compound-docs

A documentation workflow for saving solved software problems as categorized Markdown files with YAML labels, a simple text format for searchable metadata.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it after a verified fix to create, categorize, validate, and store one solution document in the appropriate documentation folder.
Why use it?
It turns scattered debugging knowledge into a consistent reference that can be searched and reused in later sessions.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/marcusrbrown/systematic/compound-docs
Any agent
npx skills add marcusrbrown/systematic --skill compound-docs
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/marcusrbrown/systematic

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 17 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 3,360 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin 94% copy Near-identical to another mod in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00017 $0.03360
Opus 5 $0.00009 $0.01680
Sonnet 5 $0.00003 $0.00672
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00336

Measured 2d ago against content hash afcebfce055d, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

compound-docs scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

Origin

This is a copy

94% identical to compound-docs — 19 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

skills/compound-docs/SKILL.md · 511 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 511 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

compound-docs Skill

Purpose: Automatically document solved problems to build searchable institutional knowledge with category-based organization (enum-validated problem types).

Overview

This skill captures problem solutions immediately after confirmation, creating structured documentation that serves as a searchable knowledge base for future sessions.

Organization: Single-file architecture - each problem documented as one markdown file in its symptom category directory (e.g., docs/solutions/performance-issues/n-plus-one-briefs.md). Files use YAML frontmatter for metadata and searchability.

Prerequisites: The problem has been solved and the solution has been verified working. Do not document in-progress investigations as finalized solutions.


<critical_sequence name="documentation-capture" enforce_order="strict">

7-Step Process

Auto-invoke after phrases:

  • "that worked"
  • "it's fixed"
  • "working now"
  • "problem solved"
  • "that did it"

OR manual: Invoke the ce:compound skill directly

Non-trivial problems only:

  • Multiple investigation attempts needed
  • Tricky debugging that took time
  • Non-obvious solution
  • Future sessions would benefit

Skip documentation for:

  • Simple typos
  • Obvious syntax errors
  • Trivial fixes immediately corrected

Extract from conversation history:

Required information:

  • Module name: Which module or component had the problem
  • Symptom: Observable error/behavior (exact error messages)
  • Investigation attempts: What didn't work and why
  • Root cause: Technical explanation of actual problem
  • Solution: What fixed it (code/config changes)
  • Prevention: How to avoid in future

Environment details:

  • Rails version
  • Stage (0-6 or post-implementation)
  • OS version
  • File/line references

BLOCKING REQUIREMENT: If critical context is missing (module name, exact error, stage, or resolution steps), ask user and WAIT for response before proceeding to Step 3:

Read the full file on GitHub · 511 lines

Files

What ships with it

4 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 511 lines · 17 tokens per session scan A afcebfce055d

Subscribe to this mod's changes

compound-docs is a skill published in the GitHub repository marcusrbrown/systematic (24 stars, last pushed 3d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 17 tokens to every session and 3,360 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 94% identical to compound-docs, differing in 19 lines, and is treated as a copy.