looking-up-docs

description: Find current, version-correct library/API/framework docs through one lookup workflow. Use when the user says "look up docs", "how to use", "API for", "syntax for", "examples of", "show me the docs", mentions "ctx7"/"Context7", passes a /org/project library ID, or wants the latest/current/actual behavior of a library, framework, CLI, or API. NOT for comparisons, best-practice surveys, or recent ecosystem news — use researching-web. name: looking-up-docs

Documentation Lookup

Get grounded, version-correct docs for a library, framework, CLI, or API. Never answer syntax or API questions from memory when lookup tools are available.

Scope

Use this skill for:

• API signatures, options, config keys, syntax, and examples.
• Version-specific behavior of a known library, framework, language, CLI, or standard library.
• Context7 docs lookup, including explicit ctx7, Context7, or /org/project library-ID requests.
• Confirming current behavior before writing code against an external API.

Do not use this skill for:

• Comparisons, recommendations, market research, or best-practice surveys; route to researching-web.
• Repo-specific questions; search local files first.
• External queries containing secrets, credentials, personal data, private payloads, or proprietary code.

Reference Files

Read only what the question needs:

• references/context7-cli.md — Context7 lookup commands, selection rules, limits, and fallbacks.
• references/official-sources.md — primary docs and registries by ecosystem.
• references/web-tools.md — platform web tools, query templates, and source quality rules.

Lookup Chain

Run tiers in order. Stop at the first tier that yields a grounded answer. State which tier produced the answer and whether fallback was used.

Tier 0 — Identify Package and Version

Find the exact package, module, CLI, language version, or framework version from local evidence.

If no local version is available, state version unknown and prefer latest stable official docs. Do not invent a version.

Tier 1 — Context7

Use references/context7-cli.md for Context7 library resolution and docs fetch. Best fit: versioned library and framework docs.

Escalate when Context7 is unavailable, rate-limited, returns no useful match after one rephrase and one alternate library name, or returns docs for the wrong version.

Tier 2 — Official Docs and Registries

Use references/official-sources.md for language standard libraries, package registries, and canonical project docs. Prefer primary docs or registry-linked docs for the exact version.

Use web tools only for source discovery. Ground final syntax in URL-cited primary sources.

Tier 3 — GitHub Releases, Tags, and Source

Use GitHub only when primary docs or registry links are missing, incomplete, or version-mismatched. Follow references/official-sources.md fallback rules.

Do not treat random issues, PR comments, blogs, or generated summaries as authoritative API docs. Use them only as clues to primary sources.

Tier 4 — Broad Research or Gap Report

Use broad Perplexity/web research only when focused docs lookup fails or the question becomes a comparison/trade-off. If no grounded source exists, report the gap, the version needed vs found, and the safest next step.

Limits and Failure Handling

• Never send secrets, credentials, private payloads, personal data, or proprietary code to any external tier.
• Always use a real, specific query; never use a one-word placeholder.
• Do not loop a tier indefinitely: one rephrase and one alternate name per tier, then escalate.
• If docs are version-mismatched, state the mismatch and escalate to exact-version registry docs, release notes, or matching GitHub tag/source.
• If all tiers fail, report the gap and do not fabricate syntax.
• If external lookup would expose private data, refuse the external query and answer from local context only, noting the limitation.

Response Contract

Return a concise answer, not a workflow transcript, unless the user asks for the lookup process.

Include:

1. Library/framework/API and version, or version unknown.
2. Tier that produced the answer, and fallback used if any.
3. Syntax or example guidance grounded in the source.
4. Source URL, Context7 library ID, or GitHub tag/source path for each claim.
5. Boundary note when the request is actually comparison or broad research.

If the user asks to describe the workflow, describe the tiers and escalation rules instead of answering from memory.