Documentation standards

Skill jagreehal/jagreehal-claude-skills/skills/documentation-standards

Frames documentation around reader needs using quality dimensions, document-type requirements, and review checklists. Use this skill when writing or reviewing READMEs, API references, tutorials, changelogs, or error messages. Do not use when/for long-form article structure (use spine-framework) or authoring Agent Skills (use skill-authoring).From its SKILL.md

Install

npx -y skills add jagreehal/jagreehal-claude-skills --skill documentation-standards

Assembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.

One thing to look at

3 stars3 stars. Stars are a popularity signal and not a quality one, but at this level it is likely that nobody has read this closely except its author, and you would be relying on your own review.

SKILL.md

3.0 KB, as published. Nobody here has run it

Documentation Standards

Critical rules

Reader first: every decision answers "What does the reader need?" — not what the author knows.
No lies: no broken links, untested examples, or outdated facts.
Test everything: every code sample runs; every link resolves.
Principles over templates: score quality dimensions; templates follow.
Do not document obvious code, throwaway prototypes, or placeholders you cannot keep accurate — stale docs are worse than none.
Before scoring quality or choosing a document type, read the matching resource below.

Workflow

Name the reader, their goal, prerequisites, and success criteria.
Pick the document type (README, API reference, tutorial, changelog, or error message). Before drafting sections, read references/document-types.md.
Draft for the reader's task: What → Why → How. Front-load purpose in the first two paragraphs.
Score against the eight quality dimensions. Before scoring, read references/quality-dimensions.md.
Make code samples copy-paste ready (imports, init, errors, output). Write error messages that state what failed and how to fix it. Before polishing prose or samples, read references/writing-and-examples.md.
Run the Validation checklist. Fix evidence-backed gaps only.

Resources

references/quality-dimensions.md — clarity, accuracy, conciseness, structure, usability, consistency, completeness, examples. Read when scoring or reviewing.
references/document-types.md — README, API reference, tutorial, changelog requirements and WRONG/CORRECT. Read when choosing structure.
references/writing-and-examples.md — code-sample rules, sentence/paragraph principles, error messages, rationalizations, red flags. Read when drafting or polishing.

Validation

User-centered

Target user, goal, prerequisites, success criteria, and next steps stated

Content

First sentence explains purpose; active voice; terms defined; assumptions explicit

Code examples

Imports, runnable, output shown, error handling, language tag, tested

Accuracy

Signatures match code; version numbers current; links resolve

Constraints

Not for long-form article arcs (spine-framework) or Agent Skill authoring (skill-authoring).
Related: structured-writing (voice-preserving capture), system-architecture (ADRs), design-principles (domain naming in docs), data-visualization (diagrams over walls of text).