Managed by doccraft — doccraft update regenerates this file. Local edits will be overwritten. See doccraft.json to override project-specific vocabulary and paths without touching this file.

doccraft — config

When to use

• After `doccraft init`: run Analyse mode to tailor the freshly scaffolded

doccraft.json to the project's actual subsystems, surfaces, and themes.

• Any time you want to add or change a config field: run Edit mode with a

plain-English request ("add slice:billing", "set maxStoryFiles to 10").

• Before invoking `doccraft-story` or `doccraft-queue-audit` when skill

output references unfamiliar vocabulary — the config is probably stale.

Schema

The full JSON Schema for doccraft.json is embedded below. Use it for validation in Edit mode instead of calling any CLI.

{
  "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
  "title": "Doccraft configuration",
  "description": "Configuration for doccraft skills and CLI behaviour. Managed by the doccraft-config skill — run `doccraft init` to scaffold, then invoke doccraft-config to tailor.",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "$schema": {
      "title": "JSON Schema URL",
      "description": "Schema pointer consumed by IDE tooling for validation and hover tooltips. doccraft update keeps this in sync with the version stamp — do not edit manually.",
      "type": "string",
      "examples": [
        "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/schema/doccraft.schema.json"
      ]
    },
    "version": {
      "title": "Doccraft version",
      "description": "The doccraft version this config was last written or updated by. doccraft update bumps this automatically via surgical edit.",
      "type": "string",
      "examples": [
        "0.9.0",
        "1.0.0",
        "1.2.3"
      ]
    },
    "_hint": {
      "title": "Authoring hint",
      "description": "Reminder that doccraft-config is the recommended authoring tool for this file. The schema embedded in the skill matches the installed doccraft version — no CLI call required for edits.",
      "type": "string",
      "examples": [
        "Edit with the doccraft-config skill (npx doccraft@latest llm exposes the schema)."
      ]
    },
    "docsDir": {
      "title": "Docs directory",
      "description": "Root folder for all doccraft planning docs, relative to the project root. Substituted into installed skill files and Cursor rule globs as docs at install time. Re-run `doccraft update` after changing this value.",
      "type": "string",
      "examples": [
        "docs",
        "design",
        "planning",
        ".docs"
      ]
    },
    "story": {
      "title": "Story skill configuration",
      "description": "Vocabulary and identifier format consumed by the doccraft-story skill. Values here teach the skill your project-specific taxonomy without touching SKILL.md.",
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "areas": {
          "title": "Story areas",
          "description": "Subsystem or team tags used in story `area:<value>` frontmatter. Aligns with your conventional-commit scopes for traceability.",
          "type": "array",
          "items": {
            "type": "string"
          },
          "examples": [
            [
              "cli",
              "api",
              "ui"
            ],
            [
              "backend",
              "frontend",
              "infra"
            ],
            [
              "auth",
              "data",
              "payments"
            ]
          ]
        },
        "slices": {
          "title": "Product slices",
          "description": "User-facing product surface tags used in story `slice:<value>` frontmatter. Leave empty for purely technical tools with no distinct product surfaces.",
          "type": "array",
          "items": {
            "type": "string"
          },
          "examples": [
            [
              "auth",
              "dashboard",
              "billing"
            ],
            [
              "admin",
              "onboarding",
              "settings"
            ],
            []
          ]
        },
        "themes": {
          "title": "Story themes",
          "description": "Cross-cutting concern or delivery theme tags used in story `theme:<value>` frontmatter. Recur across multiple stories and help doccraft-session-wrap cluster related work.",
          "type": "array",
          "items": {
            "type": "string"
          },
          "examples": [
            [
              "performance",
              "security",
              "dx"
            ],
            [
              "testing",
              "docs",
              "install"
            ],
            [
              "observability",
              "reliability",
              "compliance"
            ]
          ]
        },
        "status": {
          "title": "Story status values",
          "description": "Allowed values for the `status:` frontmatter field on stories. Doccraft-story validates frontmatter against this list and rejects unknown values. Defaults to the standard todo / in_progress / done lifecycle; extend if your project uses additional states (e.g. blocked, abandoned, parked).",
          "type": "array",
          "items": {
            "type": "string"
          },
          "examples": [
            [
              "todo",
              "in_progress",
              "done"
            ],
            [
              "todo",
              "in_progress",
              "done",
              "blocked",
              "abandoned"
            ],
            [
              "planned",
              "active",
              "shipped",
              "parked"
            ]
          ]
        },
        "urgency": {
          "title": "Story urgency values",
          "description": "Allowed values for the `urgency:` frontmatter field on stories. Defaults to the now / soon / later scale; some projects prefer to use tier names (p0..p4) directly here, or mix both forms.",
          "type": "array",
          "items": {
            "type": "string"
          },
          "examples": [
            [
              "now",
              "soon",
              "later"
            ],
            [
              "p0",
              "p1",
              "p2",
              "p3",
              "p4"
            ],
            [
              "now",
              "soon",
              "later",
              "p0",
              "p1",
              "p2"
            ]
          ]
        },
        "impact": {
          "title": "Story impact values",
          "description": "Allowed values for the `impact:` frontmatter field on stories. Defaults to the H / M / L scale; projects that prefer descriptive words (high / medium / low) or other taxonomies can override.",
          "type": "array",
          "items": {
            "type": "string"
          },
          "examples": [
            [
              "H",
              "M",
              "L"
            ],
            [
              "high",
              "medium",
              "low"
            ],
            [
              "H",
              "M",
              "L",
              "medium"
            ]
          ]
        },
        "id": {
          "title": "Story identifier format",
          "description": "Controls which `id:` values doccraft-story accepts. Validated on creation and edit.",
          "type": "object",
          "properties": {
            "tiers": {
              "title": "Priority tiers",
              "description": "Ordered priority tier prefixes (e.g. `p0`, `p1`). doccraft-story and doccraft-queue-audit use these to group and sort work. Empty list disables tier conventions.",
              "type": "array",
              "items": {
                "type": "string"
              },
              "examples": [
                [
                  "p0",
                  "p1",
                  "p2",
                  "p3"
                ],
                [
                  "p0",
                  "p1",
                  "p2",
                  "p3",
                  "p4"
                ],
                [
                  "critical",
                  "high",
                  "normal"
                ]
              ]
            },
            "pattern": {
              "title": "ID pattern",
              "description": "Regex the story `id:` value must satisfy. Validated by doccraft-story on creation and edit. Use anchors (^ and $) to be precise.",
              "type": "string",
              "examples": [
                "^(P\\d+(\\.\\d+)?|[a-z][a-z0-9-]+)$",
                "^P\\d+$",
                "^[a-z][a-z0-9-]+-\\d+$"
              ]
            }
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "queue": {
      "title": "Queue configuration",
      "description": "Labels for the named table sections in docs/queue.md. doccraft-queue-audit locates tables by heading text, not position.",
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "tables": {
          "title": "Queue table labels",
          "description": "Human-readable heading text for each queue table section. Change these if your project uses different headings.",
          "type": "object",
          "properties": {
            "suggestedOrder": {
              "title": "Suggested order table label",
              "description": "Heading for the main prioritised work queue. doccraft-queue-audit searches docs/queue.md for a table under this exact heading.",
              "type": "string",
              "examples": [
                "Suggested order",
                "Next up",
                "Sprint queue"
              ]
            },
            "platformSpikes": {
              "title": "Platform spikes table label",
              "description": "Heading for exploratory or research work not yet ready for the main queue.",
              "type": "string",
              "examples": [
                "Platform spikes",
                "Spikes",
                "Research queue"
              ]
            }
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "queueAudit": {
      "title": "Queue audit configuration",
      "description": "Tuning knobs for the doccraft-queue-audit skill.",
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "laneFrom": {
          "title": "Lane source tags",
          "description": "Which frontmatter tag prefixes, in priority order, the audit uses to assign a story to a swimlane. First match wins. `area` is most common; set `slice` first for products that organise primarily by surface. `epic` groups the queue by the story `epic:` field (requires an epics extension that defines that field) — set it first to make the milestone/epic roadmap the primary ordering. See ADR 016.",
          "type": "array",
          "items": {
            "type": "string",
            "enum": [
              "area",
              "slice",
              "epic"
            ]
          },
          "examples": [
            [
              "area",
              "slice"
            ],
            [
              "slice",
              "area"
            ],
            [
              "epic",
              "area"
            ]
          ]
        },
        "scale": {
          "title": "Audit scale limits",
          "description": "Safety thresholds that cause the audit to pause for confirmation before applying large changes. Raise for bigger projects; lower for strict containment.",
          "type": "object",
          "properties": {
            "maxStoryFiles": {
              "title": "Max story files per audit run",
              "description": "If a single audit pass would touch more than this many story files, it stops and asks for confirmation before applying.",
              "type": "number",
              "examples": [
                5,
                10,
                20
              ]
            },
            "maxQueueReorderPct": {
              "title": "Max queue reorder percentage",
              "description": "If a reorder would move more than this percentage of Suggested order rows, the audit stops for confirmation. Range 0–100.",
              "type": "number",
              "minimum": 0,
              "maximum": 100,
              "examples": [
                50,
                25,
                75
              ]
            }
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "packages": {
      "title": "Monorepo package roots",
      "description": "Ordered array of package directories that opt into doccraft planning. Each entry declares a path (relative to the project root) under which the same docs/ skeleton — stories, ADRs, queue, backlog — is scaffolded and managed. Declaration order is significant for the rendered package list in skill bodies. Absent or empty preserves single-root behaviour. Slugs (the last path segment of each declared path) must be unique. See ADR 014 in the doccraft repo for the convention.",
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
          "path": {
            "title": "Package directory path",
            "description": "Path to the package directory containing the docs/ tree, relative to the project root. The last segment is used as the namespace slug for that package.",
            "type": "string",
            "examples": [
              "packages/audio-engine",
              "packages/ui-shell"
            ]
          }
        },
        "required": [
          "path"
        ]
      },
      "examples": [
        [],
        [
          {
            "path": "packages/audio-engine"
          },
          {
            "path": "packages/ui-shell"
          }
        ]
      ]
    },
    "extensions": {
      "title": "Doccraft extensions",
      "description": "Ordered array of project-local extension directories. Each entry declares a path (relative to the project root) to a directory containing an extension.yaml manifest. Extensions bake fragments into skill bodies at marker points and may scaffold supporting docs/ folders. Declaration order is significant — fragments concatenate in this order. See ADR 013 in the doccraft repo for the full mechanism.",
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
          "path": {
            "title": "Extension directory path",
            "description": "Path to a directory containing extension.yaml, relative to the project root.",
            "type": "string",
            "examples": [
              "./docs/.doccraft/extensions/business",
              "./docs/.doccraft/extensions/model-hints"
            ]
          }
        },
        "required": [
          "path"
        ]
      },
      "examples": [
        [],
        [
          {
            "path": "./docs/.doccraft/extensions/business"
          }
        ]
      ]
    },
    "sessionWrap": {
      "title": "Session wrap configuration",
      "description": "Controls which artifact categories doccraft-session-wrap considers in scope. Disabling a category prevents the skill from proposing that folder tree.",
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "capture": {
          "title": "Capture categories",
          "description": "Enable or disable each artifact category. Set to `false` for categories your project does not maintain.",
          "type": "object",
          "properties": {
            "research": {
              "title": "Research notes",
              "description": "Allow doccraft-session-wrap to propose artifacts under docs/research/. Set false if your project does not maintain a research folder.",
              "type": "boolean",
              "examples": [
                true,
                false
              ]
            },
            "reference": {
              "title": "Reference docs",
              "description": "Allow doccraft-session-wrap to propose artifacts under docs/reference/. Set false if your project does not maintain a reference folder.",
              "type": "boolean",
              "examples": [
                true,
                false
              ]
            },
            "business": {
              "title": "Business updates",
              "description": "Allow doccraft-session-wrap to propose artifacts under docs/business/. Set false if your project does not maintain a business folder.",
              "type": "boolean",
              "examples": [
                false,
                true
              ]
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Modes

Analyse mode (no specific field requested)

1. Read the project tree: directory names, package.json scripts/workspaces,

git remote, conventional-commit scope history if a .git/ dir is present.

1. Propose values for each key group with one sentence of reasoning per group:

• story.areas — one entry per logical subsystem (aligns with commit scopes).
• story.slices — one entry per user-facing product surface; [] for

purely technical tools.

• story.themes — recurring cross-cutting concerns from the tree.
• story.id.tiers — e.g. [p0,p1,p2] for most projects; more tiers only

when severity levels are meaningfully distinct.

• queueAudit.scale — lower thresholds for small repos, higher for large.
• sessionWrap.capture — disable categories for folder trees the project

does not maintain.

1. Show the proposed doccraft.json diff (or full file if none exists yet).
2. Wait for approval before writing any file.
3. On approval: write doccraft.json at the project root. MUST NOT rewrite

version or $schema — preserve those bytes exactly.

Edit mode (specific change requested)

1. Read the current doccraft.json (use defaults if missing).
2. Parse the requested change.
3. Validate the proposed new value against the embedded schema above. If

invalid, report the violation and stop — do not write.

1. Apply the change surgically: update only the targeted field(s), preserving

all other bytes (key order, whitespace, comments are not present in JSON but formatting should be preserved).

1. Write doccraft.json and confirm what changed.

Extensions

When doccraft.json declares an extensions: [...] array, each entry points at a project-local directory containing an extension.yaml manifest. At doccraft update, doccraft bakes fragments declared by those manifests into skill bodies at named injection points and scaffolds any declared folders. The extension framework is the supported way to add project-specific guidance (additional frontmatter fields, body sections, instructions) to the four core skills (doccraft-story, doccraft-adr, doccraft-queue-audit, doccraft-session-wrap) without forking doccraft.

When editing the extensions array:

• Order is significant. Fragments concatenate in declaration order at

each injection point — surface that to the user when adding a new entry.

• Each `path` must be a directory relative to the project root, and

the directory must already exist (or be about to be created in the same change). doccraft does not scaffold extension directories; the user authors them.

• Validation runs at `doccraft update`, not at config write time —

malformed manifests surface on the next update.

Constraints

• NEVER call `npx doccraft@latest` — the embedded schema is authoritative

for the installed version. Reaching for @latest could propose fields not yet supported.

• NEVER rewrite `version` or `$schema` — those are managed by

doccraft update / bumpConfigVersion. Preserve them verbatim.

• Tolerate a missing `doccraft.json` — proceed with defaults; offer to

create the file in Analyse mode.

• MUST gate on approval before writing any file in Analyse mode. Edit mode

may apply without a gate for single-field changes unless the change is destructive (e.g. clearing an entire array).

Pre-execution validation

Before writing or updating doccraft.json, MUST complete these checks:

1. Read existing file — if doccraft.json exists, read it in full

before proposing any changes. NEVER write from assumptions about current values.

1. Schema validation — validate the proposed output against the

embedded schema above. If any field violates the schema, report the violation and stop — MUST NOT write an invalid file.

1. Preserve managed fields — confirm that version and $schema

are byte-identical to the existing file. If the file is new, omit both (they are set by doccraft update).

1. Extension paths exist — if editing the extensions array, verify

each path directory exists on disk (or is being created in the same change). Flag missing directories rather than writing a broken config.

1. No duplicate entries — arrays like story.areas, story.slices,

story.themes MUST NOT contain duplicate values. Deduplicate silently and note what was removed.

Invalid examples (do not use)

• Calling npx doccraft@latest llm or any CLI to fetch the schema —

NEVER; the embedded schema is authoritative.

• Overwriting version or $schema — NEVER; those are managed by

doccraft update.

• Writing doccraft.json in Analyse mode without user approval —

NEVER; gate on approval first.

• Adding a value to story.status that duplicates an existing entry

(e.g. adding todo when it already exists) — NEVER; deduplicate.

• Proposing fields not present in the embedded schema — NEVER; unknown

fields will confuse future doccraft update runs.

• Clearing an entire array in Edit mode without confirmation — NEVER;

destructive changes MUST be gated.

• Setting extensions[].path to a non-existent directory without

flagging it — NEVER; the user MUST create the directory first.

Done condition

The task is complete when:

• In Analyse mode: proposed values have been shown with reasoning,

user has approved, and doccraft.json has been written at the project root with version and $schema preserved.

• In Edit mode: the targeted field has been updated, the full file

validates against the embedded schema, and doccraft.json has been written with only the intended change applied.

• The output confirms what changed (field names and old → new values).

Workflow reminders

• After changing story.areas, story.slices, or story.themes,

existing stories with tags not in the new vocabulary are still valid — do not retroactively edit story files. The new vocabulary applies to future stories only.

• After changing story.status, story.urgency, or story.impact,

verify no existing story uses a value that was removed. If any do, flag them so the user can update those stories.

• After changing queueAudit.scale thresholds, the next

doccraft-queue-audit run will use the new limits — no further action needed.

• After adding or removing an extensions entry, remind the user to

run doccraft update to bake fragments into skill bodies.