docs-lifecycle-sweep

name	docs-lifecycle-sweep
description	Docs lifecycle sweep — Tier-B classification with evidence for stale docs. Use when user says doc sweep, clean up stale docs, compact audits, doc janitor, or promote/lift/retire a doc.

Docs lifecycle sweep — the doc janitor

docs-governance defines what every doc should be (lifecycle types, existence test, closing prescriptions, cross-reference discipline). This skill is the how — it walks the repo-wide docs/ surface, applies the spec mechanically, and produces a per-file action plan the user approves before anything is touched.

The promise: at the end of a sweep, every remaining file passes the existence test, every closed plan is lifted, every closed audit is either kept-with-justification or deleted-with-knowledge-lifted, every cross-reference still resolves, and there is no dead weight.

When to fire

User intent (any phrase is enough):

• "clean up stale docs" / "doc janitor" / "doc sweep"
• "audit docs lifecycle" / "compact audits" / "compact plans"
• "are these audits still earning their keep"
• "what's gone stale in docs/"
• "delete tombstones" / "no tombstones, please"
• "promote / lift / retire <doc>"
• "is this audit closed properly"
• After landing a substantive PR, asking "did anything in docs go stale because of this?"

Also fire proactively when:

• Closing a Plan, Audit, or Research file via improve-codebase-architecture or any normal commit that ships a tracked roadmap.md item — the closure is a natural sweep trigger for that file's neighbours.
• A PR adds a new docs/audits/<topic>.md — sweep the rest of docs/audits/ to catch anything the new audit just superseded.
• A repo-wide refactor changes paths or symbol names cited from docs (cross-reference rot risk).

Scope (which surfaces this skill walks)

This repo is Tier B only — one repo-wide docs/ surface, no per-feature subtrees, no per-shared-component READMEs. Two surfaces:

Tier	Substrate	Sweep scope
B — repo-wide	docs/ at repo root	All 5 lifecycle types: architecture.md, roadmap.md, glossary.md, audits/, plans/, research/
0 — per-tooling-area	.agents/, .cursor/	Each rule + skill — apply existence test; check Tier-1 always-on cost still earns its keep

Default: the user names a surface (e.g. "sweep docs/audits/"), and we walk just that one. If they say "sweep docs" without scope, walk all of docs/.

Procedure: WORKFLOW.md — enumerate → existence test → classify → report → execute on approval.

Hooking the sweep into normal workflows

The skill is discoverable (Tier 3) — it fires on user intent. To make it run more automatically:

• End of every PR-closing commit — when an agent closes a Plan or Audit (e.g. via improve-codebase-architecture), it should call this skill on the affected audits/ or plans/ directory as the final step.
• End of every material refactor — when src/ files move or symbols rename, run this skill on docs/ to catch cross-reference rot.
• Pre-merge hygiene — before merging a long-lived branch, sweep the docs/ surfaces it touches so stale claims don't land on main.

Anti-patterns

• ❌ Deleting without surfacing the classification first. The user owns the call. The skill produces evidence; it does not unilaterally decide.
• ❌ Slimming without grepping for cited rule numbers / section anchors. Anchor breakage is silent and degrades over time. docs-governance § 6 is non-negotiable.
• ❌ Leaving tombstones. A "this audit was closed and deleted, see commit X" pointer file IS the dead weight the sweep is supposed to eliminate. Trust git log --follow. A single roadmap.md line under "Closed audits (pointers)" is the maximum allowed surface for "this used to exist."
• ❌ Lifting trivia. Not every closed audit has knowledge worth lifting. If the audit's findings are 100% mechanical ("rename X to Y, delete dead file Z") and the result is visible in source, lift nothing, delete the file.
• ❌ Reformatting "while we're here." A sweep edits structure (delete / slim / lift / pointer-update). Cosmetic re-flowing of unrelated docs is a separate PR.
• ❌ Sweeping Tier-1 rules without checking the always-on cost ledger. A Tier-1 rule that no longer earns its always-on cost should demote to Tier 2 / Tier 3 (per agents-tier-system), not get deleted outright.
• ❌ Leaving enumerated cross-reference indexes inline after a slim or delete. A line like "Cited from architecture.md, glossary.md" in any doc is a hand-maintained index that goes stale every time the sweep runs. When you encounter one, replace it with the lookup command (rg "<anchor>" docs/) — the command IS the index. See docs-governance § 6.
• ❌ Citing specific audit / plan / research filenames as canonical examples in skills or rules. Skills are durable; the docs they describe are mortal under this very lifecycle. Use shape placeholders (<YYYY-MM-DD>-<topic>.md, docs/audits/<topic>.md) and describe the shape of what to look for, not which file does it today. Same hazard in rules — see authoring-discipline + authoring-discipline/PROSE.md (no mortal filename anchors).

Reference

• docs-governance — the spec this skill operationalises (lifecycle types, existence test, closing prescriptions, cross-reference discipline).
• docs-governance-priming — Tier 2 priming; cites docs-governance + this skill on doc edits.
• improve-codebase-architecture — natural caller; closes plans and triggers a sweep on the surrounding plans/ folder.
• WORKFLOW.md — 5-step procedure + output substrate.
• agents-tier-system — applies when sweeping Tier 0 (.agents/rules/, .agents/skills/).