Documentation Validator

Documentation Validator Skill

Systematically validates project documentation completeness and quality before project closure.

Purpose

Prevent incomplete documentation by:

• Checking all required files exist
• Validating required sections present
• Verifying links work
• Ensuring consistent formatting
• Confirming quality standards met

Usage

This skill is invoked during project completion (/complete) or when explicitly requested.

Trigger phrases:

• "Validate documentation"
• "Check documentation completeness"
• "Is documentation ready?"

Workflow Steps

1. Identify Project Location

Determine project:

• If in project directory: Use current directory
• Ask user if ambiguous
• Support both active and archived projects

Expected location:

projects/active/{project_name}/

2. Check Required Files Exist

Required files:

• README.md - Navigation and overview
• spec.md - Requirements and goals
• context.md - Working state
• tasks/current-task.md - Task tracking

Execute checks:

test -f projects/active/{project_name}/README.md
test -f projects/active/{project_name}/spec.md
test -f projects/active/{project_name}/context.md
test -f projects/active/{project_name}/tasks/current-task.md

Report missing files.

3. Validate README.md Structure

Required sections:

• Title (H1)
• Created date and status
• Overview section
• Project Structure section
• Quick Links section
• Progress Summary section

Optional but recommended:

• Key Decisions section (if decisions made)
• Notes section

Checks:

• Title matches project
• Status reflects current state
• Overview describes purpose
• Links to spec.md and context.md present

4. Validate spec.md Structure

Required sections:

• Title
• Overview
• Goals
• Requirements (Functional, Non-Functional, Constraints)
• Implementation Plan
• Technical Approach
• Success Criteria

Optional but recommended:

• Risks & Mitigation
• Dependencies
• Timeline

Checks:

• All sections have content (not just placeholders)
• Success criteria are measurable
• Implementation plan has concrete steps

5. Validate context.md Structure

Required sections:

• Current State (Git branch, PRs, deployment)
• Current Focus
• Decisions Log
• Agent Activity

Checks:

• Git branch documented
• PR links included (if PRs created)
• Major decisions documented
• Agent consultations recorded

6. Check Internal Links

Extract and test links:

Find all markdown links: [text](path)
Test each relative link:
  - Does file exist?
  - Does anchor exist (if specified)?

Common links to validate:

• README → spec.md
• README → context.md
• README → tasks/current-task.md
• context.md → tasks/*-findings.md

Report broken links.

7. Validate Code Documentation (if applicable)

For code projects:

• Code has inline comments for complex logic
• Functions/classes have docstrings
• README has usage examples
• API endpoints documented (if applicable)

Check:

# Count comment lines vs code lines (basic heuristic)
# Look for TODO/FIXME comments that should be resolved

8. Check Markdown Formatting

Standard checks:

• Headers follow hierarchy (H1 → H2 → H3)
• Code blocks have language specified
• Lists formatted consistently
• No trailing whitespace
• Proper newline at end of file

Use linter (if available):

markdownlint projects/active/{project_name}/*.md

9. Validate Metadata Completeness

In frontmatter or headers:

• Created date present
• Last updated date present
• Status/phase indicated
• Related issue links (if from GitHub issue)

10. Generate Validation Report

Format:

# Documentation Validation Report
**Project**: {project_name}
**Date**: {current_date}

## Summary
✅ {pass_count} checks passed
⚠️ {warning_count} warnings
❌ {fail_count} failures

## Required Files
- [✅/❌] README.md
- [✅/❌] spec.md
- [✅/❌] context.md
- [✅/❌] tasks/current-task.md

## README.md Validation
- [✅/❌] Title and metadata
- [✅/❌] Overview section
- [✅/❌] Project structure
- [✅/❌] Quick links
- [✅/❌] Progress summary

## spec.md Validation
- [✅/❌] Goals defined
- [✅/❌] Requirements documented
- [✅/❌] Implementation plan
- [✅/❌] Success criteria

## context.md Validation
- [✅/❌] Current state documented
- [✅/❌] Decisions logged
- [✅/❌] Agent activity tracked

## Link Validation
- ✅ {working_links_count} links working
- ❌ {broken_links_count} broken links:
  - {broken_link_1}
  - {broken_link_2}

## Warnings
- {warning_1}
- {warning_2}

## Failures
- {failure_1}
- {failure_2}

## Recommendations
1. {recommendation_1}
2. {recommendation_2}

## Overall Status
[✅ PASS | ⚠️ PASS WITH WARNINGS | ❌ FAIL]

{overall_assessment}

11. Output Report to User

Display:

📋 Documentation Validation Complete

Overall Status: [✅ PASS | ⚠️ PASS WITH WARNINGS | ❌ FAIL]

Summary:
- ✅ {pass_count} checks passed
- ⚠️ {warning_count} warnings
- ❌ {fail_count} failures

{If failures exist:}
❌ Critical Issues Found:
- {failure_1}
- {failure_2}

Please address failures before completing project.

{If warnings exist:}
⚠️ Warnings:
- {warning_1}
- {warning_2}

Consider addressing warnings for better documentation quality.

Full report: projects/active/{project_name}/validation-report.md

12. Save Validation Report

Save report:

projects/active/{project_name}/validation-report.md

For use in /complete workflow.

Error Handling

Project Not Found

Check: Project directory exists Action: Ask user to specify valid project path

No Documentation Files

Check: At least README.md exists Action: Fail validation with clear message

Markdownlint Not Available

Check: markdownlint command exists Action: Skip formatting checks, continue with other validations

Quality Standards

Documentation validation must:

• ✅ Check all required files and sections
• ✅ Validate internal link integrity
• ✅ Provide actionable feedback
• ✅ Distinguish failures (blockers) from warnings (nice-to-fix)
• ✅ Generate comprehensive report

Validation Levels

Critical (Must Fix - Blockers)

• Missing required files
• Missing required sections
• Broken internal links
• Empty or placeholder content in key sections

Warnings (Should Fix - Quality)

• Missing optional sections
• Inconsistent formatting
• Sparse documentation
• Undocumented decisions

Informational (Nice to Have)

• Additional best practices
• Suggested improvements
• Enhancement opportunities

Integration with ADLC Workflow

Called by /complete command

/complete {project_name}
→ Invokes documentation-validator skill
→ Checks pass → Proceed with completion
→ Checks fail → Block completion, show failures
→ User fixes issues
→ Re-validate
→ Complete project

Called manually

User: "Validate documentation for my project"
→ Invokes documentation-validator skill
→ Generates report
→ User reviews and fixes issues

Best Practices

README.md

• Clear, concise overview
• Links to all key documents
• Progress tracking shows current state
• Key decisions documented as made

spec.md

• Measurable success criteria
• Concrete implementation plan
• Clear requirements with priorities
• Risks identified with mitigations

context.md

• Current state always up-to-date
• All major decisions logged with rationale
• Agent consultations tracked
• Blockers and resolutions documented

Success Metrics

Quality: 100% projects have complete documentation before closure Adoption: Validation run for every project completion Effectiveness: Reduced time debugging undocumented decisions

Version: 1.0.0 Last Updated: 2025-10-21 Maintainer: ADLC Platform Team

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