Documentation Architecture Review

Evaluate whether documentation is organized so that readers can find what they need, understand where they are, and navigate efficiently. The output is an architecture assessment with specific restructuring recommendations — not new content.

When to Use

• When restructuring or reorganizing documentation
• When adding a new section or doc type to an existing set
• When users report "I know it's documented somewhere but can't find it"
• When the doc set has grown organically and needs rationalization
• After doc-completeness-audit identifies gaps — before filling them, ensure the structure can accommodate new content
• Periodic review of navigation and discoverability

Quick Reference

Workflow Overview

Phase 0: Personas    → Establish the doc set's primary 1-3 personas
Phase 1: Map         → Build the current doc structure map (incl. link graph)
Phase 2: Evaluate    → Score against IA heuristics, parameterized by personas + doc type
Phase 3: Model       → Compare structure to user mental models per persona
Phase 4: Report      → Produce the architecture review with per-persona findings

Phase 0: Establish Personas

A "good" architecture is good for someone specific. Without personas, the heuristics apply a default standard that systematically misjudges docs serving non-default audiences (a flat reference doc scored as "poorly hierarchical" because it doesn't follow Quick Start → advanced).

Step 0a — Identify the doc set's audiences

Read the doc set's entry pages (README, index.md, landing pages) and the highest-traffic top-level docs. Identify which 1–3 personas from references/personas.md are the primary readers. Common patterns:

Step 0b — Draft persona profiles

For each identified persona, copy the profile from references/personas.md verbatim. Don't paraphrase — the explicit profile is what calibrates downstream sub-agents. If a persona almost fits but a dimension differs, define a custom persona using the same five-field structure.

Step 0c — Note conflicts

If the doc set serves more than one persona with conflicting needs (e.g., Onboarding User wants narrative, API Looker-Up wants terseness), note this explicitly. The synthesis report will surface where current structure favors one persona at the cost of another.

Output: A persona block (1–3 personas + any conflict notes) that feeds every downstream sub-agent prompt.

Phase 1: Map the Current Structure

Build a complete picture of the documentation architecture.

Step 1a: Physical Structure

Generate the file tree of all documentation:

find docs/ site/ -name '*.md' -o -name '*.html' | sort

Record:

• Directory hierarchy and nesting depth
• File count per directory
• Naming conventions (kebab-case, snake_case, mixed)

Step 1b: Navigation Structure

Identify every way a reader can navigate:

Step 1c: Entry Points

Identify how readers arrive:

• Direct — typing a URL or bookmarking
• Search — site search or external search engine
• Navigation — sidebar, breadcrumb, landing page links
• Cross-reference — link from another doc page
• External — README, GitHub, blog post, error message linking to docs

Map which pages are reachable from each entry point. Pages unreachable from common entry points are effectively invisible.

Step 1d: Link Graph (mechanical)

Run the bundled link graph analyzer to extract deterministic facts about inter-doc linking:

python3 skills/doc-architecture-review/scripts/link_graph.py --scope all --json > graph.json

# Or human-readable:
python3 skills/doc-architecture-review/scripts/link_graph.py --scope all

The script produces:

• Orphans — pages with no inbound links (excluding entry points like index.md and README.md). Direct input to Heuristic 1 (Findability).
• Dead-ends — pages with no outbound links. Content silos.
• Reciprocity ratio — fraction of edges that have a back-link. Direct input to Heuristic 4 (Cross-Linking Quality).
• Hubs — pages with high in-degree. Natural reference targets.
• Broken links — internal links that don't resolve. Direct input to Heuristic 4.

These are mechanical facts, not judgments. The judgment-heavy parts of Heuristics 1 and 4 (are links contextual? do navigation labels use user language?) are evaluated by sonnet sub-agents in Phase 2.

Output: A structure map with physical hierarchy, navigation paths, entry points, and the link graph JSON.

Phase 2: Evaluate Against IA Heuristics

Assess the structure against seven heuristics. Load references/ia-heuristics.md for detailed scoring criteria.

Mechanical vs judgment split

For a doc set of any meaningful size, the orchestrator can't read every page to score every heuristic — that strains the context window and produces patchy evaluation. Phase 2 splits work:

• Mechanical part — driven by the Phase 1d link graph JSON. Orphan counts, reciprocity ratio, broken-link counts, hub identification: these are facts, not judgments. The orchestrator reads the JSON and assigns scores deterministically.
• Judgment part — dispatched to general-purpose + sonnet sub-agents organized by heuristic. Each agent receives a focused slice of the doc set and returns specific findings with citations.

Sonnet sub-agent dispatch

Three judgment-heavy heuristics warrant dedicated agents. Each agent's prompt inlines the persona block from Phase 0 and the relevant doc-type criteria from references/ia-heuristics.md. The agent scores per-persona, not against a generic default.

Agent 1 — Findability narrative review (Heuristic 1):

subagent_type: "general-purpose"
model: "sonnet"
description: "Findability narrative review"

Prompt template:

Read landing pages, navigation configs (_config.yml, front-matter
nav_order/parent), and the orphans list from the link graph JSON.

Personas (from Phase 0):
<INLINE PERSONA BLOCK — full profile per persona, not summary>

Doc-type criteria for Heuristic 1:
<INLINE Heuristic 1 section from references/ia-heuristics.md>

For each persona, score Findability 1-5 and identify specific failures:
- Are navigation labels in this persona's language?
- Are entry points appropriate for how this persona arrives?
- Are orphans concentrated in a doc type that fails this persona's task?

Output per-persona scores plus findings. When personas conflict (e.g.,
nav labels in one's language fail another), surface the conflict
explicitly rather than averaging.

Agent 2 — Cross-linking quality review (Heuristic 4):

subagent_type: "general-purpose"
model: "sonnet"
description: "Cross-link qua