Use when documenting verified prerequisites, installation, configuration, validation, upgrade, and uninstall procedures. Use user-manual for post-install operation and release-notes for version-specific migration changes.
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Use when documenting verified prerequisites, installation, configuration, validation, upgrade, and uninstall procedures. Use user-manual for post-install operation and release-notes for version-specific migration changes.
Use when documenting verified prerequisites, installation, configuration, validation, upgrade, and uninstall procedures. Use user-manual for post-install operation and release-notes for version-specific migration changes.
Do Not Use When
Do not use when a more specific upstream or downstream skill owns the task, or when the required project context has not been prepared.
Do not use this skill to fabricate missing project facts, legal conclusions, test results, approvals, or certification claims.
Required Inputs
Artefact
Source or provider
Required?
Missing-input behaviour
Signed release artefact and checksum; supported environment matrix; dependency versions; configuration schema; install, upgrade, rollback, and uninstall procedures
Release engineering and platform owners
Yes
Stop dependent work; name the missing item, owner, and decision impact. A review check remains not assessed.
Scope, audience, baseline/version, and accountable decision owner
Requester or project context
Yes
Ask for or record the gap; do not infer authority or scope.
Capability and permission boundaries
Default to read-only. Read and search access to the supplied artefacts are required. Editing is limited to an explicitly authorised requested draft or project files. Execute validation only when authorised; publishing, signature, certification, production mutation, destructive action, spending, and risk acceptance require explicit authority.
Degraded Mode
When files, tools, network, rendering, fonts, execution, or evidence are unavailable, return the narrowest useful qualified draft or finding set. Name every unavailable check and its consequence; an unassessed check is never a pass. Preserve evidence already gathered and provide the exact next verification step.
Decision Rules
Condition
Action
Failure or risk avoided
A command or procedure was not tested on the stated environment
Label it unverified and stop release
Destructive or unusable setup guidance
Verification fails
Run documented recovery or rollback before continuing
Partially installed systems
Workflow
Confirm the requested artefact, audience, scope, decision owner, and applicable baseline or version. Work read-only by default; source mutation, publication, signature, certification, production change, or risk acceptance requires explicit authority.
Inspect every required input and record missing, stale, conflicting, or inaccessible evidence. Stop claims that depend on an unresolved required input.
Apply the Decision Rules, then execute the existing Core Instructions below in order; preserve project terminology and trace each material statement to its source.
Test the draft against the output acceptance conditions and domain quality standards. If a check cannot run, mark it not assessed and never convert it into a pass.
On failure, recover by preserving completed evidence, identifying the narrowest corrective action and owner, and rerunning only the affected checks before handoff.
Produce the named artefact and evidence record; publish, sign, certify, mutate production, or accept risk only under explicit authority.
Outputs
Artefact
Consumer
Observable acceptance condition
Installation Guide
Customer, support, success, sales, or implementation owner
A new operator can complete and verify installation on every stated environment and recover cleanly from each documented failure.
Gap and decision record
Accountable owner and downstream reviewer
Every gap has status, impact, owner, next action, and no unsupported pass or approval.
Evidence Produced
Evidence
Contents
Acceptance condition
Installation Guide evidence record
Source identifiers, scope/version, decisions, checks, exceptions, and approval state
A reviewer can reproduce each material conclusion from named sources.
Validation record
Check, result (pass, fail, or not assessed), evidence location, date, and actor
No required check is omitted or silently treated as passed.
Quality Standards
Keep outputs grounded in source context, traceable to stated standards, and specific enough to review or verify.
Use deterministic acceptance conditions and preserve traceability from source to decision and output.
Separate facts, inferences, assumptions, and approvals; never present one as another.
Apply 28-anti-ai-slop during authoring and 29-ai-slop-audit at major checkpoints and release.
Anti-Patterns
Producing Installation Guide from assumptions instead of named project sources. Fix: Cite the source or mark the item unverified.
Treating a missing or inaccessible check as passed. Fix: Mark it not assessed, state impact, and block dependent claims.
Using vague gates such as adequate, secure, or user-friendly. Fix: Replace each with an observable criterion, threshold, and evidence source.
Copying a generic template without product, control, role, version, or jurisdiction detail. Fix: Ground every section in the supplied context and remove unused boilerplate.
Publishing, signing, certifying, changing production, or accepting risk without authority. Fix: Prepare a draft and route the decision to the accountable owner.
Listing evidence without provenance or an acceptance result. Fix: Record source, period, integrity check, mapping, and pass/fail/not-assessed status.
Worked Example
Example: if a command or procedure was not tested on the stated environment, label it unverified and stop release. Record the evidence and result in the validation record; this avoids destructive or unusable setup guidance.
This is the second skill in Phase 08 (End-User Documentation). It produces a comprehensive installation guide that walks end users and system administrators through prerequisites, system requirements, step-by-step installation procedures, post-installation configuration, and verification. The output conforms to ISO 26514 (User Documentation) and serves as the authoritative installation reference for deploying the software in end-user environments.
When to Use This Skill
After tech_stack.md exists in projects/<ProjectName>/_context/ with technology choices, runtime versions, and platform requirements.
When end users or system administrators require clear installation instructions.
Optionally after Phase 06 when Deployment_Guide.md exists in projects/<ProjectName>/<phase>/<document>/ for infrastructure and deployment context.
Complete installation guide with system requirements, prerequisites, steps, configuration, verification, and troubleshooting
Core Instructions
Follow these eight steps in order. Halt and notify the user if a required input file is missing.
Step 1: Read Context Files
Read tech_stack.md from projects/<ProjectName>/_context/. Optionally read Deployment_Guide.md from projects/<ProjectName>/<phase>/<document>/. Log the absolute path of each file read. Halt if any required file is missing.
Step 2: Define System Requirements
Document minimum and recommended system requirements:
Operating system versions with architecture (e.g., Windows 10 x64, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS)
Hardware minimums (CPU, RAM, disk space) and recommended specifications
Upgrading -- Upgrade procedures and migration notes
Uninstallation -- Clean removal procedures
Common Issues & Solutions -- Error catalog with resolutions
Common Pitfalls
Platform-agnostic commands: Installation commands SHALL specify the target platform when commands differ across operating systems.
Missing version pinning: Every dependency SHALL specify a minimum version number.
No verification step: Every installation guide SHALL include a verification procedure that confirms the product is operational.
Assumed prerequisites: The guide SHALL NOT assume any prerequisite is already installed; every dependency SHALL be listed explicitly.
Missing uninstallation: Every guide SHALL include clean removal instructions.
Verification Checklist
Installation_Guide.md exists in projects/<ProjectName>/<phase>/<document>/ with all nine sections populated.
System requirements specify minimum OS, hardware, and network requirements.
Prerequisites list every runtime, package manager, and external service with version numbers.
Installation steps are numbered with exact commands and expected output.
Configuration section documents all required and optional parameters.
Post-installation verification includes at least one functional test.
Upgrading section includes data backup guidance.
Common issues section addresses permission errors and dependency conflicts.
Integration
Direction
Skill
Relationship
Upstream
Phase 06 (01-deployment-guide)
Consumes Deployment_Guide.md for infrastructure and environment context
Upstream
Project Context
Consumes tech_stack.md for technology and platform requirements
Downstream
03-faq
FAQ generation references installation guide for setup questions
Downstream
01-user-manual
User manual references installation guide for onboarding
Standards Compliance
ISO 26514 -- Systems and Software Engineering -- Requirements for Designers and Developers of User Documentation. Governs installation procedure structure, completeness, and audience-appropriateness.
