Project Docs

What Is Project Docs?

Project Docs is a Claude Code skill designed to automate the generation of high-quality, up-to-date documentation directly from a codebase. It analyzes project files—including source code, schema files, route definitions, and configuration files—to produce comprehensive documentation such as ARCHITECTURE.md, API_ENDPOINTS.md, and DATABASE_SCHEMA.md. This approach ensures that the documentation accurately reflects the current state of the code, reducing the drift often found in manually maintained docs. Project Docs is particularly useful for developers who want to streamline onboarding, maintain consistency, or refresh outdated documentation after significant codebase changes.

Why Use Project Docs?

Maintaining accurate and comprehensive documentation is a perennial challenge in software development. Documentation often lags behind rapid code changes, leading to confusion, onboarding difficulties, and technical debt. Project Docs addresses these pain points by programmatically generating documentation that reflects the project’s true architecture, APIs, and data models.

Key motivations for using Project Docs include:

• Reducing Manual Effort: Automates the tedious task of writing and updating documentation.
• Accuracy: Ensures docs are generated from the actual code, not outdated design documents or aspirational diagrams.
• Onboarding Efficiency: Makes it easier for new contributors to understand the project’s structure, endpoints, and data schemas.
• Post-Refactor Synchronization: Quickly regenerates documentation after significant architectural or API changes.
• Standardization: Produces structured, consistently formatted documentation across projects.

How to Get Started

Project Docs is packaged as a Claude Code skill with compatibility for code-centric workflows. To begin using Project Docs, follow these steps:

1. Install and Configure Claude Code: Ensure you have access to Claude Code with the Project Docs skill enabled.
2. Trigger Documentation Generation: Use one of the supported trigger phrases, such as:
   • generate docs
   • document architecture
   • create api docs
   • document schema
   • project documentation
   • write architecture doc
3. Project Scanning: Project Docs will scan your project root and relevant files to detect the project type and key components. For example, it looks for indicators such as:
   • next.config.js for Next.js apps
   • drizzle.config.ts for database layers
   • pyproject.toml for Python projects
4. Documentation Output: The skill will produce markdown files such as ARCHITECTURE.md, API_ENDPOINTS.md, and DATABASE_SCHEMA.md in your project directory, populated with structured information extracted from the codebase.

Example Usage:

## After enabling the skill in Claude Code, simply type:
generate docs
## or
document architecture

Key Features

Project Docs incorporates several advanced features to ensure comprehensive and actionable documentation:

1. Intelligent Project Type

Detection

The skill scans the root directory and configuration files to determine the project’s framework and stack. For example:

- wrangler.jsonc → Cloudflare Worker
- vite.config.ts + src/App.tsx → React SPA
- drizzle.config.ts → Database layer detected

This ensures the documentation is tailored to the project’s architecture and technologies.

2. Accurate API Endpoint

Extraction

Project Docs parses routing files and controller logic to generate an API_ENDPOINTS.md file. For example, in a Hono-based API:

// src/index.ts
app.get('/users/:id', async (c) => { ... });
// Results in API_ENDPOINTS.md:
### GET /users/:id
- Description: Fetch user by ID
- Params: id (string)

3. Database Schema

Documentation

For projects with ORM or schema definitions (such as Drizzle, Prisma, or TypeORM), Project Docs generates a DATABASE_SCHEMA.md file. It extracts table definitions, columns, types, and relationships, producing clear documentation for contributors and maintainers:

### users
- id: integer (Primary Key)
- name: string
- email: string (Unique)

4. Architecture

Overview

The ARCHITECTURE.md file provides a high-level overview of the project’s structure, including key modules, services, and data flow. This is invaluable for onboarding and architectural reviews.

5. Configurable and

Extensible

Project Docs supports a variety of project types and can be extended to cover new frameworks or custom configurations as your project grows.

Best Practices

To maximize the value of Project Docs, consider these guidelines:

• Run After Major Changes: Regenerate documentation after major refactors, API changes, or database migrations.
• Review Generated Docs: While Project Docs automates much of the process, always review the output for clarity and completeness.
• Integrate with CI/CD: Automate doc generation as part of your continuous integration workflow to ensure documentation is always current.
• Customize for Your Team: Tailor the documentation format or extend the skill to include project-specific sections as needed.
• Educate Contributors: Encourage all team members to use Project Docs to prevent documentation drift.

Important Notes

• Codebase Access: Project Docs requires access to your project files. Ensure sensitive information is excluded from the generated documentation.
• Supported Languages and Frameworks: The skill is optimized for common JavaScript, TypeScript, and Python frameworks, but can be extended to others.
• Manual Edits: While automated, some project-specific nuance may require manual edits to the generated markdown files.
• Skill Compatibility: Project Docs is currently compatible with Claude Code only. Ensure you are using the correct environment.
• Open Source: The skill is open source and maintained at github.com/jezweb/claude-skills. Contributions and customizations are welcome.

Project Docs empowers teams to maintain high-quality documentation with minimal effort, fostering better collaboration and codebase understanding across the software development lifecycle.