documentation

name	Documentation
description	Documentation standards and code-to-docs sync conventions for Forge projects — JSDoc/TSDoc annotations, README/CHANGELOG structure, auto-generated API reference, doc-tree layout, and staleness detection. Use when writing or reviewing docs, adding JSDoc to exported functions, structuring a docs/ tree, deciding what to document vs auto-generate, or running the Forge docs commands (/forge:docs-status, /forge:docs-audit, /forge:docs-update).
when_to_use	Trigger phrases: "document this", "add JSDoc", "write the README", "generate API docs", "is our documentation stale", "docs audit", "documentation coverage", "changelog", "ADR", "how should I structure docs", "docs are out of date".
allowed-tools	Read, Grep, Glob, Bash(git *), Bash(find *)

Documentation Management

Purpose: Keep documentation synchronized with code Primary Agent: release-sentinel (opus) — docs↔code sync, staleness, changelog generation Supporting Agent: docs (sonnet) — writes JSDoc/README/API/architecture docs Contributors: all agents (each documents its own output)

---

The Documentation Promise

"Every feature is documented. Every change is tracked. No user is left wondering how something works."

The doc tree below is the recommended layout for a consuming project — it is aspirational, not the structure of this plugin repo itself. Adopt the parts that fit; do not scaffold empty directories to match it.

---

Documentation Hierarchy

docs/
├── README.md                 # Entry point, always current
├── CHANGELOG.md              # Auto-generated from commits
├── CONTRIBUTING.md           # How to contribute
├── 
├── getting-started/          # Onboarding
│   ├── installation.md
│   ├── quick-start.md
│   └── first-project.md
│
├── guides/                   # How-to guides
│   ├── authentication.md
│   ├── deployment.md
│   └── troubleshooting.md
│
├── api/                      # API reference (auto-generated)
│   ├── overview.md
│   ├── users.md
│   ├── projects.md
│   └── webhooks.md
│
├── components/               # Component docs (auto-generated)
│   ├── button.md
│   ├── input.md
│   └── card.md
│
├── cli/                      # CLI reference (auto-generated)
│   └── commands.md
│
├── architecture/             # Design docs (manual)
│   ├── overview.md
│   ├── decisions/            # ADRs
│   │   ├── 001-database-choice.md
│   │   └── 002-auth-strategy.md
│   └── diagrams/
│
└── templates/                # Doc templates
    ├── api-endpoint.md
    ├── component.md
    └── adr.md

---

Documentation Types & Ownership

1. Reference Documentation (Auto-Generated)

What: API endpoints, component props, CLI commands, config options How: Extract from code annotations (JSDoc, OpenAPI, decorators) When: On every relevant code change Owner: Release Sentinel (automated)

/**
 * Create a new user account
 * 
 * @endpoint POST /api/users
 * @auth Required (Bearer token)
 * @rateLimit 10 requests/minute
 * 
 * @param {string} email - User's email address
 * @param {string} password - Password (min 8 chars)
 * @param {string} [name] - Display name (optional)
 * 
 * @returns {User} Created user object
 * @throws {400} Invalid input
 * @throws {409} Email already exists
 * 
 * @example
 * ```bash
 * curl -X POST https://api.example.com/users \
 *   -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
 *   -d '{"email": "[e-mail]", "password": "secure123"}'
 * ```
 */
export async function createUser(req: Request): Promise<User> {
  // Implementation
}

↓ Auto-generates ↓

## POST /api/users

Create a new user account.

### Authentication
Required. Include Bearer token in Authorization header.

### Rate Limit
10 requests per minute.

### Request Body

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
|-------|------|----------|-------------|
| email | string | Yes | User's email address |
| password | string | Yes | Password (min 8 chars) |
| name | string | No | Display name |

### Response

Returns the created `User` object.

### Errors

| Code | Description |
|------|-------------|
| 400 | Invalid input |
| 409 | Email already exists |

### Example
```bash
curl -X POST https://api.example.com/users \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  -d '{"email": "[e-mail]", "password": "secure123"}'
```

---

2. Conceptual Documentation (Human + AI)

What: Architecture overviews, design decisions, system concepts How: Human writes, AI assists with formatting and linking When: After major architectural changes Owner: Lead Architect creates, Release Sentinel maintains

---

3. Tutorial Documentation (Human + AI)

What: Step-by-step guides, walkthroughs, examples How: Human creates outline, AI can expand and validate When: New features, common workflows Owner: Relevant agent creates, Release Sentinel maintains

---

4. Changelog (Fully Automated)

What: Version history, changes, migration guides How: Parse conventional commits When: Every release Owner: Release Sentinel (automated)

---

Staleness Detection

Documentation becomes stale when:

1. Code changed, docs didn't

   • File hash changed since last doc update
   • New exports not documented
   • Function signatures changed

2. Time-based decay

   • No updates in 90+ days for active areas
   • Version mismatch (doc says v1.x, code is v2.x)

3. Link rot

   • Internal links broken
   • External links return 404

4. Example failures

   • Code examples don't compile
   • API examples return errors

---

Documentation Quality Checklist

Every documentation file must have:

• Clear title and purpose
• Last updated date
• Version compatibility note
• Working code examples
• Links to related docs
• No broken links
• No outdated screenshots

---

Commands

These are namespaced under forge: and are user-typed only — each carries disable-model-invocation: true, so Claude never auto-invokes them; the user runs them.

Command	Purpose	Arguments
/forge:docs-status	Show documentation health & coverage	none
/forge:docs-audit	Comprehensive quality audit (coverage, inventory, links)	none
/forge:docs-update	Find and update stale docs	--file <path>, --dry-run, --jsdoc, or none = all

There is no docs-generate command in this plugin. To create a doc from a template, invoke the docs agent or use /forge:docs-update --jsdoc for source annotations.

---

Gotchas

• /docs-generate does not exist. Earlier revisions of this skill listed it; the plugin ships only docs-status, docs-audit, docs-update. Do not tell a user to run it.
• Commands are namespaced /forge:docs-*, not bare /docs-*. A bare /docs-status will not resolve.
• These commands do not auto-trigger. All three have disable-model-invocation: true. Saying "check the docs" does not fire them — the user must type the slash command, or you run the underlying analysis yourself with Grep/Glob/Bash.
• docs-update argument surface is inconsistent between frontmatter and body. Its argument-hint advertises [file-path] [--all], but the command body actually parses --file <path>, --dry-run, and --jsdoc (bare invocation = update all). Follow the body's flags, not the hint.
• Staleness detection is git-window-based, not semantic. docs-update compares git diff --name-only HEAD~20 -- src/ against docs changes — a doc edited by hand without a matching source commit inside that window can read as "fresh" even if wrong. It flags drift, not correctness.
• Two agents own docs, split by intent. release-sentinel (opus) handles sync/staleness/ changelog around releases; docs (sonnet) authors new prose. Route "keep docs current for the release" to release-sentinel and "write the API guide" to docs.
• Auto-generation only works if the source is annotated. The JSDoc→markdown pipeline below produces nothing from undocumented exports. docs-status counts documented vs undocumented exports precisely so you know the input coverage before generating.

---

Additional resources

• docs/architecture/decisions/ — ADRs (Architecture Decision Records), manually authored
• Command sources: commands/docs-status.md, commands/docs-audit.md, commands/docs-update.md