doc · diff

git:20260926.482dc04 to git:20261005.4fda294

43 added, 39 removed. Audit A to A.

---

name: doc

- description: 'Write grounded docs, READMEs, repo instructions or continuity handoffs. Use when: these documents are requested; no reports as a routine completion ritual.'

+ description: 'Write or update READMEs, docs, repo instructions and handoff notes, checked against source. Use when: documenting something, writing a README or leaving a session handoff.'

practices:

- wiki-knowledge-surface

- code-complete

- pragmatic-programmer

hexagonal_role: supporting

consumes:

- repo-context

produces:

- documentation

- session-handoff

context_rel: []

skill_api_version: 1

user-invocable: true

context:

window: fork

intent:

mode: task

sections:

exclude:

- HISTORY

metadata:

capabilities: [doc, initialize_missing_docs, write_session_handoff]

effects: [write_documentation, write_requested_handoff, create_requested_evidence_directory]

canonical_status: canonical

disposition: keep_specialist

tier: product

dependencies: []

output_contract: requested documentation or handoff with source references, check results and explicit gaps

---

# Doc

Write or update the documentation the caller needs, grounded in the current

repository and its accepted intent. A small explanation needs no interview,

coverage ledger or separate report. Select only the mode relevant to the task.

## Modes

| Need | Scope and reference |

|---|---|

| Explain an API, command, code-map or architecture | Inspect its consumers and source; use [code/API guidance](references/default-mode.md) or [architecture guidance](references/architecture-report.md) when useful. |

| Create or improve a README | Lead with the user's problem and a working first-use path; preserve useful depth. See [README craft](references/readme-craft.md). |

| Audit or scaffold OSS documentation | Compare existing docs with the requested pack. Create missing files; revise existing files only within the authorized request. See [OSS pack](references/oss-pack.md). |

| Initialize missing entry documents | Create only explicitly requested missing files; report existing paths as skipped. See [setup examples](references/bootstrap/examples.md). |

- | Preserve a session for another context | Write the compact factual handoff described below to the caller's authorized destination. |

+ | Preserve a session for another context | Fill the [handoff template](#session-handoff) and deliver it as described there. |

These are optional task shapes, not successive phases. Detailed references

supply techniques and formats; they do not add interviews, approval checkpoints,

reports or files beyond the accepted request. Existing authorization to revise

specified documents is sufficient.

## Grounded writing

1. Identify the audience, question and existing document owner. Reuse accepted

intent; ask only for missing content that materially changes the document.

2. Read the relevant declarations and verify them against code, configuration,

command help or executable behavior. Use the caller's domain terminology.

For a larger surface, retain enough source references to disclose what was

inspected and what remains unknown; do not imply whole-repository coverage.

3. Make the smallest useful edit. Explain non-obvious rules, ordering and tradeoffs

when they help the reader; a reference page need not manufacture a lesson.

Preserve operator policy and history outside the authorized scope.

4. Check links, examples and the repository's applicable documentation build or

validator. Remove empty claims and redundant prose; [prose guidance](references/de-slopify.md)

can help when the requested output is substantial.

5. Return changed paths and check results, plus unresolved factual gaps. Write a

separate report only when the caller requests one or an existing consumer

requires it.

- For AgentOps itself, read `docs/contracts/ubiquitous-language.md`: the product

- is the operations layer for agentic engineering. Preserve the distinction

- between that layer and caller-owned execution, work tracking and delivery.

## Missing-document setup

Create only the requested missing documents, such as `PRODUCT.md`, `GOALS.md`

or `AGENTS.md`; a collision is skipped, not overwritten by setup. Verify the

created paths and report created, skipped and failed writes. Setup does not

install tools, run `ao session bootstrap`, initialize Git or trackers, start a

- runtime, add hooks, or infer a repository workflow.

- Standalone verdict storage at `.agents/ao/verdicts/sha256/` is created only when

- explicitly requested. New CDLC proof uses the caller-selected protected external

- non-Git evidence root; a missing route permits no checkout fallback. Preserve

- existing evidence and use the repository's actual source owners.

+ runtime, add hooks, or infer a repository workflow. AgentOps verdict storage is

+ created only on explicit request; see [AgentOps internals](references/agentops-internal.md).

## Session handoff

- A requested handoff records end-state facts another context can verify:

- - accepted goal, completed artifacts and exact evidence paths;

- - commands and observed results, unresolved acceptance, findings and causal gaps;

- - useful repository/content identity, observed native stop state and measured

- remaining allowance or explicit unknowns; record whether the helper for a

- current HOLD incident was used when that fact matters to continuation;

- - permitted dispatch/startup association and observed runtime/session/context

- identities, with separately evidenced parent/resume links and source bounds;

- - caller-supplied continuation, when present.

+ A requested handoff records end-state facts another context can verify. Fill

+ every field. Write `unknown` with the reason for any fact you did not observe;

+ record a caller's unobserved claim as "stated, unverified", never as fact.

- Follow [session associations](../agent-native/references/session-associations.md#work-to-session-associations)

- for those identities. End-state notes cannot replace missing startup evidence.

- Do not invent IDs, infer a paused goal from a report saying HOLD, assign a whole

- multi-work session to one task, or reset budgets and helper incidents through

- compaction. Preserve informative failures and withdrawn claims.

+ ```markdown

+ # Handoff: <goal, one line>

+ - Goal and acceptance: <accepted goal>; acceptance <met | not met | unknown>

+ - Done: <change or artifact> (<exact path, commit or command>) -> <observed result>

+ - Failed or withdrawn: <attempt> -> <observed failure or reason> | none

+ - Open: <unmet acceptance, findings, causal gaps> | none known

+ - Stop state: <native state and where it was read> | unknown

+ - Remaining allowance: <measured time, cost or turns left; helper use for the current incident when it matters> | unknown

+ - Identities: <repository and commit; runtime, session or context IDs and resume links as observed> | unknown

+ - Continuation: <caller-supplied next step> | none supplied

+ ```

- Check source, recipient/model and destination authorization before copying

- metadata. An opaque locator grants no access. New CDLC handoffs require the

- selected protected external non-Git destination; preserve legacy evidence and

- report missing routing without creating a fallback file. Otherwise use the

- caller's named location and read it back after writing.

+ - **IDs:** record only observed identities. A remembered, approximate or

+ reconstructed ID is `unknown`; at most quote it as the caller's unverified claim.

+ - **Stop state:** a note or report saying HOLD, paused or done is only a note.

+ Read the state from its native owner (tracker, runtime, goal controller) or

+ write `unknown`.

+ - **Allowance:** compaction, a new session or a handoff resets no budget,

+ allowance or helper incident. Carry the measured remainder or `unknown`.

+ - **Failures:** keep informative failures and withdrawn claims so the next

+ context does not repeat them.

+ - **Sessions:** do not assign a whole multi-work session to one task. Follow

+ [session associations](../agent-native/references/session-associations.md#work-to-session-associations)

+ for startup and resume links; end-state notes cannot replace missing startup

+ evidence.

- Existing JSON under `.agents/handoff/` remains read-only evidence.

- `ao session handoff` writes `.agents/ao/handoff/`; `ao session rehydrate` searches

- both and selects the newest lexical ID, preferring the canonical directory for

- an identical filename. Those commands do not establish startup associations or

- external storage authorization. Return the exact path to Markdown consumers.

+ **Destination.** A new CDLC handoff, draft or proof goes only to the selected

+ protected external non-Git destination; with none selected, report the missing

+ routing and create no fallback file. For any other handoff a location the

+ caller names wins: write there, read it back and return the exact path. With no

+ named location, return the handoff in the response and create no file. Check source, recipient/model and destination

+ authorization before copying metadata; an opaque locator grants no access.

+ AgentOps evidence routing and the `ao session` handoff commands are in

+ [AgentOps internals](references/agentops-internal.md).

Writing a handoff changes no tracker, Git, runtime or verdict state. The native

- caller continues owning the authorized outcome; this documentation mode does

- not select work or decide continuation for it.

+ caller keeps owning the authorized outcome; this mode does not select work or

+ decide continuation for it.

## Reference menu

Load these only for the document being written. They supply examples and

techniques under the kernel's accepted scope, not additional workflow gates.

- Formats and examples: [generation templates](references/generation-templates.md), [project types](references/project-types.md).

- OSS scope: [documentation tiers](references/oss-documentation-tiers.md), [OSS project types](references/oss-project-types.md).

- Writing and checks: [prose workmanship](references/prose-and-report-workmanship.md), [validation techniques](references/validation-rules.md).

- Explicit context configuration: [context routing](references/bootstrap/context-routing.md).

+ - Behavior scenarios: [documentation](references/doc.feature), [README](references/readme.feature), [OSS pack](references/oss-docs.feature).

+ - AgentOps itself (vocabulary, evidence routing, handoff commands): [AgentOps internals](references/agentops-internal.md).