Local docs lookup

Local Documentation Lookup

Ground agent answers in locally-available documentation before considering any external lookup service. Under the MCP Registry Policy in AGENTS.md, documentation-lookup-as-service MCPs route library names and query text to a third party - this skill is the policy-compliant replacement.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• The agent needs API / library details to answer a question correctly.
• The user asks "how do I use X in library Y?" or "what's the signature of foo?"
• You notice the agent hallucinating API calls, method names, or argument orderings.
• A failing test or stack trace references a library function whose real signature the agent should verify rather than guess.

When NOT to use:

• The question is about the user's own code - use direct file reads or devai-code-search instead.
• The question is about a runtime error in the user's code - use bug-localization or error-explanation-generator.
• The documentation you need is genuinely online-only and the user has explicitly approved fetching a specific public URL - fetch it via devai-web-fetch with the one URL (policy-compliant per the decision tree in AGENTS.md).

Instructions

Walk this lookup sequence in order and stop at the first source that answers the question.

Step 1: Introspect the installed package

Python, Ruby, Node, Go all ship REPL introspection. Use it first.

# Python
python -c "import requests; help(requests.get)"
python -m pydoc requests.get
python -c "import inspect, requests; print(inspect.signature(requests.get))"

# Node (REPL)
node -e "console.log(require.resolve('axios'))"
# Then Read the resolved path's README / index.d.ts

# Go (from a module directory)
go doc encoding/json.Marshal
go doc -all encoding/json.Marshaler

# Ruby (irb)
ruby -rjson -e "puts JSON.method(:parse).source_location"

This is the highest-fidelity source because the docstring / signature comes from the exact version installed.

Step 2: Read the vendored package README

Every installed package ships its README on disk.

# Python
find "$(python -c 'import sys; print(sys.prefix)')"/lib/*/site-packages/<package-name> -name "README*" -print

# Node
ls node_modules/<package>/README*

# Ruby
gem contents <gem-name> | grep -i readme

Read the README with the Read tool. This usually answers "what does this library do and how do I use its main entry points."

Step 3: Read the package's shipped .md / .txt / .rst docs

Many packages ship a docs/ directory, a CHANGELOG.md, or inline code comments that contain usage examples.

# Python
ls "$(python -c 'import sys; print(sys.prefix)')"/lib/*/site-packages/<package>/docs 2>/dev/null
find "$(python -c 'import sys; print(sys.prefix)')"/lib/*/site-packages/<package> -name "*.md" -maxdepth 3

# Node
find node_modules/<package> -name "*.md" -maxdepth 3

Step 4: Read the package's type stubs or source

TypeScript .d.ts files, Python type stubs (*.pyi), and plain source are authoritative for signatures.

# Node / TypeScript
cat node_modules/<package>/dist/index.d.ts
cat node_modules/<package>/dist/<submodule>.d.ts

# Python - go straight to the source
python -c "import <package>; print(<package>.__file__)"
# Then Read the printed path.

Step 5: Check the project's own shipped docs

Many well-organized projects ship a docs/ tree in their own repo at <repo-root>/docs/ with guides, ADRs, and references. Always grep this tree before reaching for external sources.

find docs/ -name "*.md" -print
grep -r "<symbol-or-phrase>" docs/

Step 6: Local man pages

For CLI tools and system libraries:

man <command>
<command> --help

Step 7 (last resort, with user approval): devai-web-fetch a single URL

If the prior steps did not answer the question AND the official documentation is online, ask the user:

"The information is not in any local source I can find. Would you like me to fetch the official docs page at <URL> via devai-web-fetch? This makes one outbound HTTPS call to the URL you approve; no third-party intermediary is involved."

If the user approves, call devai-web-fetch with the single URL. Do not perform follow-up fetches without re-asking.

Common Rationalizations

Rationalization	Reality
"grep-ing the repo is slower than just asking the MCP"	The initial lookup via pydoc / README is 5-10 seconds. The ongoing cost of the MCP is every query leaking library names, plus a new dependency on an external service's uptime.
"The MCP has more up-to-date docs than what's installed locally"	Your code runs against the installed version - that's the version whose docs actually matter. An MCP returning the bleeding-edge docs may describe features that don't exist in your installed version, which is worse than nothing.
"I don't know where the package is installed"	python -c "import X; print(X.__file__)" or node -e "console.log(require.resolve('X'))" solves this in one line. Take the one line.
"The package has no README"	If a package ships with no README and no source comments, its maintainability is the real problem. Do not paper over that with a remote lookup - flag the package for replacement.

Verification

• The answer cites at least one local source (file path or introspection command output).
• If devai-web-fetch was used, the user explicitly approved the URL.
• The answer matches the installed version of the package (not a newer API the user does not have).
• No documentation-as-service MCP was invoked.
• Library names and query text did not leave the local machine except to the user-approved URL (if any).

Related Skills

• rag-implementation - general RAG over arbitrary document corpora; this skill is the specialized flow for library documentation.
• context-manager - for shaping what context the agent loads; feed local doc extracts via this skill.
• code-semantic-search - for searching the user's own code (not library docs).
• error-explanation-generator - when the library question is triggered by a specific runtime error.

Notes on the Gap

This skill covers cached / installed-version documentation. It does NOT recreate a continuously-updated library index such as a search-engine-style lookup over every package version on PyPI / npm / crates.io. That gap is real; under the MCP Registry Policy, closing it requires either (a) running a local mirror of the documentation corpus, which is large and infrequently needed, or (b) accepting the single-URL user-approved fetch via devai-web-fetch for the rare case where the locally-installed version is genuinely insufficient. Document both as a known limitation rather than papering over it with a third-party service.