Doctective

Product Introduction

1. Definition: Doctective is an AI-powered documentation synchronization platform (technical category: DevOps/Developer Tooling) that automatically detects discrepancies between code and documentation. It integrates directly with GitHub repositories to analyze pull requests in real-time.
2. Core Value Proposition: It eliminates technical debt from stale documentation by auto-detecting code-doc mismatches during development cycles. Primary keywords: automated documentation sync, code-doc synchronization, prevent stale docs.

Main Features

1. PR Impact Detection:

   • How it works: Uses semantic code analysis (AST parsing) to map functions/APIs/classes to documentation references. When a PR modifies code, it cross-references all linked docs (Markdown, READMEs, Confluence) via regex and NLP pattern matching.
   • Technologies: Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) parsers for TypeScript/Python/Java/Go/Rust/SQL, GitHub Actions integration, diff analysis algorithms.

2. Companion PR Generation:

   • How it works: Automatically creates a parallel PR with suggested doc updates when code changes break existing documentation. Generates Markdown edits with code-snippet context and version-tracking metadata.
   • Technologies: Git diff patching, programmatic file editing via GitHub API, change-hunk mapping.

3. LLM Doc Updates:

   • How it works: AI updates documentation using context-aware prompts that consider codebase style, terminology, and existing doc structures. Trained on domain-specific datasets to avoid hallucination.
   • Technologies: Fine-tuned transformer models (e.g., GPT-4), vector embeddings for semantic similarity, style consistency checks.

Problems Solved

1. Pain Point: "Documentation rot" – 60% of developers report being misled by outdated docs (per product data). Code changes silently invalidate docs, eroding team trust and onboarding efficiency.
2. Target Audience:
   • Engineering leads at mid/large tech teams (e.g., Stripe, Vercel users cited)
   • Open-source maintainers managing community contributions
   • DevOps engineers reducing "documentation debt" in CI/CD pipelines
3. Use Cases:
   • Preventing API reference mismatches during refactors (e.g., getUserById → fetchUser)
   • Auto-updating onboarding guides when internal tooling changes
   • Flagging broken code examples in tutorials pre-merge

Unique Advantages

1. Differentiation: Unlike manual docs (Confluence) or basic linters, Doctective provides:
   • Code-to-doc traceability: Creates bidirectional links between code entities and docs
   • Pre-merge detection: Competitors (e.g., Swimm) focus on post-merge doc generation
2. Key Innovation: Semantic code-doc mapping engine that:
   • Tracks cross-file dependencies (e.g., TypeScript interfaces → usage examples in docs)
   • Supports multi-repo monorepos via custom dependency graphs

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. How does Doctective ensure documentation accuracy?
   Doctective uses AST parsing and NLP to create immutable links between code symbols and documentation references, flagging mismatches in PRs via GitHub comments.

2. Can Doctective handle private repositories?
   Yes, it offers end-to-end 256-bit AES encryption, SOC 2 compliance, and self-hosting options for air-gapped environments.

3. What languages does Doctective support?
   It supports TypeScript, Python, Java, Go, Rust, SQL, and all languages with structured AST outputs or docstring conventions.

4. How does pricing scale for large teams?
   The Team plan ($349.99/month) covers 10 repositories and 10 seats, while Enterprise offers unlimited repos with custom SLAs.

5. Does Doctective modify documentation automatically?
   It generates companion PRs with suggested updates, but changes require manual review/merge to ensure quality control.