What it does

The README Validator is a specialized diagnostic utility for project documentation. It performs a deep, read-only audit of README.md files to identify broken links, missing mandatory sections, expired badges, and inconsistent formatting. Instead of just checking spelling, it evaluates the structural integrity and professional quality of your repository's front page.

Why use this skill

Maintaining high-quality documentation is critical for project adoption and credibility, but manually checking every link and section is tedious. This skill automates the audit process, ensuring your project meets industry standards before you push to production or submit to open-source directories. It catches the "silent killers" of documentation—like 404ing installation links or outdated screenshots—that human reviewers often overlook.

Supported Standards

• Comprehensive Link Audit: Validates internal fragment links, relative paths, and external URL syntax.
• Section Analysis: Checks for Installation, Usage, License, and Contributing sections based on project type.
• Badge Verification: Audits CDN sources and markdown syntax for CI/CD and coverage badges.
• Rich Output: Generates a structured severity-based report (Critical, Warning, Info) with a health score.

Unlike a generic LLM prompt, this skill follows a rigorous validation checklist and scoring rubric, providing consistent results that differentiate between minor formatting preferences and critical legal risks like missing licenses.