Doc Maintenance Skill

Detect documentation drift and fix it via PR — no rewrites, no churn.

When to Use

• Periodic doc review (e.g. weekly or after releases)
• After major feature merges
• When asked "are our docs up to date?"
• When asked to audit README / SPEC / PRODUCT accuracy

Target Documents

README.md

doc/SPEC.md

doc/PRODUCT.md

Out of scope: DEVELOPING.md, DATABASE.md, CLI.md, doc/plans/, skill files, release notes. These are dev-facing or ephemeral — lower risk of user-facing confusion.

Workflow

Step 1 — Detect what changed

Find the last review cursor:

# Read the last-reviewed commit SHA
CURSOR_FILE=".doc-review-cursor"
if [ -f "$CURSOR_FILE" ]; then
  LAST_SHA=$(cat "$CURSOR_FILE" | head -1)
else
  # First run: look back 60 days
  LAST_SHA=$(git log --format="%H" --after="60 days ago" --reverse | head -1)
fi

Then gather commits since the cursor:

git log "$LAST_SHA"..HEAD --oneline --no-merges

Step 2 — Classify changes

Scan commit messages and changed files. Categorize into:

• Feature — new capabilities (keywords:

  feat

  ,

  add

  ,

  implement

  ,

  support

  )
• Breaking — removed/renamed things (keywords:

  remove

  ,

  breaking

  ,

  drop

  ,

  rename

  )
• Structural — new directories, config changes, new adapters, new CLI commands

Ignore: refactors, test-only changes, CI config, dependency bumps, doc-only changes, style/formatting commits. These don't affect doc accuracy.

For borderline cases, check the actual diff — a commit titled "refactor: X" that adds a new public API is a feature.

Step 3 — Build a change summary

Produce a concise list like:

Since last review (<sha>, <date>):
- FEATURE: Plugin system merged (runtime, SDK, CLI, slots, event bridge)
- FEATURE: Project archiving added
- BREAKING: Removed legacy webhook adapter
- STRUCTURAL: New .agents/skills/ directory convention

If there are no notable changes, skip to Step 7 (update cursor and exit).

Step 4 — Audit each target doc

For each target document, read it fully and cross-reference against the change summary. Check for:

1. False negatives — major shipped features not mentioned at all
2. False positives — features listed as "coming soon" / "roadmap" / "planned" / "not supported" / "TBD" that already shipped
3. Quickstart accuracy — install commands, prereqs, and startup instructions still correct (README only)
4. Feature table accuracy — does the features section reflect current capabilities? (README only)
5. Works-with accuracy — are supported adapters/integrations listed correctly?

Use

references/audit-checklist.md

references/section-map.md

Step 5 — Create branch and apply minimal edits

# Create a branch for the doc updates
BRANCH="docs/maintenance-$(date +%Y%m%d)"
git checkout -b "$BRANCH"

Apply only the edits needed to fix drift. Rules:

• Minimal patches only. Fix inaccuracies, don't rewrite sections.
• Preserve voice and style. Match the existing tone of each document.
• No cosmetic changes. Don't fix typos, reformat tables, or reorganize sections unless they're part of a factual fix.
• No new sections. If a feature needs a whole new section, note it in the PR description as a follow-up — don't add it in a maintenance pass.
• Roadmap items: Move shipped features out of Roadmap. Add a brief mention in the appropriate existing section if there isn't one already. Don't add long descriptions.

Step 6 — Open a PR

Commit the changes and open a PR:

git add README.md doc/SPEC.md doc/PRODUCT.md .doc-review-cursor
git commit -m "docs: update documentation for accuracy

- [list each fix briefly]

Co-Authored-By: Paperclip <noreply@paperclip.ing>"

git push -u origin "$BRANCH"

gh pr create \
  --title "docs: periodic documentation accuracy update" \
  --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
## Summary
Automated doc maintenance pass. Fixes documentation drift detected since
last review.

### Changes
- [list each fix]

### Change summary (since last review)
- [list notable code changes that triggered doc updates]

## Review notes
- Only factual accuracy fixes — no style/cosmetic changes
- Preserves existing voice and structure
- Larger doc additions (new sections, tutorials) noted as follow-ups

🤖 Generated by doc-maintenance skill
EOF
)"

Step 7 — Update the cursor

After a successful audit (whether or not edits were needed), update the cursor:

git rev-parse HEAD > .doc-review-cursor

If edits were made, this is already committed in the PR branch. If no edits were needed, commit the cursor update to the current branch.

Change Classification Rules

feat:

add

implement

support

remove

drop

breaking

!:

fix:

bugfix

refactor:

chore:

ci:

test:

docs:

Patch Style Guide

• Fix the fact, not the prose
• If removing a roadmap item, don't leave a gap — remove the bullet cleanly
• If adding a feature mention, match the format of surrounding entries (e.g. if features are in a table, add a table row)
• Keep README changes especially minimal — it shouldn't churn often
• For SPEC/PRODUCT, prefer updating existing statements over adding new ones (e.g. change "not supported in V1" to "supported via X" rather than adding a new section)

Output

When the skill completes, report:

• How many commits were scanned
• How many notable changes were found
• How many doc edits were made (and to which files)
• PR link (if edits were made)
• Any follow-up items that need larger doc work