Doc Rot

Doc Rot

Documentation lies as the code moves on. This skill finds the lies and fixes them — across *.md files, inline comments, docstrings, and commented-out code. It's the docs counterpart to dead-code-cleanup, and it enforces the comment hygiene rules in the user's CLAUDE.md ("explain WHY not WHAT"; "one canon version per file"; "update existing docs, don't proactively create new ones").

The core discipline: a doc isn't stale because it looks old — it's stale because it contradicts the code. Ground every call against the actual codebase before flagging it. A "removed" symbol might just be renamed; a "broken" path might live elsewhere now.

Pre-flight

Per the user's git workflow: git fetch && git status, confirm you're on the right base branch (develop if it exists, else main) and up to date. Then scope the doc set — don't boil the ocean. List what's in range (a directory, the README, the files a recent change touched) and confirm before sweeping a whole repo.

What counts as rot

Doc files (*.md)

• References to things that no longer exist — files/paths, npm scripts, CLI flags, config keys, env vars, API/function names. Verify each against the code before flagging.
• Stale setup/usage steps — install commands, toolchain versions, ports, or workflows the code has moved past.
• Code examples that wouldn't run — using removed or renamed APIs, old signatures, deleted imports.
• Dead links — broken internal anchors and relative file links (high confidence); external links (flag, don't chase every one).
• Superseded / duplicate docs — two docs covering the same thing, or a doc describing a feature that's gone. "One canon version per file" — pick the canonical one, fold or remove the rest.

Comments & docstrings

• Contradicts the code below it — the comment says one thing, the code does another. Highest-value find; almost always a real bug-in-waiting.
• Docstring drift — @param/@returns/documented args that don't match the actual signature.
• Anti-pattern comments (per CLAUDE.md): archaeological ("Extracted from X to reduce complexity"), motion-tracking ("Moved from Y on DATE"), obvious ("increment counter" above counter += 1).
• Stale TODO/FIXME — referencing a closed issue or a condition that's already resolved.

Commented-out code

• Just delete it. Git remembers. (Already an anti-pattern in CLAUDE.md.)

Detection (cheap first passes)

# Commented-out code blocks (tune the comment syntax per language)
grep -rnE '^\s*(//|#)\s*(if|for|while|function|def|class|return|const|let|import)\b' src/

# Anti-pattern comments
grep -rniE '(extracted from|moved from|refactored out|formerly|used to be|as of [0-9])' src/

# Stale TODO/FIXME with issue refs (cross-check against closed issues)
grep -rnE 'TODO|FIXME|XXX|HACK' src/

# Relative links in markdown (then verify each target exists)
grep -rnoE '\]\(([^)]+\.(md|ts|tsx|js|json|sh|py))\)' --include='*.md' .

# Pull the nouns a doc references (paths, scripts, symbols), then grep the code for each

For each markdown doc, the real check is semantic: read the doc, extract its factual claims (this command, this path, this flag, this default), and verify each against the code. A bare grep won't catch "the default timeout is 30s" when the code says 10s — you have to read both.

Validate before acting

This is where most false positives die — mirror the verify-before-acting discipline from dead-code-cleanup:

1. "Gone" vs "moved/renamed." Before flagging a reference as dead, grep the whole repo for it. A function may have been renamed, a file relocated, a script moved into a workspace package. Renamed → update the doc. Actually gone → remove or rewrite.
2. Is the comment encoding a non-obvious WHY? A comment that reads as "obvious" might capture a constraint that isn't visible in the code (a security note, an external-API quirk, a perf bound). Read the surrounding code before deleting. When in doubt, keep.
3. Is this doc the only record of something still true? Don't delete accurate-but-unloved docs just because they're old. Old and correct is not rot.
4. External links — a 404 might be transient. Flag, don't auto-delete.

Categorize and act

High confidence — auto-fix:

• Commented-out code (delete).
• Archaeological / motion-tracking / obvious comments (delete).
• Broken internal links / references to files that definitively don't exist (fix the path, or remove the line if the target is truly gone).
• Docstring signature mismatches where the correct value is unambiguous (update to match).

Judgment calls — propose and confirm:

• Rewriting vs deleting a whole doc section or file.
• Deciding which of two duplicate docs is canon.
• A comment that contradicts the code — surface it; the fix might be the code, not the comment (don't silently "fix" the doc over a real bug).
• Anything where the right answer is "the feature changed and the prose needs rethinking," not a mechanical swap.

Present judgment calls as a triaged list with file:line, what's wrong, and the proposed action — then apply what's approved.

Verify and commit

• After edits: re-run the link check; if the project builds its docs, build them; run lint if comments were touched.
• Focused commits by type, in the user's voice (apply the voice skill):
  • docs: fix stale paths and dead links in README
  • docs: drop archaeological comments and commented-out code
  • docs: correct docstring drift in <module>
• A comment that contradicts the code and turned out to be a real bug isn't a docs fix — flag it separately so it doesn't get buried in a docs commit.

Don't

• Don't create new docs to "replace" rot — update in place (CLAUDE.md rule).
• Don't delete a comment whose WHY you can't reconstruct from the code.
• Don't flag a doc stale off a single failed grep — confirm the thing is actually gone, not moved.
• Don't auto-rewrite prose; mechanical fixes auto-apply, wording is a judgment call.