# Detecting Doc Drift

> Use when auditing documentation against the code it describes, checking whether a README/CLAUDE.md/runbook is still accurate, or finding which doc passages a code change invalidates — and whenever drift detection is invoked programmatically (by a PR check or nightly sync) and must emit a structured, parseable result.

- Skill: `aj604/detecting-doc-drift` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add aj604/detecting-doc-drift`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/aj604/detecting-doc-drift/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Docs & Writing
- Author: aj604 (https://skillmd.com/u/aj604)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/aj604/detecting-doc-drift

---


# Detecting Doc Drift

## Overview

**A doc is a set of claims about the repo; drift is a claim the repo no longer backs.**
This skill declares the *shape* of drift detection so it runs the same way every time and
can be **invoked programmatically to trigger updates** — not a one-off prose review.

Two non-negotiables make the output usable by automation:

1. **A verdict requires evidence.** Never mark a claim VERIFIED because doc and code "seem
   consistent." Verified means you ran the command, opened the line, or matched the grep.
2. **The result is structured, not prose.** Answer in the verdicts shape below. A human
   summary on top is fine; the artifact is what the engine reads and downstream tooling parses.

**REQUIRED SUB-SKILL:** Use **writing-docs** for any fix you propose — every `fix` must meet
its bar (real output, no aspirational claims, marked+anchored rationale). This skill finds
and classifies drift; writing-docs governs how the correction reads. **`fixing-docs`**
consumes the engine report this skill's audit writes — record digests are the handoff, and
`mint-approval` takes them from the person who selected them. The `scheduling-doc-sync` skill
wires detect→fix to cron/PR; where a standing policy is committed there, the selection is
derived by `policy-mint` instead, which is the only door that mints a `policy` brand.

## The audit (run these steps, in order)

The engine owns scope, segmentation, and validation; this skill owns the judgment in the
middle. Every command below is `python3 -m doclifecycle …` with the plugin's `engine/`
directory on `PYTHONPATH` (`plugins/doc-lifecycle/engine/README.md` covers both spellings).

Every artifact this audit writes — the plan, the verdicts, the report — goes to
`${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/`, never the work tree: `fixing-docs`' applier confines a run to its
approval set's paths, so an audit artifact sitting in the tree reads as an unaccounted
change and the apply refuses (`apply-working-tree-not-confined`). The steps below reuse
that same destination; only the filename changes per artifact.

**Exception — the scheduled headless audit lane (`doc-audit.yml`).** That job's checkout is
throwaway (`persist-credentials: false`, no write-capable credential reaches it at all) and
`fixing-docs`' applier never runs against it — the job ends and the checkout is discarded
before any apply could see it, so a stray artifact there can never trip
`apply-working-tree-not-confined`. Its model step's prompt is this lane's own restated copy of
the output contract (a headless run states its own contract rather than depending on a plugin
version resolved at run time — see that prompt's comment), and it names `verdicts.json` in the
repository root. When this skill is invoked from `doc-audit.yml`, follow *that prompt's* file
destination, not the `${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/` rule above: the workflow's own instructions are
authoritative for that lane, and its deterministic steps read `verdicts.json` from the root.
`verdicts.json` is the *only* file that lane permits in the work tree — every other artifact it
generates (the plan, the report, cost data) lives under `${RUNNER_TEMP}/doc-audit/`, and a
repository-integrity gate refuses the whole run over any other work-tree change before a report
is assembled (`scheduling-doc-sync/scripts/check-repo-integrity.py`). So scratch files in that
lane go under `${RUNNER_TEMP}/doc-audit/`, never the checkout. Every other invocation —
interactive, local, or a future lane whose checkout an apply might run against — keeps the
out-of-tree rule above; it exists to protect exactly the checkout an apply could later touch,
which this one structurally is not.

1. **Plan the scope.** `python3 -m doclifecycle drift-plan --repo . --mode full >
   "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/drift-plan.json"` (diff-scoped: `--mode incremental --since <commit>`). Deterministic — no
   model — so the scope is re-derivable rather than trusted. Each `documents[]` entry carries a
   `path` and an `obligation`: `assertions` is a living document whose claims you judge;
   `anchor` is a narrative document whose `As of` line the engine checks itself, and for which
   it refuses claim verdicts outright (`drift-verdict-on-narrative-document`). Write none.
2. **Segment each `assertions` document.** `python3 -m doclifecycle segment --repo . --path
   <path>` returns its assertion units — one per sentence, list item, or table row — each with
   an `ordinal`, its source `line`, and `assertion_capable`. The `ordinal` is how you answer for
   a unit. The parser is fixed and model-free, so the same bytes always yield the same units.
3. **Classify every assertion-capable unit** — `factual`, `normative`, `rationale`, or
   `non-assertive`. Leaving one out is refused (`classification-missing`): an unclassified unit
   is indistinguishable from one nobody found a claim in. Classification never waives a living
   truth obligation: factual, normative, and rationale units must all be judged; only
   non-assertive prose takes no verdict.
4. **Judge each assertion** at the appropriate tier (below), tagged by `kind` — one of
   exactly: `command`, `path`, `symbol`, `behavior`, `structure`, `value` (use these strings
   verbatim; automation switches on them) — and record the obligation discharged:
   `evidence` for factual assertions, `governing-source` or `owner-judgment` for normative
   assertions, and `coherence` for rationale. The governing source, owner judgment, or current
   evidence that settles coherence is cited through the same evidence contract as a factual
   judgment. Pure prose is not a claim — **except** lines that
   *sound* factual but name no checkable thing ("robust", "production-ready", "reasonably
   fast", "handles most workloads"). Extract those too, kind `value`: they become
   `UNVERIFIABLE`. Do not skip them — an unbacked quality claim is the most common drift a
   human eye waves through. And they stay `UNVERIFIABLE` even when you can build a code case
   that the boast overreaches ("handles arbitrarily large inputs" vs. a whole-buffer read):
   put that argument in `evidence`, not in the verdict. `STALE` is reserved for claims with a
   checkable true value to restore — puffery has none, so any replacement text you'd draft is
   new authorship, and cutting or rewording it is a human decision, not a sync. In a
   scheduled install the human's third option is a durable waiver
   (`.doc-lifecycle/drift-waivers.json`, owned by scheduling-doc-sync): an accepted claim
   stops resurfacing on run surfaces, while this skill keeps emitting it — detection stays
   pure; disposition is the pipeline's job. Lines
   already marked `> UNVERIFIED: <claim>` (the marker
   llm-doc-writer writes) are extracted like any claim and default to `UNVERIFIABLE` unless
   the repo now makes them checkable.
   Each judgment is `VERIFIED` / `STALE` / `UNVERIFIABLE`, and carries its `kind`, its `tier`,
   and its `evidence`.
5. **Write `"${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/verdicts.json"`** in the contract below, then **validate it
   mechanically** before the audit: pipe it through
   `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/detecting-doc-drift/scripts/validate-drift-output.py`
   (reads the JSON on stdin or as a file arg). It enforces the enum, field-set, `evidence`, and
   `fix` rules, and that no unit is answered twice within a document, and exits nonzero on any
   violation. Run it — neither thing the engine does with a
   shape violation is a loud failure. A violation inside a document's `verdicts` drops that
   whole document to an unexamined coverage gap (`the verdicts returned for this document did
   not validate: <code>`), and the run still exits with a report; a violation in the *entry* — a
   bad `status`, an unexpected field, a duplicate `path`, a document the plan never declared —
   refuses the whole run instead. The validator checks *shape*, not whether a verdict is *right*; that judgment
   is still yours, and `drift-audit` is the authority on everything the shape check cannot see
   (whether an ordinal names a real unit, whether a multi-line `fix` owns its span).
6. **Run the audit.** The run's evidence boundary is **empty unless you declare it**: a
   verdict citing `evidence.command` is refused (`drift-evidence-outside-boundary`) — which
   discards that *whole document's* verdicts, STALE and UNVERIFIABLE records included —
   unless the tool it names was passed to `--evidence-command`. Before running, check for
   `.doc-lifecycle/evidence-tools.json` (`scheduling-doc-sync` owns the file; a repo without
   it, or with `{"tools": []}`, declares none): pass one `--evidence-command <tool>` per
   name it lists. No declared tools means the run is tool-free — cite `source` only, never
   `command`; a claim only a command could settle becomes `UNVERIFIABLE`, with what you tried
   in `evidence.observed`, not a `command` citation nothing declared permits.
   `python3 -m doclifecycle drift-audit --repo . --mode full --verdicts
   "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/verdicts.json" [--evidence-command <tool> ...] >
   "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/drift-report.json"` writes the validated report: your STALE and
   UNVERIFIABLE judgments as records with digests, your VERIFIED ones as coverage, and the
   narrative documents' anchors checked engine-side. Exit 0 is a complete report, 4 partial
   (something was not examined), 1 refused (e.g. a document the plan never declared).
   **Pass the same `--mode` (and `--since`) you planned with in step 1** — the audit
   re-derives the scope from these flags, so a diff-scoped plan audited `--mode full` is
   measured against every living document instead of the planned ones: the documents you
   were never given become unexamined scope, and a correct incremental run exits 4 partial
   rather than producing the report that was asked for.

### Verification tiers + escalation rule

| Tier | Cost | Does | Catches |
|------|------|------|---------|
| 1 STATIC | seconds | grep/glob: path/symbol exists, command exists in Makefile/package.json, link resolves | renames, moves, deletions |
| 2 SHALLOW | moderate | read the cited line; run safe `--help`/`--version`/dry-run | changed flags, values, signatures |
| 3 DEEP | expensive | read implementing code; run the documented workflow where safe | behavior drift |

Running a Tier 2 `--help`/`--version`/dry-run only earns a `command` citation when that
tool is declared per step 6 above; against an undeclared or tool-free run it is still a
legitimate read, but the verdict it settles cites `source` (or, if nothing repository-side
settles it either, stays `UNVERIFIABLE`) rather than a `command` the audit would refuse.

**Every claim starts at Tier 1.** Escalate a claim only when (a) Tier 1 flags suspicion,
(b) the claim's subject is in the diff (diff-scoped mode), or (c) a deep audit was
requested. This concentrates cost where drift is likely.

**Anchors: open the line, but judge the claim, not the line number.** A `file:line` anchor
is not evidence — open it. But the anchor is *metadata on a claim, never its own claim*: do
not extract "the exit is at line 14" as a separate verdict and grade its precision. Classify
the underlying claim on whether the *referenced construct* is there and the *stated value* is
right. An anchor that lands a few lines off the exact statement (points at the guard instead
of the `exit()` it guards) but still locates the right code is `VERIFIED`. **Never emit a
STALE verdict whose `fix` only changes a line number** — a line-number-only correction is not
drift. Mark `STALE` only when the value/behavior/symbol is wrong or the anchor points to a
construct that moved or no longer exists.

**A `fix` that names a file is settled by opening that file.** Every property the replacement
asserts of another document — that it exists, that it carries a section, that it is now the
live one — is read there first. A `Supersedes:` header, a filename, or a commit message says a
file replaced another, never what the replacement contains. Assert only what you read: if the
target does not carry it yet, the fix says what the target actually shows, and if nothing in
the repository settles it, the verdict is `UNVERIFIABLE` with the pointer in `evidence` rather
than a `STALE` with a drafted replacement. This is the rule that makes a repointing fix safe to
land, and the auto-apply policy refuses one anyway (`policy-fix-names-other-document`) — a fix
that changes which files the line names is a person's to approve.

## The output contract (this is the "shape")

`verdicts.json` is the engine's verdicts artifact — one entry per document the plan declared,
each carrying one verdict per assertion unit `segment` printed:

```json
{"schema_version": 1, "documents": [{"path": "CLAUDE.md", "status": "ok", "verdicts": []}]}
```

`schema_version` is optional and must be `1` when present. An entry's fields are exactly
`path`, `status`, `verdicts`, `reason`, `chunk` — no extras. `status` is `ok` or `failed`: an
`ok` entry carries `verdicts` and no `reason`; a `failed` entry carries a one-line `reason` and
no `verdicts`, which is how you declare a document you did not examine — a gap with no reason is
indistinguishable from a document nobody thought about. Narrative (`anchor`) documents get no
entry at all; the engine checks their `As of` anchors itself.

A verdict's fields are exactly `unit`, `assertion_class`, `obligation`, `verdict`, `kind`, `tier`,
`evidence`, `fix`. Two are always required: `unit` is the `ordinal` `segment` printed for that
unit, and `assertion_class` is one of `factual` / `normative` / `rationale` / `non-assertive`.

`obligation`, `verdict`, `kind`, `tier`, and `evidence` travel together — all five, or none.
Every factual, normative, and rationale unit owes all five; a `non-assertive` unit takes none of
them, because it asserts nothing the code could contradict. `obligation` is `evidence` for a
factual unit, `governing-source` or `owner-judgment` for a normative unit, and `coherence` for a
rationale unit; any other value or class/obligation pairing is refused. `verdict` is one of
`VERIFIED` / `STALE` / `UNVERIFIABLE`; `kind` is one of
`command` / `path` / `symbol` / `behavior` / `structure` / `value`; `tier` is the integer `1`,
`2`, or `3` — literal enum values, no invented ones.

`fix` is present only, and always, for `STALE`, and it is the **complete replacement text** for
that unit — never an instruction like "change X to Y" — and must meet the
writing-docs bar. Preserve the target document's physical-line convention: when the source unit
is soft-wrapped, draft `fix` already wrapped, with LF embedded in the JSON string and the exact
list marker and continuation indentation the replacement needs. Do not leave reflow to
`fixing-docs` or the applier; both place the approved string byte-verbatim. The engine accepts
embedded LF only for a unit that already spans multiple source lines and owns every line in that
span (no neighboring assertion unit shares either boundary line), and every physical line must be
non-empty (no CR or NUL). The replacement may take a different number of physical lines when its
corrected content wraps differently, but it remains one logical assertion unit.

`evidence` is an object, mandatory for **every** judged unit, VERIFIED included: `{"observed":
<the fact you read>, "source": <repository-relative path>, "line": <int>, "command": <the one
command line that settled it>}`. `observed` is always required and is **one line** — the fact
the citation shows. No history (prior PRs, how the drift arose), no restated command output, no
reasoning narrative: the verdict carries the conclusion; evidence carries only what proves it.
VERIFIED and STALE each rest on **exactly one** citation — `source` or `command`, never both,
because a verdict rests on one place a reader goes. `line` points into a file, so it never
accompanies `command`. A cited `command` is one read-only command line, not a shell program: it
may not carry `;`, `&`, `|`, `<`, `>`, `(`, `)`, `$`, a backtick, or a backslash. UNVERIFIABLE
needs no citation — it records that nothing in the repository settles the claim — but it still
carries `observed`.

On success the validator prints a `summary:` line as JSON, recomputed from your verdicts
(`verified` / `stale` / `unverifiable`, counted across every document), that automation can
gate on.

See **output-contract.md** for a worked example covering all four assertion classes and a
`failed` document entry.

## Modes

- **Full audit** (manual / nightly sweep): extract every claim across the target docs,
  Tier 1 by default, escalate per the rule. Emit the full drift report, severity-ordered
  (wrong command/behavior before stale prose).
- **Diff-scoped** (PR check / what automation calls): input is a diff or commit range. For
  each changed file/symbol/value, **grep every doc for passages referencing it** — including
  command output blocks and examples, not just the obvious gotcha line — then verify each
  referencing claim, **escalating past Tier 1 to the tier that settles it**. A changed subject
  in the diff is exactly the `(b)` escalation trigger, so do not stop at a Tier-1 grep that
  only confirms the name still appears: read the cited line (Tier 2), and read implementing
  code (Tier 3) for any `behavior`/`value` claim, where the rename-grep gives false comfort. A
  rename/move/deletion is settled cheaper — don't pay Tier 3 for a claim Tier 1–2 already
  resolves. Judge only the units carrying touched claims. Completeness is the metric: a changed
  symbol referenced in five docs must produce five verdicts.

## Red flags — STOP

- Writing "looks consistent" / "should be fine" without opening the file → not a verdict.
- Trusting a `file:line` anchor instead of reading that line → anchors drift a few lines;
  read the line and judge the claim (the anchor rule above).
- Emitting a prose report instead of `verdicts.json` → the engine has nothing to audit.
- A VERIFIED verdict with no `evidence.observed` → unverified; go get the evidence.
- Diff-scoped run that checked the one obvious doc → grep ALL docs for the changed subject.
- Eyeballing a command table instead of grepping the Makefile/package.json for each target.
- Skipping a "robust"/"fast"/"production-ready" line because it's "just prose" → extract it
  as UNVERIFIABLE; that is the finding.
- Marking a quality boast STALE because the code argues against it, and drafting a
  replacement → still UNVERIFIABLE; the contradiction goes in `evidence`. A `fix` must
  restore a checkable true value, not reword puffery.
- A verdict with an invented `kind` (e.g. `schema_mismatch`) → use the six enum values only.
- Marking an anchor STALE for being off by a line, or emitting a `fix` that only changes a
  line number → not drift. The anchor is metadata, not its own claim.
- Repointing a claim at a superseding document you did not open → the header says it supersedes,
  not what it contains. Open the target; assert only what it shows.
- Evidence that tells a story — prior fixes, what re-staled the line, pasted command output →
  one line, pointer + fact. History lives in git; the evidence proves, it doesn't narrate.
- Citing `evidence.command` without first declaring it to `drift-audit` — the boundary is
  empty by default, so this discards the whole document's verdicts, not just the one citation.
  Check `.doc-lifecycle/evidence-tools.json` and pass `--evidence-command` per step 6 before
  writing a single `command` citation, or use `source` instead.