| name | criticize-with-docs |
| description | Extend a design criticizing session with repository-aware documentation discovery, terminology checks, decision status, and controlled documentation updates. Use when the user wants to stress-test a plan against existing code and documented intent, create a private working draft, or keep canonical design documentation aligned as decisions are accepted. |
| allowed-tools | Read Grep Glob Bash(gh *) Bash(git *) Agent |
Apply the core criticizing workflow
Use the criticize-design skill. Apply its decision tree, ledger, one-question-at-a-time rule, evidence gathering, option quality bar, scenario testing, and closure audit. This skill only adds documentation routing and recording rules.
Choose the documentation mode
Infer the least expansive mode authorized by the user's request:
- Discussion-only — maintain the decision ledger in the conversation and make no file changes. Use this by default when the user asks only to discuss, review, or stress-test.
- Working draft — write to a user-approved draft location. Preserve
provisional and accepted status explicitly. Use local-only or ignored storage when the user requests a private draft.
- Canonical update — update the repository's authoritative tracked documentation, but only when the user explicitly asks for documentation changes.
If the mode is unclear, continue read-only and ask only before the first write. Never promote a provisional decision into canonical documentation as accepted.
Discover the repository's documentation system
Before recording anything:
- Read repository instructions and documentation guidance such as
AGENTS.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, and the README.
- Discover existing design authorities and navigation: design references, RFCs, ADRs, architecture docs, API contracts, issue-based proposals,
CONTEXT.md, or CONTEXT-MAP.md.
- Identify which source describes the current implementation, which describes the target state, and which is merely a proposal.
- Follow the repository's existing location, structure, terminology, and status conventions. Do not create
CONTEXT.md, CONTEXT-MAP.md, or docs/adr/ merely because they are absent.
- If more than one document could be authoritative, surface the ambiguity and recommend one source of truth before writing.
Classify conflicts before resolving them
When code, documentation, and the proposed design disagree, classify the mismatch before asking what to change:
- current-code defect;
- stale documentation;
- intentional target design ahead of implementation;
- new proposal beyond the current target;
- terminology mismatch without behavioral disagreement.
Do not call target-ahead-of-code documentation stale. State which layer each claim belongs to and preserve deliberate differences.
Sharpen language and scenarios
- Challenge terminology against the repository's glossary or canonical design language when one exists.
- When language is vague or overloaded, propose a precise canonical term and identify aliases or meanings to avoid.
- Stress-test domain relationships and public contracts with concrete scenarios and edge cases.
- Cross-reference user claims with code and documentation. Surface contradictions with evidence rather than deference.
- Keep domain language separate from implementation names when the distinction matters.
Record decisions without churn
- Record accepted decisions after a coherent decision cluster, not after every sentence.
- Keep provisional decisions visibly provisional in working drafts; omit them from accepted canonical contracts unless the repository has a proposed/open-points convention.
- Preserve rationale, rejected same-level alternatives, consequences, boundaries, and open points only when they help future readers understand the decision.
- Keep implementation facts in implementation-facing docs and domain/mathematical meaning in design-facing docs.
- Update navigation, cross-references, or supersession markers when the repository's conventions require them.
- Reconcile the updated document against the decision ledger before finishing.
Route to an appropriate document profile
- Repository-native design or API document — default. Follow the existing format, such as Contract/Rationale/Open points, RFC sections, or API reference conventions.
- Domain glossary/context document. Use only when the repository already uses
CONTEXT.md/CONTEXT-MAP.md or the user explicitly chooses that form. Then read and follow CONTEXT-FORMAT.md.
- ADR. Offer or create one only when the decision is hard to reverse, surprising without context, and the result of a genuine trade-off. Then read and follow ADR-FORMAT.md together with repository conventions.
- Private or meeting draft. Use a user-approved path, label status clearly, and keep it out of tracked documentation when requested.
Close the documentation session
Report the documentation mode, files changed, decisions recorded, provisional/open decisions, conflicts found, and validation performed. Do not claim the canonical docs are aligned until the written result has been checked against the final decision ledger and repository navigation.
