Dev Docs

Dev docs system

Creates a structured documentation system for large tasks to maintain context across sessions.

When to invoke

• When starting a large, multi-session task
• When you need to track progress across context compactions
• When working on complex implementations requiring documentation
• Before major refactoring or feature development

Usage

/dev-docs [task-name]

Instructions

When this command runs:

1. Create dev docs directory structure:

   dev/active/[task-name]/
   ├── plan.md      # Strategic implementation plan
   ├── context.md   # Key files, decisions, dependencies
   └── tasks.md     # Detailed task checklist
   

2. Generate plan.md with:

   • Task overview and objectives
   • High-level implementation strategy
   • Key architectural decisions
   • Risk assessment and mitigation
   • Success criteria

3. Generate context.md with:

   • List of key files to modify
   • Important code patterns and conventions discovered
   • External dependencies and their versions
   • Design decisions and rationale
   • Links to relevant documentation

4. Generate tasks.md with:

   • Detailed, actionable task checklist
   • Estimated complexity for each task
   • Dependencies between tasks
   • Progress tracking checkboxes

5. Update TodoWrite with the initial tasks

Template structure

plan.md

# [Task Name] - Implementation plan

## Overview

[Brief description of what we're building]

## Objectives

- [ ] Objective 1
- [ ] Objective 2

## Strategy

[High-level approach]

## Architecture decisions

- Decision 1: [rationale]

## Risks

| Risk | Mitigation |
| ---- | ---------- |
|      |            |

## Success criteria

- [ ] Criteria 1

context.md

# [Task Name] - Context

## Key files

- `path/to/file.ts` - [purpose]

## Code patterns

- Pattern 1: [description]

## Dependencies

- package@version - [why needed]

## Decisions log

| Date | Decision | Rationale |
| ---- | -------- | --------- |
|      |          |           |

tasks.md

# [Task Name] - Tasks

## Phase 1: Setup

- [ ] Task 1 (S)
- [ ] Task 2 (M)

## Phase 2: Implementation

- [ ] Task 3 (L)

## Phase 3: Testing

- [ ] Task 4 (S)

Legend: (S)mall, (M)edium, (L)arge

Notes

• Run /update-dev-docs before session compaction to capture progress
• Keep context.md updated as you discover new information
• Check off tasks in tasks.md as you complete them