Living Docs Builder (Standalone)

Usage: /sw:living-docs [options]

Purpose

Launch the Living Docs Builder independently of specweave init. This is essential for:

Resuming after crash - Claude Code crashed after init, need to restart living docs
On-demand analysis - Re-analyze codebase after major changes
Large brownfield projects - Run targeted analysis on specific modules
CI/CD integration - Automate documentation generation
Enterprise knowledge base - Generate comprehensive "wikipedia-style" documentation of your entire organization

LSP-Enhanced Analysis (DEFAULT)

LSP is ENABLED BY DEFAULT for all living docs operations. This dramatically improves documentation accuracy:

Without LSP (--no-lsp)	With LSP (DEFAULT)
Grep-based symbol search (~45s)	Semantic symbol resolution (~50ms)
Text-based import parsing	Accurate dependency graphs
Limited type inference	Full type hierarchy
May miss indirect references	Complete reference tracking

LSP runs automatically - just ensure language servers are installed:

bash

# Full scan (LSP enabled by default)
/sw:living-docs --full-scan

# Install language servers for your stack:
npm install -g typescript-language-server typescript  # TypeScript/JS
pip install python-lsp-server                          # Python
go install golang.org/x/tools/gopls@latest            # Go
rustup component add rust-analyzer                     # Rust

# Disable LSP only if needed (not recommended):
/sw:living-docs --full-scan --no-lsp

LSP provides (automatically):

Accurate API surface extraction - All exports, types, signatures with full type info
Semantic dependency graphs - Based on actual symbol resolution, not text patterns
Dead code detection - Identifies unreferenced symbols across codebase
Type hierarchy maps - Interface implementations, class inheritance
Cross-module relationships - Precise "used by" and "depends on" mappings

Command Options

Option	Description
(none)	Interactive mode - prompts for configuration
`--resume <jobId>`	Resume orphaned/paused living-docs job
`--depth <level>`	Analysis depth: `quick`, `standard`, `deep-native`, `deep-interactive`
`--priority <modules>`	Priority modules (comma-separated): `auth,payments,api`
`--sources <folders>`	Additional doc folders (comma-separated): `docs/,wiki/`
`--depends-on <jobIds>`	Wait for jobs before starting (comma-separated)
`--foreground`	Run in current session instead of background
`--force`	Force run even for greenfield projects
`--full-scan`	Force full enterprise scan - All 8 phases including enterprise KB, delivery/ops docs, diagrams
`--no-lsp`	Disable LSP analysis - Falls back to grep-based symbol search (not recommended, use only if language servers unavailable)

Quick Start

Launch New Analysis (Interactive)

bash

/sw:living-docs

# Prompts for:
# 1. Analysis depth (quick/standard/deep-native/deep-interactive)
# 2. Priority modules to focus on
# 3. Additional documentation sources
# 4. Confirmation to launch

Resume After Crash

bash

# Check for orphaned jobs first
/sw:jobs

# If you see an orphaned living-docs-builder job:
/sw:living-docs --resume abc12345

# Or let it auto-detect:
/sw:living-docs
# → "Found orphaned job abc12345. Resume? [Y/n]"

Quick Analysis (Non-Interactive)

bash

# Quick scan - basic structure + imports + tech detection + inconsistencies
/sw:living-docs --depth quick

# Standard analysis - modules + dependencies + relationships + diagrams
/sw:living-docs --depth standard --priority auth,payments

# AI-powered deep analysis (FREE with MAX subscription)
/sw:living-docs --depth deep-native --priority core,api

# FULL ENTERPRISE SCAN - All 8 phases (A through H)
# Generates complete knowledge base: company history, team structure, delivery docs, diagrams
/sw:living-docs --full-scan

Analysis Depths

Depth	Scope	What It Does	Cost
`quick`	Core analysis	Structure scan + tech detection + imports map + inconsistency detection + basic diagrams	Free
`standard`	Full module analysis	Module deep-dive + exports + dependencies + relationships + team detection + Mermaid diagrams	Free
`deep-native`	Intelligent analysis	⭐ AI-powered understanding: purpose extraction, pattern recognition, organization synthesis	FREE (MAX)
`deep-interactive`	Enterprise knowledge	AI analysis in current session with full enterprise KB generation (checkpoint/resume)	FREE (MAX)

Quick Depth Features (Expanded)

Quick mode now includes:

File structure discovery across all repos
Technology stack detection (frameworks, languages, tools)
Import/export dependency mapping
Basic inconsistency detection (duplicates, naming issues)
Basic Mermaid diagrams (module structure, imports)
External specification loading (GitHub/JIRA/ADO imports)

Standard Depth Features (Expanded)

Standard mode adds:

Deep module analysis with exports/APIs
Cross-module dependency graphs
Team structure inference from code ownership
Relationship mapping (feature-to-code, team-to-features)
Full Mermaid diagram suite (org charts, dependencies, timelines)
Basic architecture detection (patterns, ADR candidates)
Spec-code gap detection

Full Scan Mode (--full-scan) - Enterprise Knowledge Base

What it does: Forces a comprehensive deep analysis through ALL 8 PHASES (A-H), generating a complete enterprise knowledge base that serves as a "living wikipedia" for your organization.

When to use:

Initial setup - want complete documentation structure
After major refactoring - need fresh analysis of everything
Imported external repos - want full org structure, inconsistencies, strategy docs
Enterprise documentation - need company history, team directory, delivery docs
Complete living docs - all folders populated with cross-referenced documentation

Duration: Variable based on project size and complexity. For large enterprise projects (50+ repos, 247+ microservices), expect this to run over multiple sessions spanning days or weeks. The checkpoint/resume system ensures no work is lost.

What you get (complete enterprise knowledge base):

.specweave/docs/internal/
├── repos/                      # Per-repo analysis (Phase B)
│   └── {repo-name}/
│       ├── overview.md         # Purpose, key concepts, patterns
│       └── api-surface.md      # All public APIs documented
│
├── organization/               # Team structure (Phase C)
│   ├── teams/
│   │   └── {team-name}.md      # Responsibilities, expertise, tech stack
│   ├── microservices/          # Service boundaries
│   ├── domains/                # Domain groupings
│   └── org-synthesis.md        # Organization overview
│
├── architecture/               # System architecture (Phase D)
│   ├── adr/                    # Auto-detected ADRs with evidence
│   │   └── 0001-pattern-name.md
│   ├── system-architecture.md  # High-level architecture
│   └── c4-diagrams/            # C4 model diagrams
│
├── review-needed/              # Categorized issues (Phase E) ✨
│   ├── index.md                # Overview with priority summary
│   ├── CRITICAL-ISSUES.md      # P0: Must fix immediately
│   ├── BROKEN-LINKS.md         # All broken references
│   ├── SPEC-CODE-GAPS.md       # Ghost completions, missing impl
│   ├── ORPHANED-DOCS.md        # Docs without owners
│   └── tech-debt-catalog.md    # Categorized tech debt
│
├── strategy/                   # Strategic recommendations (Phase F) ✨
│   ├── recommendations.md      # Prioritized action items
│   ├── modernization.md        # Migration/upgrade candidates
│   └── risk-assessment.md      # Security and compliance risks
│
├── enterprise/                 # Enterprise KB (Phase G) ✨✨ NEW
│   ├── COMPANY-HISTORY.md      # Timeline of project evolution
│   ├── FEATURE-CATALOG.md      # All features with status/ownership
│   ├── TEAM-DIRECTORY.md       # Team roster with expertise areas
│   └── PROJECT-METRICS.md      # Stats: features, completions, velocity
│
├── delivery/                   # Delivery documentation (Phase G) ✨✨ NEW
│   ├── RELEASE-HISTORY.md      # All releases with changelogs
│   ├── CI-CD-PIPELINE.md       # Pipeline documentation
│   ├── DEPLOYMENT-GUIDE.md     # How to deploy
│   └── ENVIRONMENTS.md         # Environment configurations
│
├── operations/                 # Ops documentation (Phase G) ✨✨ NEW
│   ├── RUNBOOKS.md             # Operational procedures
│   ├── MONITORING.md           # What to monitor
│   ├── INCIDENT-HISTORY.md     # Past incidents (if any)
│   └── SLA-TRACKING.md         # Service level targets
│
├── relationships/              # Cross-references (Phase G) ✨✨ NEW
│   ├── FEATURE-TO-CODE.md      # Feature → file mappings
│   ├── TEAM-TO-FEATURES.md     # Team → owned features
│   ├── MODULE-DEPENDENCIES.md  # Module → module deps
│   └── EXTERNAL-REFS.md        # External tool linkages
│
└── diagrams/                   # Mermaid diagrams (Phase H) ✨✨ NEW
    ├── feature-hierarchy.md    # Feature tree visualization
    ├── team-org-chart.md       # Team structure
    ├── module-dependencies.md  # Dependency graph
    ├── project-timeline.md     # Gantt chart of evolution
    ├── system-architecture.md  # C4 context diagram
    └── feature-status.md       # Pie chart of completion

Command:

bash

/sw:living-docs --full-scan

# Uses deep-native (Claude MAX) for AI-powered analysis
# Runs ALL 8 phases: A → B → C → D → E → F → G → H
# Checkpoint/resume: Can stop and continue from any phase
# Enterprise projects: May take multiple sessions (days/weeks)

Resume after interruption:

bash

# Check progress
/sw:jobs

# Resume from checkpoint (all previous work preserved)
/sw:living-docs --resume <jobId>

Deep-Native (Recommended for MAX Users)

Uses your Claude MAX subscription via claude --print:

No extra cost - included in MAX
Runs in background - survives terminal close
Checkpoint/resume - can resume from any phase
Uses Opus 4.5 for best quality

bash

/sw:living-docs --depth deep-native

# Monitor progress:
/sw:jobs --follow <jobId>

The 8 Phases of Enterprise Analysis

Full scan (--full-scan) executes all 8 phases sequentially with checkpoint/resume support:

Phase	Name	What It Does	Output
A	Discovery	Scan file structure, detect repos, identify entry points	Internal state
B	Deep Analysis	AI-powered per-repo understanding: purpose, concepts, APIs, patterns	`repos/{name}/overview.md`, `api-surface.md`
C	Org Synthesis	Infer team structure, microservices, domains from code patterns	`organization/teams/`, `microservices/`, `domains/`
D	Architecture	Detect architectural decisions, generate ADRs, system diagrams	`architecture/adr/`, `system-architecture.md`
E	Inconsistencies	Find issues: broken links, spec-code gaps, orphaned docs, duplicates	`review-needed/CRITICAL-ISSUES.md`, `BROKEN-LINKS.md`, etc.
F	Strategy	Generate recommendations, tech debt catalog, modernization roadmap	`strategy/recommendations.md`, `tech-debt-catalog.md`
G	Enterprise	Build knowledge base: history, feature catalog, delivery docs, runbooks	`enterprise/`, `delivery/`, `operations/`, `relationships/`
H	Diagrams	Generate Mermaid visualizations: org charts, dependencies, timelines	`diagrams/*.md`

Checkpoint/Resume: Each phase completion is checkpointed. If interrupted, resume continues from the last completed phase - no work is lost.

Enterprise Scale: For large organizations (50+ repos), phases B-G may each take significant time. The system is designed for long-running analysis that spans multiple sessions.

Implementation Steps

When this command is invoked:

Step 1: Check for Orphaned Jobs

typescript

import { getOrphanedJobs, getJobManager } from '../../../src/core/background/job-launcher.js';

const orphaned = getOrphanedJobs(projectPath).filter(j => j.type === 'living-docs-builder');
if (orphaned.length > 0) {
  // Prompt: "Found orphaned job {id}. Resume? [Y/n]"
  // If yes: resume job
  // If no: ask if they want to start fresh
}

Step 2: Collect Configuration (if not --resume)

If no --resume flag and no auto-resume:

typescript

import { collectLivingDocsInputs } from '../../../src/cli/helpers/init/living-docs-preflight.js';

const result = await collectLivingDocsInputs({
  projectPath,
  language: 'en',
  isCi: hasFlags, // Skip prompts if flags provided
});

Override with flags:

--depth → result.userInputs.analysisDepth
--priority → result.userInputs.priorityAreas
--sources → result.userInputs.additionalSources

Step 3: Launch Job

typescript

import { launchLivingDocsJob } from '../../../src/core/background/job-launcher.js';

const { job, pid, isBackground } = await launchLivingDocsJob({
  projectPath,
  userInputs: result.userInputs,
  dependsOn: dependsOnJobIds,
  foreground: hasForegroundFlag,
});

Step 4: Display Status

✅ Living Docs Builder launched!

   Job ID: ldb-abc12345
   Depth: deep-native (Claude Code Opus 4.5)
   Priority: auth, payments, api
   PID: 45678

   Monitor: /sw:jobs --follow ldb-abc12345
   Logs: /sw:jobs --logs ldb-abc12345

💡 This job runs in background and survives terminal close.
   Output will be saved to:
   - .specweave/docs/SUGGESTIONS.md
   - .specweave/docs/ENTERPRISE-HEALTH.md

Resume Behavior

When resuming a job:

Load checkpoint from .specweave/state/jobs/<jobId>/checkpoints/
Skip completed phases:
- waiting → dependency waiting
- discovery → codebase scanning
- foundation → high-level docs
- integration → work item matching
- deep-dive → module analysis (per-module checkpoints)
- suggestions → recommendations
- enterprise → health report
Continue from resume point

bash

# Example: Job crashed during deep-dive phase
/sw:living-docs --resume abc12345

# Output:
# Resuming from checkpoint: phase=deep-dive, module=auth (5/18)
# ✓ Skipping completed phases: waiting, discovery, foundation, integration
# → Continuing deep-dive from module: payments

Waiting for Dependencies

For umbrella projects with clone/import jobs:

bash

# Launch after clone completes
/sw:living-docs --depends-on clone-xyz123 --depth standard

# Launch after both clone and import complete
/sw:living-docs --depends-on clone-xyz123,import-abc456

The job will:

Enter waiting phase
Poll dependency status every 30 seconds
Start analysis once all dependencies complete
Warn if any dependency failed (proceeds with available data)

Update Summary

After completion, you'll see a detailed summary showing:

✅ LIVING DOCS UPDATE COMPLETE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

📊 SUMMARY:

  Discovery: Discovered 3 repos (2,845 files)
    Duration: 5s

  Analysis: Analyzed 3 repos
    Duration: 127s

  Synthesis: Generated 12 ADRs, 4 teams
    Duration: 43s

  Files Created: 47
    • .specweave/docs/internal/repos/main/overview.md
    • .specweave/docs/internal/repos/main/api-surface.md
    • .specweave/docs/internal/architecture/system-architecture.md
    • .specweave/docs/internal/architecture/adr/0001-typescript-migration.md
    • .specweave/docs/internal/architecture/adr/0002-plugin-system.md
    ... and 42 more

  Files Updated: 8
    • .specweave/docs/internal/modules/auth.md
    • .specweave/docs/internal/modules/payments.md
    ... and 6 more

  Total Duration: 175s
  Mode: INCREMENTAL (cache used)

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Output Files

After completion (varies by depth):

Core Output (All Depths)

File	Description
`.specweave/docs/SUGGESTIONS.md`	Documentation recommendations by priority
`.specweave/docs/ENTERPRISE-HEALTH.md`	Health score, coverage, accuracy metrics
`.specweave/docs/overview/PROJECT-OVERVIEW.md`	Auto-generated project overview
`.specweave/docs/overview/TECH-STACK.md`	Detected technologies and frameworks
`.specweave/docs/modules/*.md`	Per-module documentation

Standard+ Output

Folder	Description
`.specweave/docs/internal/organization/`	Team structure, microservices, domains
`.specweave/docs/internal/relationships/`	Feature-to-code, team-to-features mappings
`.specweave/docs/internal/diagrams/`	Mermaid diagrams for visual navigation

Full Scan Output (Enterprise KB)

Folder	Description
`.specweave/docs/internal/repos/`	Per-repo deep analysis with APIs
`.specweave/docs/internal/architecture/`	ADRs, system architecture, C4 diagrams
`.specweave/docs/internal/review-needed/`	Categorized issues (P0-P3) with remediation
`.specweave/docs/internal/strategy/`	Recommendations, modernization, risk assessment
`.specweave/docs/internal/enterprise/`	Company history, feature catalog, team directory
`.specweave/docs/internal/delivery/`	CI/CD, releases, deployment guides
`.specweave/docs/internal/operations/`	Runbooks, monitoring, SLAs

Examples

Example 1: Post-Crash Resume

bash

# Claude crashed after init, living docs job orphaned

# Step 1: Check what's there
/sw:jobs
# Shows: [ldb-abc123] living-docs-builder - ORPHANED (worker died)

# Step 2: Resume
/sw:living-docs --resume ldb-abc123

# Output:
# ✅ Resuming Living Docs Builder (ldb-abc123)
#    Last checkpoint: deep-dive phase, module 12/45
#    Continuing from: payments-service

Example 2: Large Enterprise (247 repos)

bash

# Full enterprise scan - generates complete knowledge base
# For large projects, this runs across multiple sessions
/sw:living-docs --full-scan --depends-on clone-main123

# Monitor progress (runs in background, survives terminal close)
/sw:jobs --follow ldb-xyz789

# Resume after interruption (all progress preserved)
/sw:living-docs --resume ldb-xyz789

# Alternatively: Focus on critical modules first (faster initial pass)
/sw:living-docs --depth standard \
  --priority auth,payments,billing,core

Example 3: CI/CD Integration

bash

# In CI pipeline (non-interactive)
specweave living-docs --depth quick --foreground

# Or background with polling
specweave living-docs --depth standard
specweave jobs --wait ldb-latest  # Wait for completion

Error Handling

Worker Crashed

/sw:jobs
# Shows: ORPHANED status

/sw:living-docs --resume <jobId>
# Resumes from last checkpoint

Dependency Failed

⚠️  Dependency clone-xyz123 failed
    Reason: Network timeout

Proceeding with available data...
Some repositories may be missing from analysis.

No Brownfield Detected

ℹ️  No existing code detected (greenfield project)
    Living docs will sync automatically as you create increments.

    To force analysis anyway: /sw:living-docs --force

Search AI Tools

living-docs

Install this agent skill to your Project

SKILL.md

Living Docs Builder (Standalone)

Purpose

LSP-Enhanced Analysis (DEFAULT)

Command Options

Quick Start

Launch New Analysis (Interactive)

Resume After Crash

Quick Analysis (Non-Interactive)

Analysis Depths

Quick Depth Features (Expanded)

Standard Depth Features (Expanded)

Full Scan Mode (--full-scan) - Enterprise Knowledge Base

Deep-Native (Recommended for MAX Users)

The 8 Phases of Enterprise Analysis

Implementation Steps

Step 1: Check for Orphaned Jobs

Step 2: Collect Configuration (if not --resume)

Step 3: Launch Job

Step 4: Display Status

Resume Behavior

Waiting for Dependencies

Update Summary

Output Files

Core Output (All Depths)

Standard+ Output

Full Scan Output (Enterprise KB)

Examples

Example 1: Post-Crash Resume

Example 2: Large Enterprise (247 repos)

Example 3: CI/CD Integration

Error Handling

Worker Crashed

Dependency Failed

No Brownfield Detected

See Also