Document Audit & Feature Extraction
Systematically inventory, evaluate, and extract structured data from document collections.
Audit Framework
Four-Phase Audit
Phase 1: Inventory → What exists?
Phase 2: Classify → What type is each document?
Phase 3: Evaluate → What's the quality?
Phase 4: Extract → What structured data can we pull?
Phase 1: Inventory
Automated Inventory
from pathlib import Path
from dataclasses import dataclass
@dataclass
class DocumentEntry:
path: str
name: str
extension: str
size_bytes: int
modified: str
word_count: int
has_frontmatter: bool
def inventory_documents(root: str, patterns: list[str] = ["*.md", "*.txt", "*.yaml"]) -> list[DocumentEntry]:
entries = []
for pattern in patterns:
for path in Path(root).rglob(pattern):
content = path.read_text(errors="ignore")
entries.append(DocumentEntry(
path=str(path.relative_to(root)),
name=path.stem,
extension=path.suffix,
size_bytes=path.stat().st_size,
modified=path.stat().st_mtime,
word_count=len(content.split()),
has_frontmatter=content.startswith("---"),
))
return entries
Inventory Report
## Document Inventory
| Path | Type | Words | Frontmatter | Modified |
|------|------|-------|-------------|----------|
| skills/dev/testing/SKILL.md | skill | 1,245 | Yes | 2026-03-20 |
| docs/CHANGELOG.md | changelog | 890 | No | 2026-03-19 |
| README.md | readme | 450 | No | 2026-03-18 |
**Total:** 142 documents | **With frontmatter:** 105 | **Total words:** 185,000
Phase 2: Classification
Document Type Taxonomy
| Type |
Signal |
Example |
| Skill |
YAML frontmatter with name:, in skills/ |
SKILL.md |
| Configuration |
YAML/JSON schema |
seed.yaml, registry.json |
| Guide |
Tutorial structure, step-by-step |
getting-started.md |
| Reference |
API docs, schema docs |
api-spec.md |
| Decision |
ADR format, options + decision |
adr-001.md |
| Changelog |
Date-ordered entries |
CHANGELOG.md |
| Policy |
Rules, constraints |
CONTRIBUTING.md |
Automated Classification
def classify_document(path: str, content: str) -> str:
if "skills/" in path and content.startswith("---"):
return "skill"
if path.endswith("seed.yaml") or path.endswith("registry.json"):
return "configuration"
if "## Step" in content or "### Step" in content:
return "guide"
if "## Decision" in content or "## Alternatives" in content:
return "decision"
if "## [" in content and any(d in content for d in ["Added", "Fixed", "Changed"]):
return "changelog"
return "general"
Phase 3: Quality Evaluation
Quality Scorecard
| Criterion |
Weight |
Score (0-3) |
Notes |
| Completeness |
30% |
|
All required sections present? |
| Accuracy |
25% |
|
Information correct and current? |
| Clarity |
20% |
|
Understandable without prior context? |
| Structure |
15% |
|
Logical organization, headings, formatting? |
| Maintenance |
10% |
|
Updated date, versioned, no stale links? |
Automated Quality Checks
def quality_check(path: str, content: str) -> dict:
checks = {
"has_title": content.startswith("#") or content.startswith("---"),
"has_sections": content.count("\n##") >= 2,
"reasonable_length": 100 < len(content.split()) < 10000,
"no_todo_left": "TODO" not in content and "FIXME" not in content,
"no_broken_links": not re.search(r'\[.*?\]\(\s*\)', content),
"has_code_examples": "```" in content,
"frontmatter_complete": check_frontmatter_fields(content),
}
score = sum(checks.values()) / len(checks)
return {"checks": checks, "score": round(score, 2)}
Phase 4: Feature Extraction
Metadata Extraction
import yaml
import re
def extract_frontmatter(content: str) -> dict | None:
match = re.match(r'^---\n(.*?)\n---', content, re.DOTALL)
if match:
return yaml.safe_load(match.group(1))
return None
def extract_features(content: str) -> dict:
return {
"headings": re.findall(r'^#+\s+(.+)$', content, re.MULTILINE),
"code_blocks": len(re.findall(r'```', content)) // 2,
"links": re.findall(r'\[([^\]]+)\]\(([^)]+)\)', content),
"images": re.findall(r'!\[([^\]]*)\]\(([^)]+)\)', content),
"tables": content.count("\n|"),
"todos": re.findall(r'- \[ \]\s+(.+)', content),
}
Cross-Reference Mapping
def build_reference_graph(documents: list[dict]) -> dict:
graph = {}
for doc in documents:
links = extract_features(doc["content"])["links"]
graph[doc["path"]] = {
"outgoing": [link[1] for link in links if not link[1].startswith("http")],
"incoming": [],
}
# Build incoming links
for source, data in graph.items():
for target in data["outgoing"]:
if target in graph:
graph[target]["incoming"].append(source)
return graph
Gap Analysis
def gap_analysis(inventory: list[dict], expected: dict) -> dict:
existing = {doc["path"] for doc in inventory}
gaps = {
"missing_required": [p for p in expected.get("required", []) if p not in existing],
"missing_recommended": [p for p in expected.get("recommended", []) if p not in existing],
"orphaned": [p for p in existing if p not in expected.get("all_known", existing)],
"empty_files": [doc["path"] for doc in inventory if doc["word_count"] < 10],
}
return gaps
Anti-Patterns
- Manual-only audits — Automate what you can; reserve human judgment for quality assessment
- Audit without action — Every finding should map to a remediation action
- One-time audit — Build continuous monitoring, not point-in-time snapshots
- Counting without evaluating — Document count is vanity; quality score is actionable
- No baseline — Establish quality benchmarks before auditing
- Ignoring cross-references — Orphaned documents and broken links indicate structural problems