Chronos — Documentation Timekeeper
5 AI agents for documentation integrity. Each agent is a focused skill invoked by the Chronos orchestrator.
What it does
Chronos audits project documentation for:
- Duplicates — documents with high similarity (Censor)
- Broken links — references to non-existent files (Censor)
- Missing required docs — mandatory files per classification level (Dewey)
- Orphans — documents with no inbound references (Dewey)
- Classification — document type: L1 Contracts → L6 Auxiliary (Dewey + Canon)
- Stale data — dates older than threshold (Veles)
Agents
| Agent | Role | Trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Chronos | Orchestrator — runs the full Pantheon | chronos --preset full |
| Censor | Fact-checker — duplicates + broken links | chronos --preset minimal |
| Dewey | Classifier — L1-L6 taxonomy + missing/orphans | chronos --preset standard |
| Veles | Statistician — staleness, metrics, trends | chronos --preset full |
| Canon | Truth-keeper — cross-ref validation against contracts | chronos --preset standard |
Usage
# Basic audit (duplicates + links only)
chronos --path .
# Standard: check + classify (Censor + Dewey + Canon)
chronos --path . --preset standard
# Full Pantheon: all 5 agents
chronos --path . --preset full
# JSON output for CI
chronos --path . --output json --output-file report.json
# Fail on critical findings
chronos --path . --fail-on critical
# Single agent
chronos --path . --agent censor
Presets
| Preset | Agents | Use case |
|---|---|---|
minimal |
Censor | Quick CI gate — duplicates + broken links |
standard |
Censor + Dewey + Canon | PR validation — check + classify + cross-ref |
full |
All 5 agents | Release audit — complete integrity + staleness |
Document Hierarchy (L1–L6)
L1: Contracts — Machine truth (OpenAPI, AsyncAPI, JSON Schema)
L2: Product Canon — Human truth (VISION, PRD, ROADMAP, FEATURES)
L3: Engineering Canon— Implementation truth (ARCHITECTURE, ADR, SAGA)
L4: Derived — Synthesized (REFERENCE, TEST_CASES, DEV_GUIDE)
L5: Artifacts — Generated (API docs, changelogs, diagrams)
L6: Auxiliary — Supporting (README, CONTRIBUTING, templates)
Each level has required files. Dewey enforces presence; Canon validates L1→L3 consistency.
Output Format
# Docs Audit Report
**Project:** /path/to/project
**Total docs:** 24
**Preset:** standard
| Severity | Count |
|----------|-------|
| Critical | 1 |
| Warning | 3 |
| Info | 2 |
| **Total**| **6** |
### CRITICAL
**File:** docs/API.md:42
**Issue:** Endpoint GET /users documented as Deprecated, but contract shows Active.
**Fix:** Update docs/API.md to match OpenAPI contract.
### WARNING
**File:** docs/ARCHITECTURE.md
**Issue:** Orphan document — no inbound references from L2/L3.
**Fix:** Link from PRD or add to REFERENCE.md.
### INFO
**File:** docs/DEV_GUIDE.md
**Issue:** Last updated 2024-01-15 (stale >180 days).
**Fix:** Review and update or archive.
Triggers
check documentation/docs audit/audit docsdocs integrity/documentation healthfind duplicates in docs/duplicate docsbroken links/broken referencesstale documentation/outdated docsclassify docs/document classificationorphan docs/unreferenced documentsvalidate docs/doc quality/docs lintchronos
Installation
pip install chronos
Or run directly:
python -m chronos --path .
Project Structure
skills/chronos/
├── SKILL.md # This file
├── src/chronos/ # Python package
│ ├── __init__.py
│ ├── cli.py # Entry point
│ ├── orchestrator.py # Chronos agent
│ ├── agents/
│ │ ├── censor.py # Duplicates + links
│ │ ├── dewey.py # Classification L1-L6
│ │ ├── veles.py # Staleness + metrics
│ │ └── canon.py # Cross-ref validation
│ ├── models.py # Data classes
│ └── utils.py # Helpers
├── tests/ # 67 pytest tests
├── presets/ # JSON presets
│ ├── minimal.json
│ ├── standard.json
│ └── full.json
└── pyproject.toml
Configuration
Create .chronos.yml in project root:
path: "."
preset: "standard"
fail_on: "warning"
output: "markdown"
thresholds:
duplicate_similarity: 0.85
stale_days: 180
required_levels:
L1: ["contracts/openapi.yaml"]
L2: ["VISION.md", "PRD.md", "ROADMAP.md"]
L3: ["ARCHITECTURE.md", "ADR/"]
L4: ["REFERENCE.md"]
L6: ["README.md", "CONTRIBUTING.md"]
ignore:
- "node_modules/**"
- ".git/**"
- "dist/**"
CI Integration
# .github/workflows/docs-audit.yml
- name: Chronos Docs Audit
run: |
pip install chronos
chronos --path . --preset standard --fail-on warning --output json --output-file chronos-report.json
Verification Gates
Every Chronos run must pass:
- Structural — output is valid Markdown/JSON
- Content QA — each finding has file:line, issue, fix
- Reproducibility — same input → same output (deterministic hashing)
References
references/CLASSIFICATION.md— L1-L6 taxonomy detailsreferences/AGENTS.md— Agent prompt templatesreferences/CONFIG.md— Full config schema