Setup

doc-sentinel:setup

Interactive setup wizard that creates .doc-sentinel.json configuration.

Phase 1: Detect Project Layout

Run these commands to understand the project:

# Project structure
ls -la
ls docs/ 2>/dev/null || echo "No docs/ directory"

# Top-level doc files
for f in AGENTS.md ARCHITECTURE.md CLAUDE.md README.md CHANGELOG.md; do
  [ -f "$f" ] && echo "Found: $f"
done

# Check for existing config
cat .doc-sentinel.json 2>/dev/null || echo "No existing config"

# Check for companion plugins
cat .doc-sync.json 2>/dev/null && echo "doc-sync detected"
cat .inkwell.json 2>/dev/null && echo "inkwell detected"

Phase 2: Discover Documentation Files

# Find all markdown docs
find . -name '*.md' -not -path './node_modules/*' -not -path './.git/*' | head -50

# Find source directories
ls -d src/ lib/ app/ packages/ */ 2>/dev/null | head -20

Phase 3: Configure

Build .doc-sentinel.json interactively. Present detected values and ask for confirmation.

Configuration Schema

{
  "version": 1,
  "docs_root": "docs",
  "watch_files": [
    "AGENTS.md",
    "ARCHITECTURE.md",
    "README.md"
  ],
  "ignore_sources": [
    "*.test.*",
    "*.spec.*",
    "__tests__/**",
    "*.d.ts"
  ],
  "ignore_docs": [],
  "severity": {
    "architecture": "high",
    "agents_md": "high",
    "api_reference": "medium",
    "changelog": "low",
    "readme": "medium"
  }
}

Fields:

Severity levels: high (flag immediately), medium (flag at session end), low (include in scan reports only).

Default severity:

• architecture → high (ARCHITECTURE.md references are critical)
• agents_md → high (AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md references are critical)
• api_reference → medium
• changelog → low (changelogs are append-only, rarely drift)
• readme → medium

Phase 4: Integration Check

If doc-sync or inkwell config exists, note the relationship:

doc-sentinel complements doc-sync/inkwell. They write docs; sentinel catches when those docs drift from reality. No conflicts — they use separate queue files.

Phase 5: Write Configuration

Write .doc-sentinel.json to the project root.

Recommend adding to .gitignore:

.doc-sentinel-drift.json

The drift file is ephemeral (session-scoped warnings). The config file should be committed.

Phase 6: Confirm

Print summary:

doc-sentinel configured:
  Docs root:      docs/
  Watched files:  AGENTS.md, ARCHITECTURE.md, README.md
  Ignore sources: *.test.*, *.spec.*, __tests__/**, *.d.ts
  Severity:       2 high, 2 medium, 1 low

Hooks will detect drift on every commit. Run /doc-sentinel:scan for a baseline report.