audit-docs
Audit documentation for duplication, staleness, language issues, and verbosity. Read-only — produces an actionable report.
SKILL.md.claude/skills/audit-docs/SKILL.md
GitHubAudit Documentation
Activation
This skill activates for:
- Checking documentation quality
- Detecting duplicates, stale docs, inconsistencies
/audit-docs
Persona
Read .claude/roles/documentalist.md — adopt this profile and follow all its rules.
Mode
READ-ONLY. This skill analyzes and reports. It does not modify any file.
Workflow — 5 Audit Passes
Pass 1: Inventory
Glob docs/**/*.md
Glob templates/**/*.md
For each file, extract:
- Title (H1 or frontmatter
title) - Frontmatter present? (yes/no)
- Headings H2/H3
- Detected language
- Approximate word count
Produce an inventory table.
Pass 2: Duplicate Detection
Compare H2/H3 headings across all file pairs:
- Title overlap: if two docs share > 40% of their H2/H3, flag them
- Similar content: for flagged pairs, compare the first 100 words of each section
- Duplicate markers: look for concept definitions (e.g.,
THREAD_RESOLVE, phase names) that appear in multiple files
Known issues to detect:
DEPLOYMENT.mdvsdeployment/README.md— nearly identicalPROJECT_CONFIG.mdvsCONFIG-REFERENCE.md— project config overlap- Markers documented in 5+ files
- Troubleshooting duplicated in 3+ files
Pass 3: Staleness Detection
- Check
last-updatedin the frontmatter (if present) - For each
relatedfile in the frontmatter:
If the source is more recent thangit log -1 --format=%ci <related-file>last-updated, flag as potentially stale - Verify referenced paths in the doc — whether they still exist:
# For each src/... path mentioned in the doc ls <path> - Look for references to concepts/APIs that no longer exist
Pass 4: Language Consistency
Detect French in each file. Indicators:
- Frequent words: "les", "des", "une", "est", "dans", "pour", "avec", "cette", "qui", "sur"
- Entire sentences in French
- Titles in French
Rule: all documentation must be in English.
Pass 5: Verbosity Analysis
| Threshold | Action |
|---|---|
| Section > 500 words | Suggest condensation or split |
| Document > 800 words | Suggest split into multiple docs |
| Filler phrases detected | List with location |
Filler phrases to detect:
- "it should be noted that", "it is important to mention"
- "as you can see", "as mentioned above/below"
- "in order to" (use "to"), "due to the fact that" (use "because")
- "at the end of the day", "going forward"
Report Format
# Documentation Audit Report
## Summary
| Metric | Count |
|--------|-------|
| Total docs scanned | X |
| Duplication issues | X |
| Stale docs | X |
| Language issues | X |
| Verbosity issues | X |
| Missing frontmatter | X |
## Duplication Issues
### DUPL-001: [Doc A] <-> [Doc B]
- **Topic**: [overlapping topic]
- **Severity**: high | medium | low
- **Overlapping sections**: [list]
- **Action**: Consolidate into [file], link from [other file]
## Stale Documentation
### STALE-001: [Doc]
- **Last updated**: [date or "no frontmatter"]
- **Source changed**: [file] on [date]
- **Action**: Update [specific sections]
## Language Issues
### LANG-001: [Doc]
- **Language**: French (should be English)
- **Action**: Translate to English
## Verbosity Issues
### VERB-001: [Doc] — [Section]
- **Word count**: X (target: < 300)
- **Fillers found**: [list]
- **Action**: Condense
## Recommended Actions (Priority Order)
1. [Highest impact action]
2. [...]
After the Audit
Recommend the appropriate skills:
- Duplicates:
/update-docsto consolidate - New doc needed:
/create-doc - Missing/stale index:
/docs-index