maintaining-core-documentation

name	maintaining-core-documentation
description	Creates, maintains, and synchronizes core project documentation (README, TODO, DESIGN, Architecture, Testing, Deployment). Use when the user needs to write, update, or structure project documentation based on codebase changes, or whenever the user asks to perform any documentation tasks or documentation review.
metadata	{"author":"Darren \"Dazbo\" Lester"}

Maintaining Core Documentation

This skill provides a comprehensive framework for the creation and maintenance of high-quality, professional technical documentation for any software project or repository.

Table of Contents

• Triggers
• Mandatory Initialization
• Core Principles
• Technical Writer Skill Synergy
• Document Maintenance Guide
• Formatting Rules
• Documentation Review Process

Triggers

This skill should be triggered whenever:

• The user requests to create or review documentation.
• The user adds / changes / deletes functionality, or makes significant changes to the codebase.
• The user makes any changes to testing.
• The user makes any changes to deployment.

Mandatory Initialization

Before performing ANY documentation task, you MUST check for the presence of the technical-writer skill, by following the guidance in the Technical Writer Skill Synergy section below.

Core Principles

1. Persona & Style: Maintain a tone that is professional ("Expert Architect"), technical but welcoming. Use a high-level architectural perspective when explaining the "Why" behind design decisions.
2. Cross-Document Synchronisation: Changes to a core property (like a project ID, a URL, or a file path) must be propagated to all applicable documentation files immediately.
3. Read Existing Documentation: Always read the existing documentation files to understand the current state and intent of the project.
4. Tech Stack: If the file conductor/tech-stack.md is present, read it to understand the intended tech stack.
5. Technical Accuracy: Do not assume that the existing documentation is accurate or up-to-date. Verify the codebase, configuration settings (e.g. config.py, Makefile, *.tfvars, pyproject.toml), environment variable names, and command flags, before updating documentation.
6. Ask About Unknowns:
   • Ask questions to help establish design choices and technology selection.
   • Ask questions to help establish the rationale for any design decisions that are missing rationale.
7. Technical Writer Synergy: When performing documentation maintenance, you MUST make use of the technical-writer skill IF (and only IF) the technical-writer skill is present. If it is not found, follow the Technical Writer Skill Synergy section below.

Technical Writer Skill Synergy

The technical-writer skill improves the quality of your documentation review and creation.

1. Determine technical-writer skill availability: Skill exists? → Load the skill and collaborate on formatting. Skill missing? → Follow the "Installation workflow" below.

2. Installation workflow:

   • Check availability using npx skills ls -g.
   • Recommend the skill to the user.
   • If approved, install via: npx skills add https://github.com/shubhamsaboo/awesome-llm-apps --skill technical-writer -g -y

Document Maintenance Guide

Here are the core documents that should be maintained by this skill. You MUST review EACH of these core documents and update them as needed.

1. README.md (The "Storefront")

• Focus: Rapid onboarding and high-level project purpose.
• Template: README.md.template
• Sample: README.md
• Key Sections: Overview, Key Links (Blogs/Live Demo), Project Structure (folder tree), Setup (One-time vs Per-session), Useful Commands (use Markdown tables).
• Triggers include, but are not limited to:
  • Adding a new top-level directory.
  • Adding a core feature.
  • Adding a make target.
  • Changing the local development setup workflow.

2. TODO.md (Project Plan)

• Focus: Overall project roadmap and task tracking.
• Template: TODO.md.template
• Maintenance Condition: Only maintain if this file already exists. You may offer to create it, for example, if tasks have been achieved and/or future tasks are being discussed.
• Triggers include, but are not limited to:
  • Completing a step or updating the project timeline.
  • If asked to create a new TODO entry.
  • Offer to mark steps as closed when done.

3. docs/DESIGN.md (Visual & UX)

• Focus: Visual identity, UX components, and design tokens. Can be used by UI design integrations, e.g. Google Stitch.
• Template: design.md.template
• Sample: docs/DESIGN.md
• Key Sections: Visual Identity (Typography, Colours), Visual Effects (e.g. Glassmorphism), Frontend Components (Layout, Carousel, Widget, etc), CLI UX (if present).
• Triggers include, but are not limited to:
  • When implementing a UI framework (e.g. React, Vue, Angular, Svelte, etc).
  • When adding or changing any UI components.
  • Modifying visuals or style, e.g. modifying index.css global styles.

4. docs/architecture-and-walkthrough.md (The "Blueprint")

• Focus: System-wide architectural logic and design decisions. Assess if any change introduces a new "Design Decision" (ADR) that should be recorded in docs/architecture-and-walkthrough.md.
• Template: architecture-and-walkthrough.md.template
• Sample: docs/architecture-and-walkthrough.md
• Key Sections: Design Decisions (ADRs in table format with Rationale), Solution Architecture, Service/Model relationships, Key User Journeys / Walkthroughs
• Triggers include, but are not limited to:
  • Adding or changing a design decision.
  • Changing a database schema.
  • Modifying agent orchestration logic.
  • Adding or changing a coding framework.
  • Changing or introducing a new infrastructure hosting service (e.g. on GCP).
  • Adding a security component or feature.
  • Adding a layer (e.g. frontend, API, backend, persistence, etc).

5. docs/testing.md (Quality Assurance)

• Focus: How we verify the application's correctness.
• Template: testing.md.template
• Sample: docs/testing.md
• Key Sections: Scope (e.g. Python, frontend, agents), tooling (pytest, ruff, etc.), CI/CD environment specifics (Local vs CI=true), Unit/Integration/E2E test descriptions, Manual verification steps (e.g., curl scripts for rate limiting).
• Triggers include, but are not limited to:
  • Adding / changing / removing tests.
  • Changing mock strategies.
  • Introducing new quality gating tools.

6. deployment/README.md (Infrastructure)

• Focus: Provisioning and managing the infrastructure environment.
• Template: deployment-README.md.template
• Sample: deployment/README.md
• Key Sections: Deployment approach (e.g. scripts, Terraform, or both), Terraform structure, Prerequisites, Variable propagation (env.tfvars -> substitutions -> runtime), Secrets management, CI/CD pipelines.
• Maintenance Condition: All projects should have some sort of deployment documentation. If it does not exist, you should offer to create it. Update this documentation whenever you make changes to the deployment process.
• Triggers include, but are not limited to:
  • Adding a new Terraform resource.
  • Enabling APIs.
  • Changing a deployment script.
  • Adding a new service.
  • Changing or binding IAM roles.
  • Updating install pre-reqs.
  • Updating the CI/CD pipeline logic, updating GitHub Actions, updating Cloud Build, etc.

7. conductor/ Documents (Implementation Details)

• Focus: Product logic, product branding, guidelines, and tech stack details. These documents are automatically managed by the Gemini Conductor Extension, but if changes are done outside of Conductor, these documents should be updated to reflect the changes.
• Files in Scope: product.md, product-guidelines.md, tech-stack.md.
• Strict Exclusions: NEVER modify any other files in the conductor/ directory, including but not limited to: workflow.md, tracks.md, setup_state.json, or any files within the code_styleguides/ or archive/ directories.
• Maintenance Condition: ONLY maintain these documents if they already exist in the codebase.
• Triggers include, but are not limited to:
  • Major tech stack shifts.
  • Product branding changes.
  • Product logic re-definition.
  • Request to audit product alignment or tech stack compliance.

Formatting Rules

• Headings: There MUST be a blank line after every markdown header (e.g., # Header\n\nContent). This ensures consistent rendering across all Markdown viewers.
• Tables: Always use tables for configurations, model fields, and design decisions to improve readability.
• Code blocks: All code MUST be wrapped in fenced code blocks with appropriate language identifiers.

Documentation Review Process

Copy this checklist and track your progress when updating documentation:

Documentation Update Progress:

- [ ] Step 1: Identify which of the core documents are impacted by code changes.
- [ ] Step 2: Verify that NO out-of-scope files (e.g. `workflow.md`, `code_styleguides/`) are included in the review.
- [ ] Step 3: Assess if the change introduces a new "Design Decision" that should be recorded in `docs/architecture-and-walkthrough.md`.
- [ ] Step 4: For all identified core documents, draft updates as per Document Maintenance Guide, and using the appropriate templates in the `./references` directory and using the samples in `./references/samples/`.
- [ ] Step 5: **Structural Validation**: Perform a manual or automated check (e.g. using `grep`) to ensure every markdown header is followed by a blank line.
- [ ] Step 6: Review against the formatting rules in the [Formatting Rules](#formatting-rules) section.
- [ ] Step 7: Check that the identified core documents have been updated. If any changes have been missed or performed incorrectly, go back to Step 2 and repeat.
- [ ] Step 8: Check that the change aligns to the formatting rules. If not, fix them and go back to Step 6.
- [ ] Step 9: Only finalize and save when all requirements are met.
- [ ] Step 10: Summarise with a table of which documents were updated and what changes were made. Also include which documents (if any) were not updated and why.

Summary Table Format

When performing the final summarisation step of the Documentation Review Process, use the following table structure to summarise your work:

Document	Status	Change Summary / Rationale
README.md	[Updated/No Change]	[Brief description of changes OR why no update was needed]
TODO.md	[Updated/No Change]	[e.g. Marked Step 4 as complete]
docs/DESIGN.md	[Updated/No Change]	[e.g. Added new color tokens to frontmatter]
...	...	...