Open source · Public beta

Find the docs your pull request made stale.

StaleDocs reads the public API change in every pull request and points to the README and docs sections that still describe the old code.

Add the GitHub Action Install for Claude Code

TypeScript · JavaScript · Python deterministic no API key

index.ts

greet(name)

greet(name, excited)

public API · breaking

README.md

## API

Needs update

A changed public signature, mapped to the docs section that still mentions it.

How it works

01
A pull request changes the API
StaleDocs compares the base and head commits and keeps only changes to your package’s public boundary.
02
The AST finds what changed
Signatures are parsed, not guessed. No model is called to decide whether something changed.
03
Docs that mention it are flagged
Markdown sections that reference the changed symbol and were not updated show up in the pull request.

StaleDocs review · example output

1 public API change, 1 potentially breaking. 1 documentation section mentions it and was not updated.

Symbol	Change	After
`greet`	parameters (breaking)	`greet(name: string, excited: boolean): string`

Needs a documentation update

README.md › API: greet

Markdown output of staledocs review on a small example repository.

Install in two minutes

GitHub Action

Save as .github/workflows/staledocs.yml. Report-only: findings never fail the build.

name: StaleDocs review
on:
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, synchronize, reopened]
permissions:
  contents: read
  pull-requests: write
jobs:
  review:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1 # v7.0.1
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
      - uses: mr-min-max/staledocs@v0.4.0-beta.1
        with:
          mode: review
          fail-on: none

Action guide →

Claude Code

Run inside Claude Code, in your repository. Needs Node.js 22.12+.

/plugin marketplace add mr-min-max/staledocs
/plugin install staledocs@staledocs

/staledocs:check Which docs are stale right now.
/staledocs:review The pull-request report, locally.
/staledocs:maintain-documentation Claude drafts the fix, StaleDocs validates it before anything is written.

Claude guide →

Prefer the terminal? npx staledocs review --base main · CLI reference · Codex / MCP

Measured in the open

6/10

agreements with hand-labelled expectations on ten external pull requests from projects like Vite, FastAPI and Hono. Misses are published with the method.

Read the evaluation →

What it does not do

It checks public API changes, not whether the prose is correct.
It only maps docs that name the changed symbol.
It never edits your repository on its own.

All limitations →