Help Docs — Change Discovery

SkillDocs & knowledge

Discover help documentation work from operately git history. Use when the user asks to audit what needs documenting since a release, tag, or SHA, or to identify documentation gaps from code changes. Requires a baseline SHA or tag as input.

Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.

Connect ahel once, and every AI you use reads what you have installed.

Then ask your AI: use the Help Docs — Change Discovery skill

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by operately/operately in .agents/skills/help-docs/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.

Scan git history since a baseline, identify user-facing product changes, and infer how they work from source code.

This skill covers finding what needs documenting and how the feature works in the UI.

For git commands, path watchlists, filter heuristics, code research guidance, and what to capture per candidate, read reference.md.

Input

Required: baseline SHA or tag (e.g. v1.6.0, abc1234).

If the user does not provide a baseline, ask before proceeding.

Scope

  • Work in the operately repo (this repo).
  • Quote UI labels exactly from source; do not polish copy.
  • Optionally cross-check the sibling operately-website repo for existing help pages when it is available on disk.

Workflow

1. Resolve baseline

Validate the SHA or tag exists. Record the range baseline..HEAD, HEAD SHA, and commit count.

2. Collect changes

List merge commits and PR titles in the range. Prefer PR titles over individual commit messages — PR titles use the feat: / fix: / chore: / docs: prefixes.

Use the git recipes in reference.md to gather commits and diffs.

3. Filter to user-facing

Keep changes that affect what users see or do in the app. Drop internal-only work (refactors, CI, tests-only, backend-only, migrations without UI impact). See reference.md — Filter heuristics.

4. Cluster related commits

Group commits by feature area. Multiple PRs for one capability (e.g. billing page + checkout + cancellation) become a single item.

5. Research each cluster in code

For each cluster, read the relevant source to infer behavior:

  • app/assets/js/pages/ — screens and navigation
  • app/assets/js/features/ — feature UI and flows
  • turboui/src/ — shared components
  • app/assets/js/routes/paths.tsx — new or removed routes
  • app/test/features/ — user flows (for validation, not as doc content)
  • specs/ — product intent for major features

Extract entry points, UI labels, step order, permissions, and edge cases. See reference.md — Code research map.

6. Classify and document each cluster

For each cluster, assign a doc action and capture the findings listed in reference.md — What to capture.

ActionWhen
new_pageNew user capability with no matching help page
update_pageExisting flow, labels, or navigation changed
api_auto_syncExternal API surface changed — CI publishes to /help/api/
skipInternal-only; no user-facing doc impact

When operately-website is available, check src/config/helpCenter.js and src/content/docs/help/ to decide between new_page and update_page.

Also record excluded commits and why they were skipped.

Definition of Done

Before finishing, verify:

  • Baseline validated; range and commit count stated
  • Internal-only changes listed with reasons
  • Each candidate cites source commit SHAs and changed file paths
  • UI labels quoted exactly from code
  • Existing help pages referenced when the website repo is available

Signals

GitHub stars
550
Forks
69
Last commit
Sep 2026
Advanced
Catalog kind
skill
Gateway key
help-docs
Source
github.com/operately/operately