documenting-legacy-codebases
Skill from riekelt/technical-writer
Install
npx skills add riekelt/technical-writer --skill documenting-legacy-codebases
Runs the open skills CLI and installs the skill for your agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor …). Alternatively copy the skill folder into .claude/skills/ or upload it in Claude.ai under Settings → Skills.
What does the documenting-legacy-codebases skill do?
Description from the SKILL.md in the source repository.
Questions about documenting-legacy-codebases
What does the documenting-legacy-codebases skill do?
Use when documenting an existing codebase whose documentation is missing, stale, or untrusted - an inherited system, a legacy application, a repo where the docs lie - or when regrounding a documentation tree against the code, or when someone asks what a system actually does. Encodes the survey-first inventory, the writer-side evidence hierarchy, depth-per-surface rules, the refactor test, dead-or-alive proofs, the quirks-and-findings split, the coverage ledger, the parallel campaign, and the docs-tree skeleton. Use whenever documentation must be reconstructed from the code rather than written alongside a change.
How do I install documenting-legacy-codebases?
In a terminal: npx skills add riekelt/technical-writer --skill documenting-legacy-codebases. The skills CLI asks which agents to install it for. In Claude.ai you can upload the skill folder as a ZIP under Settings → Skills.
Which agents can use documenting-legacy-codebases?
Skills use the open SKILL.md format, which Claude Code, Claude.ai, the Claude API, OpenAI Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI and other agents support.
Is documenting-legacy-codebases safe to use?
Our automatic check found no risky patterns (piped shell scripts, hidden characters, secret access, prompt overrides). It is not a full audit – read the SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.
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