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?".