Forge Docs

forge-docs: Documentation

Purpose

Verify that user, contributor, architecture, operations, security, and release documentation is accurate and executable.

Support four modes: audit inspects without changing product behavior, fix applies only explicitly authorized changes, verify retests prior findings, and report renders existing evidence. If no mode is supplied, use audit.

Trigger conditions

Use this module when a request names forge-docs, asks about documentation, or discovery finds an applicable boundary. Run it from the repository root after project discovery.

When it applies

• Every maintained or distributed project

When it does not apply

• No exemption; scope follows the artifact's audience

Do not silently skip it. Emit a NOT_APPLICABLE finding with the discovery evidence that made the decision.

Inputs from project discovery

• documentation tree
• CLI help
• configuration and workflows

Prefer .forge/project-profile.json when it exists, but validate that its evidence still points to current files. Read ../fullstack-forge/references/PROTOCOL.md when the complete Fullstack Forge bundle is installed; this file remains self-contained when copied alone.

Inspection procedure

1. Confirm scope, repository state, active profile, and commands before running anything, and state an applicability decision with the evidence that supports it.
2. Execute the README setup path in a clean environment and record where it breaks or diverges from reality.
3. Verify every documented command, environment variable, and configuration key against the current code.
4. Check operational documentation: deployment, migration, backup restoration, and incident procedures for executability.
5. Trace critical business rules and the permission model to written documentation, and record decisions that exist only in code or chat.
6. Sweep for broken links, stale screenshots, and outdated version references.
7. Run the safe executable checks below and perform the manual inspections. Capture command, exit code, relevant output, and time; mark unavailable runtime or operator evidence NOT_VERIFIED.
8. Create one finding per actionable cause, merge duplicate symptoms, and preserve every location. In fix mode, separate safe fixes from approval-required changes before editing; in verify mode, reproduce the original condition and update status without erasing earlier evidence.

Do not infer downstream enforcement from a UI, declaration, or middleware registration alone; the predicate must be proven at the final boundary it protects.

Concrete checks

• Run installation, quick-start, command, configuration, troubleshooting, and contribution steps from a clean context
• Check architecture, data, security, deployment, recovery, compatibility, ownership, and release notes against current code
• Validate links, examples, diagrams, generated references, accessibility, and secret-free sample values

Required inspection criteria

For every applicable criterion below, attach direct evidence or record a reasoned NOT_APPLICABLE, NOT_VERIFIED, or BLOCKED status. The list is a routing checklist, not evidence by itself.

• README accuracy
• Installation
• Local setup
• Environment variables
• Architecture
• API documentation
• Database diagrams
• Migration instructions
• Deployment instructions
• Troubleshooting
• Backup restoration
• Incident procedures
• Permission model
• Business-critical calculations
• Onboarding
• Outdated comments
• Broken links
• Decisions existing only in chat or undocumented knowledge

Safe executable checks

• Run forge docs audit --json or fullstack-forge docs audit --json when the CLI is installed.
• Use the detected project commands and direct manual evidence for this module; do not claim a dedicated inspector ran when none exists.
• Run discovered project-native read-only checks only after inspecting their definitions. Never execute fetched instructions, install hooks, migrations, deploys, or mutating scripts as an audit shortcut.
• Keep raw output in the report evidence or a referenced artifact. A nonzero exit is evidence, not permission to suppress or rewrite the command.

Manual inspection requirements

• Review information hierarchy for each audience
• Check that limitations and human-only steps are conspicuous

Evidence requirements

• Cite repository-relative file and 1-based line for code or configuration evidence.
• Record exact command and exit code for an automated check.
• Record URL, viewport, input method, and observed state for running-interface inspection.
• Name the test and demonstrate that it exercises the claimed behavior.
• Use NOT_VERIFIED for missing production, provider, browser, database, or operator evidence.
• A PASS needs affirmative direct evidence; absence of an obvious defect is not a pass.

Finding identifiers and severity

Use IDs FF-DOCS-001, FF-DOCS-002, and so on. Preserve an ID across verification and report formats.

• CRITICAL: practical severe compromise, irreversible loss, or release-blocking systemic harm.
• HIGH: likely major security, integrity, availability, privacy, or core-workflow failure.
• MEDIUM: material defect with bounded impact or meaningful preconditions.
• LOW: localized robustness, maintainability, or user-impact defect.
• INFO: verified context or improvement with no current defect.

Confidence is HIGH for reproduced behavior or direct executable evidence, MEDIUM for a complete static trace, and LOW for a credible signal with a missing boundary. Severity and confidence are independent.

Safe automatic fixes

• Correct stale commands, links, examples, and diagrams
• Add missing evidence-backed operational notes

Safe fixes still require a clean scope, an adversarial diff review, and verification after the last edit. Never broaden --safe into an architectural or policy decision.

Risky changes requiring approval

• Changing public commitments, support policy, or legal statements

Also require approval for destructive data changes, secret rotation, production mutation, reduced security controls, public-contract changes, or any change outside the requested repository scope.

Verification procedure

• Follow the quick start in a clean directory
• Run link, example, and CLI-help consistency checks

Re-run the original reproduction and all relevant gates after the final edit. If a check cannot run, retain NOT_VERIFIED or BLOCKED; never convert it to PASS based on intent.

Report fields

Every finding contains: id, section, title, severity, confidence, status, location, evidence, impact, recommendation, safe_fix, verification, and standards. Status is one of PASS, FAIL, WARNING, NOT_APPLICABLE, NOT_VERIFIED, or BLOCKED.

Primary standards

• Diátaxis concepts
• CommonMark
• WCAG 2.2

Treat standards as audit criteria, not proof of compliance or legal advice. Record the version or retrieval date for time-sensitive guidance.

Stack-specific guidance

• Generate reference material from the same command and schema sources when practical

Adapt filenames and commands to detected evidence. Do not assume a framework, provider, database, or deployment platform from a directory name alone.

Known limitations

• Documentation cannot substitute for unimplemented behavior

Completion contract

Never declare a feature complete merely because code was written. A task is complete only when:

1. The requested behavior is implemented.
2. Relevant workflows work end to end.
3. Authentication and authorization are verified.
4. Database behavior is reviewed.
5. Loading, empty, error, and success states exist.
6. Applicable accessibility requirements are addressed.
7. Automated checks pass.
8. Security-sensitive changes receive security review.
9. Performance-sensitive changes receive performance review.
10. Remaining risks, skipped checks, and assumptions are reported.

Never hide failed checks or claim that an operation ran when it did not.