Doccraft Update

doccraft — update skills and openspec instructions

When to use

• Periodically to keep doccraft skills and openspec instructions current.
• After a teammate updates doccraft in a shared repo (check the version stamp

in doccraft.json against the latest npm release).

• When doccraft-config or other skills mention features that do not seem to

work — you may be running an older skill body.

Configuration

Read doccraft.json at invocation. The version field is this skill's primary input — it determines which migration entries apply. If the file is missing, treat the local version as unknown, warn the user, and proceed.

Relevant keys:

• version — the currently installed doccraft version. Used to filter the

migration manifest. Default: none (required; treat as unknown if absent).

• docsDir — root folder for all docs. Default: docs. Used post-update

for context when checking extension fragments in installed skills.

Workflow

1. Read the local version

Read "version" from doccraft.json at the project root. If the file does not exist, treat the local version as unknown and warn the user — then proceed.

2. Fetch the manifest

Run exactly once:

npx doccraft@latest llm

Parse the JSON output. The relevant fields are:

• version — the latest doccraft version.
• migrations — array of { from, to, summary, steps[] } entries.

If the invocation fails (no network, npx error), report the error and stop. NEVER guess at migration steps.

3. Filter migrations

Filter migrations to entries where the local version falls within the from range and the latest version falls within the to range.

Treat from as a semver range (e.g. "0.x" covers 0.1.0, 0.9.3). If you cannot parse the range, surface it as a step the user MUST review manually rather than blocking the update.

4a. Dominant path — no matching entries

If the filtered list is empty:

1. Run: npx doccraft@latest update

(The CLI handles the version bump in doccraft.json and installs skills and openspec instructions — no manual file edit needed.)

1. Report the new version and what was installed.
2. No prompt before running — this is the expected steady-state path.

4b. Assisted path — migration entries present

If the filtered list is non-empty:

1. Summarise each matching migration entry:

• summary — one sentence.
• steps[] — numbered list.

1. Ask for user approval before proceeding.
2. On approval:

a. Run: npx doccraft@latest update (The CLI handles the version bump and skill install.) b. Report the new version and what was installed.

1. On rejection: stop. Do not run the update command.

Constraints

• NEVER fabricate migration steps — only report what migrations[] in

the manifest declares. If the array is empty, there are no user actions required.

• Gate only when migration entries are present. The dominant path (empty

migrations) MUST run without prompting — that is the whole point.

• Tolerate a missing doccraft.json — continue with local version

treated as unknown; warn the user and proceed.

• One npx invocation for the manifest. MUST NOT call

npx doccraft@latest llm more than once per update run.

• Trust the CLI for version bumps. npx doccraft@latest update

surgically updates "version" and "$schema" in doccraft.json automatically. MUST NOT duplicate that edit.

Pre-execution validation

Before running the update, MUST complete these checks:

1. Read existing config — read doccraft.json in full before fetching

the manifest. NEVER rely on memory or assumption for the local version.

1. Manifest integrity — confirm the npx doccraft@latest llm output

contains the expected version and migrations fields. If the output is not valid JSON or missing these fields, report the parsing error and stop — NEVER proceed with a broken manifest.

1. Latest version sanity — confirm the manifest version is different

from the local version. If they match, report "already up to date" and stop — no npx doccraft@latest update needed.

1. Filtered migrations — if any from range cannot be parsed, surface

that entry for manual review rather than silently skipping or incorrectly including it.

1. Network available — if npx doccraft@latest llm fails with a

network error, report the error and stop. NEVER cache and reuse an old manifest.

Invalid examples (do not use)

• Fabricating migration steps when migrations[] is empty — NEVER; no

entries means no manual steps are needed.

• Calling npx doccraft@latest llm more than once per update run — NEVER;

cache the result in memory.

• Proceeding with the update when the manifest is unparseable — NEVER; stop

and report the error.

• Manually editing "version" or "$schema" in doccraft.json after the

CLI has run — NEVER; the CLI already performed the surgical edit.

• Running npx doccraft@latest update without user approval when migration

entries are present — NEVER; gate on approval.

• Running npx doccraft@latest update when the local version already

matches the latest — NEVER; report "already up to date" and stop.

Done condition

The task is complete when:

• The manifest has been fetched and parsed from npx doccraft@latest llm

exactly once.

• The local version has been compared against the latest version.
• In the dominant path: npx doccraft@latest update has run and the output

confirms the new version plus installed components (skills refreshed, openspec version).

• In the assisted path: the user has either approved and the update has run

(same as dominant path), or the user has rejected and no files were changed.

• The report includes the new version number and which components were

refreshed.

Workflow reminders

• If doccraft.json was missing before the update and the CLI did not

scaffold it, invoke doccraft init to create the config file with the current version stamp.

• If doccraft.json declares an extensions array, verify the extension

fragments were baked correctly by checking the injected blocks in .claude/skills/*/SKILL.md after the update.

• After a major or breaking-format update (semver jump), run

doccraft-queue-audit if the project uses {{DOCS_DIR}}/stories/ — new skill bodies may interpret frontmatter fields differently.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: alexpialetski
• Source: alexpialetski/doccraft
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://www.npmjs.com/package/doccraft

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.