# Check The Docs

> Use when writing or modifying code that calls an external library, framework, SDK, or API — especially one that is niche, recently updated, or whose exact method names and parameters you are not certain of. Makes the agent confirm real, current API signatures before using them, instead of inventing plausible-but-wrong calls from memory.

- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-buildmoonshot-skillpacks-check-the-docs`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [buildmoonshot](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/buildmoonshot)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [AI & ML](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/ai-and-ml)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** MIT
- **Upstream author:** [buildmoonshot](https://github.com/buildmoonshot)
- **Source:** https://github.com/buildmoonshot/skillpacks/tree/main/skills/engineering/intermediate/check-the-docs

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-buildmoonshot-skillpacks-check-the-docs
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# Check the Docs

Before calling into an external library or API, **confirm the API is real and current** — do not code it from memory and hope.

## When to stop and check

- You're reaching for a method, option, or parameter and you're **not certain** it exists with that exact name/shape.
- The library has had **major version changes** (the API you remember may be gone).
- It's **niche or fast-moving** — small libraries and recent releases are where memory is least reliable.
- The user reported an error that looks like a **wrong signature** (`X is not a function`, unexpected argument).

## What to do

1. **Verify the signature** against current documentation, the installed version's types/source, or an official reference — not your recollection.
2. **Check the installed version.** Read `package.json` / lockfile / `requirements.txt`. Match the docs to *that* version, not the latest.
3. **Prefer the project's existing usage.** If the codebase already calls this library, copy that real, working pattern over anything you'd reconstruct from memory.

## When you can't verify

Say so, and mark the call as unverified: *"I used `client.search(...)` from memory — confirm this matches your installed version, as I couldn't check the docs."* An honest flag beats a confident hallucination.

## Why this matters

Hallucinated API calls are the classic agent failure: confident, plausible, and completely wrong — `array.removeWhere()`, a `timeout` option that doesn't exist, a renamed method from three versions ago. They cost a debugging session to track down. Thirty seconds of checking prevents them.

## Source & license

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

- **Author:** [buildmoonshot](https://github.com/buildmoonshot)
- **Source:** [buildmoonshot/skillpacks](https://github.com/buildmoonshot/skillpacks)
- **License:** MIT

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

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-buildmoonshot-skillpacks-check-the-docs
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/buildmoonshot
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

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Listed on AgentStack — the marketplace for AI agent skills and MCP servers. Every listing is security-reviewed. Creators keep 70%.