jyjeannejyjeanne/dita-skills/validate-dita-topic/SKILL.md

validate-dita-topic

Skill2 starsChanged 6 months agoMITView on GitHub

Validates a DITA 1.3 topic file against structural and semantic rules derived from the official DITA 1.3 DTDs. Use this skill when you need to check a concept, task, reference, troubleshooting, glossentry, or base topic for missing required elements, incorrect nesting, duplicate IDs, malformed conref/keyref, or shortdesc quality issues. Returns structured JSON with errors and warnings.

In this repository18 other files it gives its agents.
- .github/copilot-instructions.mdCopilot instructions
- context-setupSkill
- dita-best-practicesSkill
- ditaval-helperSkill
- error-handlingSkill
- generate-bookmapSkill
- generate-ditamapSkill
- generate-dita-topicSkill
- generate-keyrefsSkill
- keyspace-debugSkill
- map-resolveSkill
- pdf-to-ditaSkill
- refactor-dita-contentSkill
- review-dita-guideSkill
- validate-bookmapSkill
- validate-ditamapSkill
- visitor-extendSkill
- xslt-dita-helperSkill

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SKILL.md

Overview

Validates a DITA 1.3 XML topic and returns a JSON report listing all errors and warnings.

Usage

# Validate a file
python scripts/validate_dita_topic.py path/to/topic.dita

# Pipe XML directly
cat topic.dita | python scripts/validate_dita_topic.py -

# Enforce a specific topic type (fails if root element doesn't match)
python scripts/validate_dita_topic.py topic.dita concept

Output schema

{
  "is_valid": true,
  "errors": [
    { "element": "string", "rule": "string", "message": "string", "line": 0 }
  ],
  "warnings": [
    { "element": "string", "rule": "string", "message": "string", "line": 0 }
  ]
}

Exit code is 0 when is_valid is true, 1 otherwise.

Rules applied

See references/RULES.md for the full rule catalogue.

Key rules per type:

Type	Required body	Key extra rules
concept	`<conbody>`	No task/ref elements inside conbody
task	`<taskbody>`	Each `<step>` needs `<cmd>`; singletons enforced
reference	`<refbody>`	`<property>` row quality checks
troubleshooting	`<troublebody>`	At least one `<troubleSolution>`
glossentry	(n/a)	`<glossterm>` and `<glossdef>` required

Common edge cases

A topic with a valid root but no @id → Error (not Warning)
<shortdesc> containing <p> or other block elements → Warning
@conref without a # fragment separator → Error
Duplicate @id values → Error (only first occurrence is valid)
<steps> with more than 10 <step> children → Warning (split recommended)

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