askit-build-docs

name	askit-build-docs
description	Creates and improves a plugin's documentation across modes (readme, quickstart, tutorial, how-to, reference, glossary, faq, troubleshooting, architecture, folder-readme, and an Astro Starlight docs site) to the Advanced Skill Library Standard. Use when authoring or refreshing docs, scaffolding a folder README, standing up a docs site, or aligning documentation with the component index.
metadata	{"version":"0.2.0","tier":"universal","audience":"intermediate"}

askit-build-docs

Purpose

Author and improve a plugin's human-and-agent-facing documentation, following the builder pattern (../../docs/reference/builder-pattern.md). create scaffolds a doc from the component index and the Standard; improve reads askit-evaluate findings and the docs and fixes gaps. Doc modes follow the Diataxis split: readme, quickstart, tutorial (learning), how-to (task), reference, glossary, faq, troubleshooting (information), and architecture (an overview that links to a detailed companion, the summary-plus-detailed convention). The folder-readme mode scaffolds or refreshes a meaningful folder's README.md so its inventory matches the folder's actual children (the G8 anti-rot guard). The site mode stands up an Astro Starlight documentation site from the pinned recipe in references/docs-site-recipe.md. Mermaid is a validated convention, not a skill.

When to use

When authoring or refreshing a plugin's docs, standing up a docs site, or aligning documentation with the component index after a change.

create mode

1. Read library.json + component frontmatter (the index) and the target doc type.
2. Scaffold the doc from the matching Diataxis shape (one purpose per page). README and architecture lead with a summary and link to detail.
3. Cross-link: every relative link must resolve (the U6 reference-link rule is the discipline to mirror).

improve mode

1. Run npx agent-skills-toolkit evaluate . --json and read the docs for drift against the component index (a renamed or removed component leaves a dangling reference).
2. Fix each gap; keep prose tight (the ETH-Zurich finding: verbose context files lower agent task success).

site mode

1. Follow references/docs-site-recipe.md: copy the pinned ../pm-skills stack (Astro 6 + @astrojs/starlight ~0.39 + astro-mermaid ~2.0, ordered mermaid-before-starlight), the GitHub Pages site + base, and the generated Pattern S content collection (ADR 0024 D2): the stock docsLoader() over src/content/docs/, a gen-docs-site.mjs generator that emits the public docs/** tree there (gitignored, rebuilt via a generate() call at the top of astro.config.mjs, link-rewritten so the clause-14.11 guard stays green), and curated landing pages on top. Not an in-place glob over ./docs.
2. Wire the deploy workflow (.github/workflows/deploy-pages.yml, triggered on site/** and docs/**) and verify npm run build plus the link/route/untracked guards are green before publishing (standing up a live site is a separate, build-verified slice; the recipe is the contract).

folder-readme mode

Scaffold or refresh a folder README.md whose inventory set-equals the folder's immediate children, so the folder-readme (G8) check stays green as the folder evolves.

1. List the folder's immediate children with fs.readdirSync, dropping README.md, gitignored/scratch/tool dirs (node_modules, .git, dist, .astro, _local, ...), lockfiles, and .gitkeep.
2. Emit a README with a frontmatter title, a one-to-two-sentence purpose, and an ## Inventory section listing each remaining child as - ``name`` - what it is (a trailing slash marks a subdirectory). For a folder under docs/, also carry the full frontmatter taxonomy (description, audience, level) so it passes G7.
3. Refresh rather than overwrite: when a README exists, keep its purpose paragraph and existing per-child descriptions, and only add or remove inventory lines so the set matches the current children. The meaningful-folder allowlist (ADR 0024 D1) is the repo's source and component folders; the repo-root README (the project hero) and templates/seed-plugin/ (a seed payload, not a folder guide) are excluded.

Writing rules (all modes)

Five rules, each from a defect found in this repository's own public docs on 2026-08-23 and 2026-08-24. The per-quadrant page anatomy, the measurable floor, and the worked exemplar are in references/style-contract.md; measure a page before and after any rewrite rather than judging your own prose.

1. Every command must run from the reader's position. A page written for a plugin author must not name node scripts/*.mjs: that path exists only in a clone, while the install docs send people to npm or the marketplace. Use the published bin (npx agent-skills-toolkit [subcommand]). Where a tool ships with the plugin but NOT the npm package, say which install route provides it rather than dropping the command. Seventy commands across 34 pages had this defect.
2. No internal planning vocabulary. Project phases, wave numbers and packet names mean nothing outside this repo, and they rot: one page told readers to wait for a phase that had shipped three months earlier.
3. Define a coined word in the sentence that first uses it, and link the glossary. Product terms (Bronze, Silver, Gold, tier) do not need this; invented ones (burndown, spine, emission, declared-tier ceiling) do.
4. A reference ID always carries a handle and a route. Never a bare E14; write what it is and link where it lives. A reader cannot look up a number they have no index for.
5. Orientation before mechanism, on every explanation and tutorial section. Say what the thing is, then what breaks without it, then the specification. A section opening with "X is an ES module with exactly two exports" has told a reader who already knew. A sweep aimed only at sentence length missed this entirely: the corpus measured plain at a 12-word median sentence and still read as hard.

Scope

Documentation is Universal (markdown is portable on both agents). The site is the v1 docs surface (ADR 0021/0023); README/CHANGELOG/RELEASE-NOTES discipline is gated by askit-release and the release-readiness gate (ADR 0022). Sample sets and eval coverage are authored by askit-build-samples, not here.