Team — can others build on it?
Brief 145

Breadcrumb Audit

Walk the doc-and-tooling link graph from the agent entry file — orphaned docs, unreachable scripts, files outside every stated taxonomy, and unwritten rules.

BREADCRUMBS.md4 phases8 lenses~3.4k chars

Free & open · no signup · read-only — it ends by asking · nothing leaves your machine

What it does

You are working inside this repo. Mission: map what a reader can actually reach by following links from the repo's entry files — CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md, README, CONTRIBUTING — and surface everything that exists but is findable only by luck. 52 asks whether an agent can work here; this audit asks whether the repo's own surfaces can be found at all.

Read-only pass. Your only write is the report file.

What it looks for

8 lenses it looks through

Phase 2 sweeps the codebase through every one of these, citing file and line for each finding.

1

Entry reciprocity

do the entry files name each other? A reader landing on README should be one hop from CLAUDE.md and vice versa — parallel universes are a smell

2

Two-hop reach

what fraction of docs, scripts, and tooling is reachable within two hops of an entry file; list the far side

3

Orphan sweep

files nothing points at: stale drafts, tools nobody will rediscover, reports whose home was never stated

4

Taxonomy coverage

if the entry file classifies the tree (edit these / never edit these / generated), does every top-level file fall under exactly one class; list the unclassified

5

Generated vs source

can a newcomer tell what is hand-written from what a build emits, without running the build

6

Command discoverability

every dev command (build, test, lint, release, one-off scripts) stated in an entry file, or do some live only in CI configs and shell history

7

Staleness

breadcrumbs that lie: paths that moved, commands that changed, docs contradicting the code they describe

8

Unwritten rules

conventions the code or CI enforces that no doc states, and stated rules nothing enforces

The deliverable

What lands in your repo

One structured report at the repo root — or in reports/, if you keep one — the same shape every time, ready for a teammate — or the optional Studio — to act on.

BREADCRUMBS.md
1
Reachability map
entry files found, and what share of the repo they reach in two hops
2
Broken and missing links
reciprocity gaps and lying breadcrumbs, with evidence
3
Orphans and unclassified files
each with a verdict: link, classify, move, or delete
4
Fixes
ranked; cross-linking the entry files and completing the taxonomy usually come first
One file. Evidence-backed. It ends by asking before touching anything. · see a real BREADCRUMBS.md ↗
How it works

What it makes the agent do

Every Goal Prompt follows the same four steps, so results are consistent and repeatable — no matter which one you run.

1
Phase 1

Map the entry points

Inventory the entry files.

2
Phase 2

Audit through 8 lenses

Entry reciprocity — do the entry files name each other? A reader landing on README should be one hop from CLAUDE.md an…

3
Phase 3

Curate

For each orphan or unreachable file, decide.

4
Phase 4

Report

Create BREADCRUMBS.md at repo root.

Get started

Three ways to run this Goal Prompt

01 · COPY

Paste it in

Copy it and paste it into your agent inside the repo you want checked.

02 · INSTALL

As a slash command

Install the goal plugin once — two commands — then just type /goal:breadcrumb-audit.

1/plugin marketplace add GhostlyGawd/goal-prompts
2/plugin install goal@goal-prompts

Or install only this Goal Prompt as /goal-breadcrumb-audit:

curl -fsSL https://goal-prompts.vercel.app/install | BRIEF=145 sh
03 · AGENT

From an agent (MCP)

Let an agent fetch it mid-conversation, or pull the raw Goal Prompt by URL.

https://goal-prompts.vercel.app/raw/145.md
Transparency

The exact prompt

Nothing hidden — this is the whole Goal Prompt, verbatim. Read it in a minute, edit it, or copy it as-is.

Read the full brief (3,401 characters)
# Goal: Breadcrumb Audit

You are working inside this repo. Mission: map what a reader can actually reach by following links from the repo's entry files — CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md, README, CONTRIBUTING — and surface everything that exists but is findable only by luck. 52 asks whether an agent can work here; this audit asks whether the repo's own surfaces can be found at all.

Read-only pass. Your only write is the report file.

## Phase 1 — Map the entry points
- Inventory the entry files: CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md / .cursorrules, README, CONTRIBUTING, any docs index. Note which exist.
- From each, list every file path, link, directory, and command it names. That set is hop 1; anything hop-1 files name is hop 2.
- Inventory the actual surface: docs, scripts, configs, tests, tooling directories.

## Phase 2 — Audit through 8 lenses
1. **Entry reciprocity** — do the entry files name each other? A reader landing on README should be one hop from CLAUDE.md and vice versa — parallel universes are a smell
2. **Two-hop reach** — what fraction of docs, scripts, and tooling is reachable within two hops of an entry file; list the far side
3. **Orphan sweep** — files nothing points at: stale drafts, tools nobody will rediscover, reports whose home was never stated
4. **Taxonomy coverage** — if the entry file classifies the tree (edit these / never edit these / generated), does every top-level file fall under exactly one class; list the unclassified
5. **Generated vs source** — can a newcomer tell what is hand-written from what a build emits, without running the build
6. **Command discoverability** — every dev command (build, test, lint, release, one-off scripts) stated in an entry file, or do some live only in CI configs and shell history
7. **Staleness** — breadcrumbs that lie: paths that moved, commands that changed, docs contradicting the code they describe
8. **Unwritten rules** — conventions the code or CI enforces that no doc states, and stated rules nothing enforces

## Phase 3 — Curate
- For each orphan or unreachable file, decide: link it, classify it, relocate it, or question its existence.
- Rank fixes by how many future wrong turns one sentence or link prevents. A one-line taxonomy entry usually beats a new doc.

## Phase 4 — Report
Create `BREADCRUMBS.md` at repo root:
1. **Reachability map** — entry files found, and what share of the repo they reach in two hops
2. **Broken and missing links** — reciprocity gaps and lying breadcrumbs, with evidence
3. **Orphans and unclassified files** — each with a verdict: link, classify, move, or delete
4. **Fixes** — ranked; cross-linking the entry files and completing the taxonomy usually come first

Start the report with today's date. If `BREADCRUMBS.md` already exists from a previous run, read it first and lead with what changed since.

## Rules
- A path you can find only by already knowing it is not a breadcrumb — judge reachability from the entry files alone
- Distinguish unreachable from deliberately internal — flag it, don't presume intent
- No documentation surface at all, not even a README? Say so in a one-paragraph null report and stop — a null result is a valid finding.
- If a `reports/` directory exists at the repo root, write the report there instead of the root.
- Before asking, present the top findings as a ranked list in plain words
- Report only — end by asking which breadcrumbs to lay first

House rules for this Goal Prompt

  • A path you can find only by already knowing it is not a breadcrumb — judge reachability from the entry files alone
  • Distinguish unreachable from deliberately internal — flag it, don't presume intent
  • No documentation surface at all, not even a README? Say so in a one-paragraph null report and stop — a null result is a valid finding.
  • If a reports/ directory exists at the repo root, write the report there instead of the root.
  • Before asking, present the top findings as a ranked list in plain words
  • Report only — end by asking which breadcrumbs to lay first
Keep exploring

Pairs well with

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