Docs Validator

Documentation Validator Skill

Purpose: Proactive documentation quality assurance and compliance checking

Philosophy: Catch documentation issues early, maintain quality standards, ensure queryability.

Prerequisites

• Environment variables configured (see Configuration below)
• Optional: Worklog plugin for logging validation results
• Optional: Query script for queryable documentation

Configuration

# Required
DOCS_ROOT="${DOCS_ROOT:-~/docs}"
KNOWLEDGE_BASE="${KNOWLEDGE_BASE:-~/.claude/knowledge}"

# Optional
WORKLOG_DB="${WORKLOG_DB:-}"              # Log validation results to worklog
DOCS_QUERY_SCRIPT="${DOCS_QUERY_SCRIPT:-}" # Path to query-docs.sh or equivalent

When to Use

Monthly Hygiene:

• First of each month: validate all documentation
• Check for compliance drift
• Identify stale or outdated content

Before Major Commits:

• After documentation reorganization
• Before releasing documentation to other environments
• After bulk documentation updates

After Major Doc Changes:

• New documentation added
• READMEs updated
• Structure changes

Proactive Quality Checks:

• When you notice potential issues
• After agent updates
• Periodic spot-checks

What This Skill Validates

1. Frontmatter Compliance

Checks:

• ✅ All .md files have YAML frontmatter
• ✅ Required fields present: title, type, created
• ✅ Valid type values: decision, learning, guide, reference, changelog, environment
• ✅ Dates in YYYY-MM-DD format
• ✅ status values if present: active, deprecated, superseded
• ✅ Tags are arrays, not strings

Reports:

• Files missing frontmatter
• Files with incomplete required fields
• Invalid field values
• Malformed dates

2. Internal Link Validation

Checks:

• ✅ All [text](path) links point to existing files
• ✅ Relative paths resolve correctly
• ✅ No broken cross-references
• ✅ README links to all files in directory

Reports:

• Broken links (file doesn't exist)
• Incorrect relative paths
• Orphaned files (not linked from any README)

3. CHANGELOG Compliance

Checks:

• ✅ READMEs have Changelog sections
• ✅ Changelog entries have proper format
• ✅ Recent changes are documented
• ✅ Commit hashes present where applicable

Reports:

• READMEs missing Changelog section
• Malformed changelog entries
• Undocumented recent changes (from git log)

4. README Completeness

Checks:

• ✅ Every subdirectory has README.md
• ✅ READMEs reference all files in directory
• ✅ READMEs have frontmatter
• ✅ Navigation links work

Reports:

• Directories missing READMEs
• Files not referenced in README
• README frontmatter issues

5. Structure Compliance

Checks:

• ✅ Files in correct directories (security docs in security/, guides in guides/)
• ✅ No orphaned files in root
• ✅ Archive properly organized
• ✅ Naming conventions followed

Reports:

• Misplaced files
• Files that should be archived
• Naming convention violations

Validation Workflow

Step 1: Scan Documentation

# Scan primary documentation
cd $DOCS_ROOT
find . -type f -name "*.md" | grep -v archive/

Step 2: Check Frontmatter

For each markdown file:

1. Extract YAML frontmatter (between --- delimiters)
2. Parse required fields: title, type, created
3. Validate optional fields if present
4. Check data formats and allowed values
5. Report issues

Step 3: Validate Links

For each markdown file:

1. Extract all [text](path) patterns
2. Resolve relative paths
3. Check if target exists
4. Report broken links

Step 4: Check READMEs

For each subdirectory:

1. Verify README.md exists
2. Extract all file references
3. Compare with actual files in directory
4. Report orphaned or unreferenced files

Step 5: Verify CHANGELOGs

For each README:

1. Check for Changelog section
2. Parse entries (Date - Title format)
3. Compare with recent git commits (if in git repo)
4. Report missing or malformed entries

Step 6: Generate Report

Create validation report in /tmp/docs-validation-YYYY-MM-DD.md:

• Summary (files checked, issues found)
• Issues by category (Frontmatter, Links, READMEs, CHANGELOGs)
• Severity levels (Critical, Warning, Info)
• Recommended actions

Validation Report Format

# Documentation Validation Report
**Date:** YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM
**Scope:** $DOCS_ROOT
**Files Checked:** N
**Issues Found:** N

## Summary

- ❌ Critical: N (must fix)
- ⚠️  Warning: N (should fix)
- ℹ️  Info: N (consider fixing)

## Critical Issues

### Missing Frontmatter
- `path/to/file.md` - No frontmatter block found

### Broken Links
- `path/to/file.md:42` - Link to `missing.md` (file doesn't exist)

## Warnings

### Incomplete Frontmatter
- `path/to/file.md` - Missing required field: `created`

### Orphaned Files
- `security/old-config.md` - Not referenced in security/README.md

## Info

### Potential Improvements
- Consider adding `tags` field to improve queryability
- README could reference additional files

## Recommended Actions

1. Fix critical issues first (broken links, missing frontmatter)
2. Address warnings (incomplete frontmatter, orphaned files)
3. Consider info items for next documentation pass

## Files Validated

- $DOCS_ROOT/*.md (N files)
- $DOCS_ROOT/security/*.md (N files)
- $DOCS_ROOT/guides/*.md (N files)
- ...

Validation Rules Reference

Required Frontmatter Fields

---
title: "Brief descriptive title"
type: decision|learning|guide|reference|changelog|environment
created: YYYY-MM-DD
---

Optional Frontmatter Fields

updated: YYYY-MM-DD
tags: [tag1, tag2, tag3]
status: active|deprecated|superseded
category: "Primary category"
related: [path/to/doc.md]
commit: abc1234
environment: system-name

Valid Type Values

Date Format

• YYYY-MM-DD (e.g., 2025-01-15)
• ISO 8601 compliant
• Sortable chronologically

Status Values

Quick Validation Mode

For fast checks before commits:

Quick Mode Checks:

• ✅ Frontmatter exists
• ✅ Required fields present
• ✅ No obvious broken links
• ⏩ Skip detailed analysis

Usage:

# Quick validation (1-2 minutes)
/skill docs-validator --quick

# Full validation (5-10 minutes)
/skill docs-validator

# Specific directory
/skill docs-validator --path $DOCS_ROOT/security

Integration with Other Tools

With Query Script

When $DOCS_QUERY_SCRIPT is set, validation ensures all documents are queryable:

# After validation, these queries should work
$DOCS_QUERY_SCRIPT --type guide
$DOCS_QUERY_SCRIPT --tag security
$DOCS_QUERY_SCRIPT --status active

With docs-manager

Validation complements docs-manager:

• docs-manager: Creates and updates documentation
• docs-validator: Ensures quality and compliance

Workflow:

1. Use docs-manager for all documentation updates
2. Run docs-validator monthly or before major commits
3. Fix issues identified by validator
4. Log results to worklog if enabled

With System Analyzer

Validation can be part of baseline checks:

• Run validator after baseline capture
• Include validation report in system audit
• Track documentation health over time

Common Issues and Fixes

Missing Frontmatter

Issue: File has no YAML frontmatter

Fix:

# Add frontmatter to file
cat > /tmp/frontmatter.txt <<'EOF'
---
title: "File Title"
type: guide
created: 2025-01-15
---

EOF

# Prepend to file
cat /tmp/frontmatter.txt original.md > new.md
mv new.md original.md

Broken Link

Issue: [text](missing.md) points to non-existent file

Fix:

• Update link to correct path
• Create missing file if needed
• Remove link if no longer relevant

Orphaned File

Issue: File exists but not referenced in README

Fix:

# In README.md, add reference:

**[File Title](filename.md)** - Brief description

**Contents:**
- Key point 1
- Key point 2

Malformed Changelog Entry

Issue: Changelog entry doesn't follow format

Fix:

# Correct format:

### YYYY-MM-DD - Title
**Changed:** What changed
**Why:** Reason for change
**Impact:** Effect of change

**See also:** Related documentation

Worklog Integration

When $WORKLOG_DB is set, log validation results:

sqlite3 "$WORKLOG_DB" "INSERT INTO entries
(agent, task_type, title, details, outcome, tags) VALUES (
'$(hostname)',
'validation',
'Documentation validation - $DOCS_ROOT',
'Checked N files, found N issues (N critical, N warning)',
'Validation complete - see /tmp/docs-validation-YYYY-MM-DD.md',
'docs,validation,quality'
);"

Automation Opportunities

Pre-Commit Hook

Could validate before git commits:

#!/bin/bash
# .git/hooks/pre-commit
/skill docs-validator --quick

Monthly Validation Cron

Could be automated to run monthly:

# Add to crontab (if desired)
0 9 1 * * /skill docs-validator > /tmp/monthly-validation.log

Integration with CI/CD

If documentation repo has CI:

• Run validator on pull requests
• Block merges with critical issues
• Generate reports as artifacts

Example Validation Session

User: "Run docs validation"

Skill Actions:

1. Scan $DOCS_ROOT for all .md files
2. Check frontmatter compliance (required fields, valid values)
3. Validate internal links
4. Check README completeness
5. Verify CHANGELOG entries
6. Generate report in /tmp/docs-validation-YYYY-MM-DD.md
7. Present summary to user
8. Offer to fix critical issues

Output:

📋 Documentation Validation Report

Checked: 42 files
Issues: 3 critical, 5 warnings, 2 info

❌ Critical Issues:
- security/new-policy.md: Missing frontmatter
- guides/README.md: Broken link to old-guide.md
- services/deploy.md: Missing required field 'created'

⚠️  Warnings:
- 5 files not referenced in READMEs

ℹ️  Info:
- Consider adding tags to 2 files for better queryability

Full report: /tmp/docs-validation-YYYY-MM-DD.md

Fix critical issues? (y/n)

Success Criteria

Good documentation system:

• ✅ All files have frontmatter
• ✅ All links work
• ✅ Every directory has README
• ✅ All files referenced
• ✅ CHANGELOGs current
• ✅ Structure compliant

After validation:

• Critical issues: 0
• Warnings: Minimal
• Info items: Tracked for next pass

For Future Claude Instances

When to run docs-validator:

• Monthly (first of month)
• After major documentation changes
• Before important commits
• When documentation issues suspected

How to use:

# Full validation
/skill docs-validator

# Quick check
/skill docs-validator --quick

# Specific directory
/skill docs-validator --path $DOCS_ROOT/security

Remember: Validation is proactive. Catch issues before they become problems.

Skill Version: 2.0.0 Philosophy: Proactive quality assurance. Early detection. Maintainable documentation.