name: agent-doc-discipline description: Writing-time discipline for documents agents consume (the five surfaces, specs, tickets, .omc/skills/) — every rule checkable and carrying a why, steps before reference, one meaning in one home, no restating what the environment already says. Mandatory at drydock seed generation and the launch C5 sediment pass; opt-in for any other agent-facing doc edit. The companion of minimal-code-discipline: that one disciplines code, this one disciplines papers. level: 3
Agent Doc Discipline
Use this skill to apply a writing-time discipline while creating or editing any document an agent consumes to act: the five surfaces (CLAUDE.md, CONTEXT.md, docs/standards/, design-system/, .omc/skills/), specs, tickets, and skill files. The test a document must pass: a fresh agent session can act on it by reading alone.
Mandatory when: drydock generates surface seeds, the launch C5 sediment pass writes a lesson into a slot. Opt-in for every other edit — but any edit to an agent-facing document should survive these rules.
When Not to Use
Documents written for humans only: docs/business/ narrative, ADR decision stories, READMEs for human onboarding. They may still follow the rules where it costs nothing, but they are not held to this discipline.
The Discipline
Write for a reader with no chat history. The document is self-describing: nothing leans on "as discussed", a prior session, or knowledge that lives in someone's head. Test: a brand-new agent session can act on the document by reading alone.
Every rule checkable and carrying a why. No "keep it clean" — write the observable condition and the reason. Test: an agent can decide pass/fail from the text alone, and the why is stated next to the rule.
One meaning, one home. Each rule or definition has a single authoritative place; duplication is drift waiting to happen. Test: changing a behavior is a one-place edit.
Never restate what the environment confesses. Package scripts, directory layouts, --help output are lookups, not documents — a copied lookup goes stale. Document only what cannot be found by looking: the unwritten convention, the reason behind a choice, the gotcha. Test: every line survives "can this be looked up elsewhere?".
Steps first, reference behind, rare material behind a pointer. What to do, in order, at the top; consult-on-demand rules below; low-frequency material pushed behind a pointer whose wording names the branches that should trigger reaching it. Test: the next action is findable within the first screen.
Every step ends on a completion criterion. Done must be tellable from not-done — a vague bound invites premature completion. Test: for each step, "how do I know this is finished?" has an answer in the text.
Prompt the positive. State the target behavior; a prohibition is reserved for hard guardrails and is always paired with the positive target. Test: every prohibition in the document names the thing to do instead.
Scrape barnacles on write. When the document contains stale or redundant material, remove it in the same edit; when it does not, add only the required material and do not invent deletions. A sentence the model already obeys by default pays load for nothing — delete the whole sentence. Test: every line re-read earns its place against "does this change behavior versus the default?", and any stale or redundant material found during the edit is gone.
Verification
Before reporting a document change done, confirm:
- a fresh session could act on it without asking a human anything
- every rule is checkable and states its why; no rule restates a lookup
- meanings live in one place; pointers name their trigger branches
- stale or redundant material found during the edit was removed, while valid unrelated content was preserved