/recap-doc — Recap Document Generator

SkillDocs & knowledge

Post-development recap document generator. Use when: AI/Codex has implemented a feature and the user needs a guided walkthrough of what changed and why, with blind-spot detection and anticipated questions. Not for: Q&A follow-up (use /recap-ask), technical share-out for teammates (use /tech-brief), or generic code explanation (use /codex-explain). Output: briefing-recap-<YYYY-MM-DD>.md with file-level walkthrough, design intents, spec drift, blind spots (mandatory), and anticipated questions.

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 /recap-doc — Recap Document Generator skill

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by sd0xdev/sd0x-harness in skills/recap-doc/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.

Trigger

  • Keywords: recap-doc, generate recap, 產出導覽文件, walkthrough doc, 本輪導覽

When NOT to Use

ScenarioAlternative
Interactive Q&A over an existing recap/recap-ask
Full flow (detect + doc + Q&A)/post-dev-recap wrapper
Technical share-out for other developers/tech-brief
Single function explanation/codex-explain
First-principles reasoning of an existing doc/fp-brief

Command Signature

/recap-doc --scope <json-path-or-inline> [--focus <str>] [--depth brief|normal|deep] [--output <path>]
FlagDefaultDescription
--scoperequiredPath to ScopeReport JSON or inline JSON string (from scripts/detect-scope.js)
--focus""Natural-language keyword to bias section emphasis (e.g. "auth middleware")
--depthnormalOutput depth — affects top-N, section verbosity, and optional sections
--outputautoOutput file path (see Save Behavior)

Workflow

sequenceDiagram
    participant U as Caller (user or /post-dev-recap)
    participant D as /recap-doc
    participant S as scripts/detect-scope.js
    participant T as tech-brief-style collection
    participant CE as /codex-explain (Skill)
    participant SR as scripts/security-redact.js
    participant F as Output file

    U->>D: /recap-doc --scope <json> [--depth]
    D->>D: Phase 1: Load & validate ScopeReport
    D->>T: Phase 2: Collect git evidence for scope.files (reuse tech-brief Stage 2)
    D->>D: Phase 3: Cross-reference tech-spec (if feature_context.has_tech_spec)
    D->>CE: Phase 4a: Explain top-N changed files
    D->>D: Phase 4b: Synthesize sections + Blind Spots (Must) + Anticipated Questions
    D->>SR: Phase 5a: Scan output for high/medium-confidence secrets
    SR-->>D: Redacted or AbortError
    D->>F: Phase 5b: Write briefing-recap-<date>.md
    D-->>U: Emit output path + summary

Phase 1 — Scope Load

  1. Parse --scope argument: accept file path, - for stdin, or inline JSON (detected by leading {).
  2. Validate ScopeReport v1 required fields: version === 1, source, files[], feature_context, fallback_trace.
  3. If source === null or files.length === 0 → exit non-zero with message directing user to rerun scripts/detect-scope.js.

Phase 1b — scan_error gate

scan_error gate. scan_error !== false ⇒ the source sets are unknown, not empty — report it and take the ⚠️ Need Human exit rather than composing a recap from sources you could not enumerate. Gate on !== false, not === true: a {} payload from a shell fallback carries no such field at all, and a non-null key is not evidence the sets are complete — scan_error rides alongside a resolved key.

This skill reaches the source sets through @skills/tech-brief/references/source-guide.md, which it loads as its own Phase 2 strategy. Loading a reference is loading what it instructs: there is no reading of that link under which the sets are described but not consumed, so the gate is owed here exactly as it is in the skill that owns the file.

Phase 2 — Evidence Collection (reuse tech-brief Stage 2)

See references/source-guide.md for the full strategy. Summary:

  • Run git log --oneline -20 -- <path> per scope file (capped at top-N by depth)
  • Run git diff --stat <base-ref>..HEAD -- <path> for magnitude
  • Read top-N changed files (100 lines each, source files only; exclude docs/test)

Top-N by depth: brief=5, normal=10, deep=15.

Phase 3 — Spec Cross-reference

When scope.feature_context.has_tech_spec === true:

  1. Read <docs_path>/2-tech-spec.md
  2. Extract section headings + Work Breakdown items
  3. Prepare drift-check input: list each tech-spec work item + implementation evidence (changed files overlap)

Phase 4 — AI Synthesis

See references/prompt-template.md for the full prompt. Key behaviors:

  1. Per-file explanations (Phase 4a): for each top-N file, invoke /codex-explain (Skill tool call) with --lines scoped to changed hunks. Reuse, not reimplement — this satisfies NFR-5.
  2. Section synthesis (Phase 4b): compose §1 Overview through §7 Evidence using the output template (see references/output-template.md).
  3. Blind Spots (FR-9, Must — any depth): even if no obvious blind spots are found, emit the §5 heading with the fallback wording 「本輪未偵測到明顯盲點」+ 推論依據.
  4. Anticipated Questions (FR-11): present ≥ 3 questions at normal/deep; omit at brief.

Phase 5 — Redaction + Write

  1. Load scripts/security-redact.js and invoke redact(text) on the complete markdown output.
  2. If AbortError is thrown → do not write; emit stderr with fingerprint and exit non-zero.
  3. If redacted successfully → validate output path via fs.realpathSync on the first existing ancestor (must resolve inside repo root or <tmp>; no .. / external symlink).
  4. Write file with trailing newline.

Depth Levels

See the full matrix in references/output-template.md. Summary:

LevelTop-N§5 Blind Spots§6 Anticipated QCode snippets
brief5Top-3 onlyOmittedNo
normal10Full list≥ 3No
deep15Full list≥ 3Inline

Save Behavior

Recap output is ephemeral by default — written to the OS temp directory so the user's project tree stays clean. Callers that want the recap checked in must opt in with --output.

ConditionOutput Path
Default (no --output)<tmp>/sd0x-dev-flow-recap/briefing-recap-<YYYY-MM-DD>.md
--output <path> providedExplicit path; the canonical (realpath-resolved) target must lie inside either the repo root or <tmp>. Paths that escape both roots are rejected (see ## Path Security).

Where <tmp> resolves in this order:

  1. $TMPDIR environment variable (honoured on macOS by default).
  2. Node's os.tmpdir() (portable fallback — in code this is require('os').tmpdir()).
  3. /tmp as the final POSIX fallback.

The directory <tmp>/sd0x-dev-flow-recap/ is created if missing. If the target file already exists the same day, append a numeric suffix: briefing-recap-2026-04-17-r2.md.

Permanent recap: when the user wants the recap stored with the feature docs (e.g. shareable post-mortem), invoke with --output docs/features/<key>/briefing-recap-<YYYY-MM-DD>.md explicitly.

Path Security

RuleImplementation
Default-dir boundaryDefault path is always under <tmp>/sd0x-dev-flow-recap/ (<tmp> resolved via $TMPDIRos.tmpdir()/tmp, see ## Save Behavior); the skill never writes under the repo without an explicit --output
Explicit-path allowlist--output <path>: accept any absolute or repo-relative path whose canonical (realpath-resolved) target lies inside the repo root or <tmp>; reject .. segments that escape the resolved parent and external symlinks whose target lies outside both roots
Symlink checkResolve the output path with fs.realpathSync on the first existing ancestor; reject if the resolved ancestor is neither inside the repo root (git rev-parse --show-toplevel) nor inside <tmp>
Secret redactionscripts/security-redact.js — abort on high-confidence, mask medium
Input trustScopeReport JSON paths are validated before any fs read

Performance

Target: NFR-2 — /recap-doc output generation ≤ 30s (excluding external LLM latency, measured from scope-load start to file-write complete). The Phase 4a per-file explanations should be dispatched in parallel batches to stay within budget.

Output Structure

See references/output-template.md for the canonical markdown template. High-level structure:

# Recap: <feature-key or "session">
> **Scope source**: ...
> **Detected at**: ...
> **Focus**: ...
> **Confidence**: ...

## 1. Overview
## 2. Changed Files (table with file:line references)
## 3. Design Decisions
## 4. Spec vs Implementation Drift    (if has_tech_spec)
## 5. Blind Spots                     (FR-9 Must — any depth)
## 6. Anticipated Questions           (normal/deep only)
## 7. Evidence                         (commit SHAs, file:line index)

Verification

  • ScopeReport v1 validated (version + required fields) before any synthesis
  • Top-N files aligned with depth (brief=5, normal=10, deep=15)
  • §5 Blind Spots heading present regardless of depth; fallback wording when no items
  • §6 Anticipated Questions ≥ 3 at normal/deep; omitted at brief
  • /codex-explain invoked per top-N file (NFR-5 reuse — not reimplemented)
  • security-redact.js invoked before write (NFR-7)
  • Output path resolves (via fs.realpathSync) inside repo root or <tmp>; no ..; no external symlink
  • Total pipeline ≤ 30s from scope-load to write (NFR-2)

References

  • references/output-template.md — Recap doc structure + depth matrix
  • references/source-guide.md — Phase 2 evidence collection (reuse tech-brief pattern)
  • references/prompt-template.md — LLM synthesis prompt (obeys @rules/codex-invocation.md)
  • @skills/tech-brief/references/source-guide.md — upstream pattern (read-only reference)
  • @skills/codex-explain/SKILL.md — Phase 4a reuse target
  • scripts/detect-scope.js — ScopeReport v1 producer (T1)
  • scripts/security-redact.js — Pre-write redaction (T1)
  • scripts/config/doc-taxonomy.json L94-99 — briefing- ancillary pattern

Examples

Input: /recap-doc --scope /tmp/scope.json --depth normal
Action: Load scope → collect git evidence for top-10 files → /codex-explain per file → synthesize sections including Blind Spots + 3+ Anticipated Questions → security-redact → write to <tmp>/sd0x-dev-flow-recap/briefing-recap-2026-04-17.md (ephemeral default; user opts in to commit via --output)

Input: /recap-doc --scope '{"version":1,"source":"uncommitted",...}' --focus "auth" --depth brief
Action: Parse inline JSON → filter to auth-related files → top-5 only → §5 Blind Spots top-3 only → omit §6 → write to <tmp>/sd0x-dev-flow-recap/briefing-recap-<YYYY-MM-DD>.md

Input: /recap-doc --scope scope.json --depth deep --output docs/features/<key>/briefing-recap-2026-04-17.md
Action: Load scope → top-15 with inline code snippets → full §5/§6 → redact → realpath-resolve target (must be inside repo root OR <tmp>) → write. Paths that escape both roots are rejected.

Signals

GitHub stars
188
Forks
24
Last commit
Sep 2026
Advanced
Catalog kind
skill
Gateway key
recap-doc
Source
github.com/sd0xdev/sd0x-harness