Docuchango

A command-line tool to validate and automatically fix Docusaurus documentation, ensuring frontmatter, links, code blocks, and formatting meet quality standards.

Why Docuchango?

• Automated fixes - Don't just find errors, fix them automatically (whitespace, code blocks, frontmatter)
• Docusaurus-specific - Purpose-built for docs-cms projects with ADR, RFC, Memo, and PRD templates
• Strict validation - Enforces consistent frontmatter schemas with Pydantic, catches issues before build time
• Fast & CI-ready - Processes 100+ docs in under a second, perfect for pre-commit hooks and CI pipelines

Installation

# Install from PyPI (latest version)
pip install docuchango

# Or use uvx to run without installing
uvx docuchango --help

# Or use the install script (includes uv)
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jrepp/docuchango/main/install.sh | bash

Quick Start

# Bootstrap a new docs-cms project with templates and structure
docuchango bootstrap

# Validate your documentation against frontmatter schemas, links, and formatting rules
docuchango validate

# Automatically fix detected issues (code blocks, whitespace, frontmatter)
docuchango fix all

flowchart LR
    A[docs-cms/] --> B{docuchango}
    B -->|validate| C[✓ Report errors]
    B -->|fix| D[✓ Fixed docs]
    D --> E[Docusaurus]
    E -->|build| F[📚 Static site]

    style A fill:#f9f,stroke:#333
    style B fill:#bbf,stroke:#333
    style C fill:#bfb,stroke:#333
    style D fill:#bfb,stroke:#333
    style E fill:#feb,stroke:#333
    style F fill:#bfb,stroke:#333

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Usage Examples

Validation Commands

# Run validation with verbose output
$ docuchango validate --verbose

📂 Scanning documents...
   Found 23 documents

✓ Validating links...
   Found 47 total links

❌ DOCUMENTS WITH ERRORS (2):
   adr/adr-001.md:
   ✗ Missing field: 'deciders'
   ✗ Invalid status: 'Draft'

# Validate everything (default)
docuchango validate

# Skip slow build checks
docuchango validate --skip-build

Fix Commands

# List all available fixes and their descriptions
$ docuchango fix list
📋 Available Fixes

docuchango fix frontmatter
  Fix frontmatter issues
  Fixes:
    • Invalid status values (maps to valid values by doc type)
    • Invalid date formats (converts to ISO 8601: YYYY-MM-DD)
    • Missing frontmatter blocks (generates with defaults)
    ...

# Automatically fix all detected issues
$ docuchango fix all
   ✓ Fixed 12 code blocks
   ✓ Removed trailing whitespace
   ✓ Added missing frontmatter

# Fix specific issues
docuchango fix code-blocks
docuchango fix links

# Fix frontmatter issues (status values, dates, missing fields)
$ docuchango fix frontmatter --dry-run --verbose
📋 Fixing Frontmatter Issues

DRY RUN - No changes will be made

Found 23 documentation files

adr/adr-001.md
  ✓ Changed status from 'Draft' to 'Proposed'
  ✓ Converted date from '2025/01/26' to '2025-01-26'

✓ Fixed 12 issues in 8 files

# Apply the fixes
docuchango fix frontmatter

# Update timestamps based on git history
$ docuchango fix timestamps --dry-run
📅 Updating Document Timestamps

Found 5 documentation files

adr/adr-001.md
  ✓ Migrated 'date' → 'created' and 'updated'

✓ Fixed 5 issues in 5 files

# Bulk update frontmatter fields
$ docuchango fix bulk-update --type adr --set status=Accepted --dry-run
🔧 Bulk Update Frontmatter

Operation: SET
Field: status = Accepted
Document type filter: ADR
Files found: 15

adr/adr-001.md
  ✓ Updated status: Proposed → Accepted

adr/adr-005.md
  ℹ Field status already has value 'Accepted'

✓ 10 files would be updated

# Bulk update operations support:
# • SET - Update or add field (smart value detection)
# • ADD - Add field only if it doesn't exist
# • REMOVE - Delete field from frontmatter
# • RENAME - Rename field (preserves value)
# • Handles empty frontmatter gracefully
# • Detects duplicate file references
# • Provides clear feedback for each operation

# Fix tags normalization
$ docuchango fix tags --dry-run
🏷️  Fixing Tags

Found 23 documentation files

adr/adr-001.md
  ✓ Normalized tags: 3 tags
  ✓ Removed 1 duplicate/invalid tags
  ✓ Sorted tags alphabetically

✓ Fixed 8 issues in 5 files

# Fix whitespace and required fields
$ docuchango fix whitespace --dry-run
🧹 Fixing Whitespace & Fields

Found 23 documentation files

adr/adr-002.md
  ✓ Trimmed whitespace from 'title' field
  ✓ Generated missing 'doc_uuid'
  ✓ Added missing 'tags' field (empty array)

✓ Fixed 15 issues in 7 files

Bootstrap & Guides

# View agent integration guides
docuchango bootstrap --guide agent
docuchango bootstrap --guide best-practices

CLI Shortcuts

dcc-validate        # Same as docuchango validate
dcc-fix            # Same as docuchango fix

CMS Folder Structure

docs-cms/
├── adr/              # Architecture Decision Records
│   ├── adr-001-*.md
│   └── adr-002-*.md
├── rfcs/             # Request for Comments
│   └── rfc-001-*.md
├── memos/            # Technical memos
│   └── memo-001-*.md
└── prd/              # Product requirements
    └── prd-001-*.md

Document Schema (frontmatter)

Each document requires structured frontmatter. Here's an example with field descriptions:

---
# Unique identifier matching the filename (e.g., "adr-001", "rfc-042")
id: "adr-001"

# Human-readable title for the document
title: "Use Click for CLI Framework"

# Current status - valid values depend on doc type
# ADR: Proposed, Accepted, Deprecated, Superseded
# RFC: Draft, In Review, Accepted, Rejected, Implemented
# Memo: Draft, Published, Archived
status: Accepted

# ISO 8601 date (YYYY-MM-DD) when the document was created
date: 2025-01-26

# Who made or approved this decision (ADR-specific field)
deciders: Engineering Team

# Categorization tags for search and filtering
tags: ["cli", "framework", "tooling"]

# Project identifier for organizing docs across multiple projects
project_id: "my-project"

# Auto-generated UUID for tracking and references (generate once, never change)
doc_uuid: "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000"
---

Note: Different document types (ADR, RFC, Memo, PRD) have slightly different required fields. Use docuchango bootstrap to see templates for each type.

Schema Structure

graph TD
    A[Document] --> B[Frontmatter]
    A --> C[Content]

    B --> D[Required Fields]
    B --> E[Optional Fields]

    D --> F[id: adr-001]
    D --> G[title: string]
    D --> H[status: Literal]
    D --> I[date/created]
    D --> J[tags: list]
    D --> K[project_id]
    D --> L[doc_uuid: UUID]

    C --> M[Markdown Body]
    C --> N[Code Blocks]
    C --> O[Links]

    style A fill:#bbf,stroke:#333
    style B fill:#feb,stroke:#333
    style C fill:#bfb,stroke:#333
    style D fill:#fbb,stroke:#333

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Templates & Docs:

• ADR Template | RFC Template | Memo Template
• Schema Docs | ADR-001

Features

• Validates frontmatter (required fields, valid formats)
• Checks links (internal, relative, broken refs)
• Fixes automatically (whitespace, code blocks, frontmatter, timestamps)
• Bulk operations (set, add, remove, rename frontmatter fields across all docs)
• Git-aware (updates timestamps from commit history)
• Fast (100 docs in < 1s)
• CI-ready (exit codes, clear errors)

Python API

from docuchango.validator import DocValidator
from docuchango.schemas import ADRFrontmatter

# Validate
validator = DocValidator(repo_root=".", verbose=True)
validator.scan_documents()
validator.check_code_blocks()
validator.check_formatting()

# Use schemas
adr = ADRFrontmatter(**frontmatter_data)

Development

# Setup
uv sync
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Test
pytest                      # Run all tests (628 tests)
pytest --cov=docuchango     # With coverage report
pytest -n auto              # Parallel execution
pytest -v                   # Verbose output

# Test Statistics
# • 628 passing tests (with textstat installed)
# • 569 core tests + 59 readability tests
# • Zero flaky or xfail tests
# • Full Python 3.9-3.13 compatibility
# • Comprehensive edge case coverage (frontmatter, links, timestamps, bulk updates)

# Lint
ruff format .
ruff check .
mypy docuchango tests
actionlint  # Lint GitHub Actions workflows

# Build
uv build

Documentation

• Templates - Starter files for ADR, RFC, Memo, PRD
• ADRs - Architecture decisions
• RFCs - Technical proposals

Requirements

• Python 3.9+
• Works on macOS, Linux, Windows

License

Mozilla Public License Version 2.0 (MPL-2.0) - See LICENSE file

This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this file, You can obtain one at https://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.

Glossary: Issues Detected and Fixed

This comprehensive reference lists all documentation issues that docuchango can detect and automatically fix.

Frontmatter Issues

Detected:

• Missing YAML frontmatter
• Missing required fields (id, title, status, date, tags, project_id, doc_uuid)
• Invalid field types or formats
• Invalid status values for document type (e.g., "Draft" instead of "Proposed" for ADRs)
• Missing document-type-specific fields (e.g., deciders for ADRs)
• Invalid date formats (must be ISO 8601: YYYY-MM-DD)
• Malformed UUID values
• ID/filename mismatches (frontmatter id doesn't match filename)
• ID/title mismatches (frontmatter id doesn't match title number)
• Duplicate IDs across documents
• Duplicate UUIDs across documents

Auto-Fixed:

• ✓ Generates missing frontmatter blocks with sensible defaults
• ✓ Adds missing required fields (id, title, status, date, tags, project_id, doc_uuid)
• ✓ Fixes invalid status values (maps common variations to valid values by doc type)
  • Handles empty strings, special characters, and whitespace
  • Supports fuzzy matching for common misspellings
• ✓ Converts invalid date formats to ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD)
  • Supports multiple input formats (slash, dot, long month names)
  • Converts datetime objects to ISO 8601 strings
• ✓ Normalizes tags (converts to arrays, lowercase-with-dashes, removes duplicates, sorts)
• ✓ Trims whitespace from all string values
• ✓ Removes empty strings and null values
• ✓ Updates timestamps from git history (created/updated fields)
  • Automatically adds missing created or updated fields
  • Migrates legacy date field to created/updated pair
  • Works without status field requirement
• ✓ Handles empty frontmatter blocks (initializes with empty metadata)
• ✓ Validates operation types with clear error messages
• ✓ Detects and reports binary files (non-UTF-8 content)

Requires Manual Fix:

• Missing YAML frontmatter (complex cases)
• Invalid field types or formats
• Missing document-type-specific fields (e.g., deciders for ADRs)
• Malformed UUID values
• ID/filename mismatches (frontmatter id doesn't match filename)
• ID/title mismatches (frontmatter id doesn't match title number)
• Duplicate IDs across documents
• Duplicate UUIDs across documents

Code Block Issues

Detected:

• Opening code fences without language specification (bare ```)
• Closing code fences with language/text (should be bare ```)
• Unclosed code blocks (missing closing fence)
• Missing blank line before opening fence
• Missing blank line after closing fence
• Unbalanced code fences

Auto-Fixed:

• ✓ Adds "text" language to bare opening fences
• ✓ Removes language from closing fences
• ✓ Adds missing closing fences
• ✓ Inserts blank lines before/after fences

Link Issues

Detected:

• Broken internal document links (file not found)
• Invalid relative paths (./path or ../path pointing to non-existent files)
• Ambiguous link formats
• Problematic cross-plugin links (multiple ../ levels)
• Broken ADR/RFC cross-references

Auto-Fixed:

• ✓ Updates broken internal links to correct paths
• ✓ Converts problematic cross-plugin links to absolute GitHub URLs
• ✓ Fixes document link formats

MDX Compatibility Issues

Detected:

• Unescaped < before numbers (e.g., "< 10")
• Unescaped > before numbers (e.g., "> 5")
• MDX compilation errors
• JSX syntax incompatibilities
• Special characters that break MDX parsing

Auto-Fixed:

• ✓ Escapes special MDX characters (<, >)
• ✓ Fixes MDX syntax issues
• ✓ Corrects JSX-incompatible markdown

Formatting Issues

Detected:

• Trailing whitespace on lines
• More than 2 consecutive blank lines
• Inconsistent line endings

Auto-Fixed:

• ✓ Removes trailing whitespace
• ✓ Normalizes multiple blank lines

Filename & Naming Issues

Detected:

• Invalid filename patterns (must be: type-NNN-slug.md)
• Uppercase in filenames (deprecated, must be lowercase)
• Inconsistent ADR/RFC/Memo numbering

Requires Manual Fix: Flagged for user intervention

Build & Compilation Issues

Detected:

• TypeScript compilation errors in Docusaurus config
• Full Docusaurus build failures
• MDX compilation failures via @mdx-js/mdx
• Build warnings

Requires Manual Fix: Reported for debugging and manual resolution

Migration & Import Issues

Auto-Fixed:

• ✓ Proto import syntax issues
• ✓ Migration syntax corrections

---

Issue Categories:

1. Frontmatter - Schema validation, required fields, format checking
2. Code Blocks - Fence formatting, language labels, balance
3. Links - Broken links, cross-references, path resolution
4. MDX - Compilation, special character escaping, JSX compatibility
5. Formatting - Whitespace, blank lines
6. Identifiers - IDs, UUIDs, filename consistency
7. Build - TypeScript, Docusaurus compilation
8. Migration - Import syntax, migration corrections

Links

• GitHub
• PyPI
• Issues