khujta Gabe Docs — Documentation Standards
Gabe execution contract (E1–E7)
This skill runs under the suite execution contract — E1 EVIDENCE · E2 RUN-BEFORE-✅ · E3 NO SILENT DOWNGRADE · E4 REUSE FIRST · E5 STATE SYNC · E6 MISSING ANCHOR = STOP · E7 REPORT WHERE — floors, not ceilings; a skill's own gate may be stricter, never looser. Full text: references/execution-contract.md (if that file is missing, E6 applies — STOP).
What this does
The house style for every markdown file the Gabe Suite creates or touches — distilled from BMAD tech-writer standards plus Gabe-Suite-specific conventions (analogy-first openers, per-well diagram recommendations).
This is a background standards skill, not a user-facing command. It is consulted by /gabe-init (doc stubs at project scaffold time) and /gabe-commit docs-audit (drift + diagram-staleness checks) — and by any gabe skill that renders spec-meta output templates at runtime.
References this skill owns
references/execution-contract.md— the suite execution contract (E1–E7) plus orchestration restraint, stated once here for the whole suite. Every other gabe skill points back to this one file instead of pasting its own copy.diagrams-library.md(skill root) — 14 advanced Mermaid patterns (subgraphs, styling, multi-layer composition,alt-branch sequences, mindmaps) for whenreferences/docs-spec.md's skeletons aren't enough.
Usage / modes
Not directly invoked by a user. Consumers read this skill's standards at the points below:
| Consumer | When it reads this skill |
|---|---|
/gabe-init |
Doc stub creation at project scaffold time |
/gabe-commit docs-audit |
CommonMark/diagram drift checks against these standards |
| Any gabe skill producing user-facing tables/prompts | The runtime output rendering convention (bare-fence vs tagged-fence) |
Procedure
- Read
references/docs-spec.mdIN FULL before applying any standard to a doc — the binding spec for the runtime output rendering convention, CommonMark essentials, Mermaid diagram-type selection + syntax templates, per-doc-type diagram policy, the well-doc template, the placeholder-diagram upgrade heuristic, writing rules, and the quality checklist. If missing, E6 applies — STOP. - Apply the three load-bearing rules to any doc being created or edited: CommonMark strict, no time estimates, analogy-first opener.
- For diagrams beyond the spec's minimal skeletons, read
diagrams-library.mdfor composition patterns (not domain content — the library's examples are placeholder structure). - Before any Write/Edit of a gabe-generated doc, run the spec's quality checklist and emit one result line:
docs-check: cleanordocs-check: failed <ids> — fixed.
Output contract (summary)
Every gabe-generated doc is CommonMark-strict, carries no time estimates, opens well docs with the analogy-first line, uses a correctly-typed Mermaid diagram capped at 15 nodes, and is written in active voice / present tense / second person with descriptive link text. Precedence when standards conflict: project-local .kdbp/ standards (rare) → this skill → the CommonMark spec.
The full output contract in the spec is binding.