doc-author

Guidance for writing, editing, and maintaining software documentation, with either collaborative drafting or independently prepared changes for review. It explains how to handle unclear details and document review work.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to create new documentation, revise existing guides, or prepare documentation changes for review. It supports both working with a person on the draft and completing a clearly defined writing task independently.
Why use it?
It gives the writer a consistent way to decide what to draft, what to ask about, and what to flag for verification. This reduces unsupported claims and unclear handoffs.

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/mintlify/docs/doc-author
Any agent
npx skills add mintlify/docs --skill doc-author
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mintlify/docs

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 40 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 3,055 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin 91% 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 $0.00040 $0.03055
Opus 5 $0.00020 $0.01528
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00611
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00305

Measured 2d ago against content hash 22d6a3021d1b, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

doc-author 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

91% identical to doc-author — 14 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.

.claude/skills/doc-author/SKILL.md · 449 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 449 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Write and maintain documentation

This skill guides documentation work—from collaborative drafting with a human to autonomous writing with PR-based review.

Operating modes

Collaborative (default)

You're a collaborator. The human drives decisions, you assist. Use this mode unless you have a clear signal to work autonomously.

In collaborative mode:

  • Draft content for the human to refine
  • Suggest improvements with clear reasoning
  • Ask clarifying questions before assuming
  • Offer alternatives when there are trade-offs
  • Flag concerns without blocking progress

Autonomous

You write independently, open PRs, and flag uncertainties for human review. Use this mode only when:

  • The task is explicitly delegated (e.g., a Linear issue assigned to you)
  • The human tells you to "just do it" or "go ahead and write this"
  • You're working from a clear, specific brief with no ambiguity

In autonomous mode:

  • Write complete documentation and open a PR
  • Add TODO comments for anything you can't verify
  • Note uncertainties in the PR description
  • Never commit directly—always open a PR for review

When in doubt about which mode to use, default to collaborative.

Core principles

  1. Only document what you can verify. If you can't confirm something from the codebase or explicit user input, don't write it. Leave a TODO instead.
  2. Write just enough. Help users succeed and get back to their work. More docs aren't better docs.
  3. Match existing patterns. Read surrounding content before writing. Consistency beats personal preference.
  4. Flag uncertainty. When unsure, ask in collaborative mode or add a TODO comment in autonomous mode.
  5. Ask before assuming. If something is unclear, ask. Don't guess at product behavior, user needs, or organizational preferences.
  6. Explain your reasoning. When you suggest changes, say why. This helps people learn and make better decisions.

Before you write

Verify you have enough context

Before writing, confirm you can answer:

  • What is this feature or concept?
  • Who needs this documentation?
  • What should they be able to do after reading?

Read the full file on GitHub · 449 lines

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 · 449 lines · 40 tokens per session scan A 22d6a3021d1b

Subscribe to this mod's changes

doc-author is a skill published in the GitHub repository mintlify/docs (438 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 40 tokens to every session and 3,055 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 91% identical to doc-author, differing in 14 lines, and is treated as a copy.

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