.md](references/verification-patterns.md) for detailed section-level verification patterns.

**Verification categories to parallelize**:
- Component/service names - Do they exist?
- Numeric counts - Are they accurate?
- Diagram entities - Are they real?
- File/path references - Do files exist?
- Technology claims - Are they in package files?
- Relationship claims - Do the connections exist in code?

### Phase 2: Parse Arguments

1. Extract optional focus area from `$ARGUMENTS`
2. Focus areas: `core`, `data`, `infrastructure`, `all`
3. Default: check all documentation

### Phase 3: Scan and Analyze

1. Find all documentation files in `docs/`
2. Identify documentation types present
3. Check for ADRs and RFCs
4. Detect technology stack, database presence, deployment configs, project type

### Phase 4: Perform Validation Checks

**A. Relevance Check**: Determine which docs are relevant, identify missing documentation for detected technologies.

**B. Freshness Check**: Compare doc last-modified dates with related code changes using git history. Flag docs not updated after significant code changes.

**C. Completeness Check**: Verify all required sections are present, check for unreplaced `{{PLACEHOLDER}}` values, ensure diagrams exist where expected.

**D. Quality Check**: Validate Mermaid diagram syntax, check for broken internal links, verify markdown formatting, check for empty sections.

For detailed verification commands and bash patterns, see [references/verification-patterns.md](references/verification-patterns.md).

### Phase 5: Calculate Scores

See [references/scoring-criteria.md](references/scoring-criteria.md) for complete scoring rubrics.

**Score categories per document**:
- **Freshness** (0-100): Based on recency of updates relative to code changes
- **Completeness** (0-100): Based on section coverage and placeholder replacement
- **Quality** (0-100): Based on formatting, diagram validity, link integrity

**Overall Score**: Average of all document scores, weighted by importance (core docs > others).

### Phase 6: Generate Report

Produce a comprehensive report containing:
- Status summary with overall score
- List of documents by status (Good, Needs Attention, Missing)
- **Hallucination Report** - Claims that do not match reality
- Quality issues with specific locations and line numbers
- Actionable recommendations with specific commands