WatchDocs CLI

A lightweight CLI tool that scans a project for dependencies and returns their official documentation URLs as Markdown — built for AI agents and developers.

Install

npx watchdocs scan

No installation needed. Works via npx anywhere Node.js is available.

Commands

watchdocs scan

Recursively scans the current directory for manifest files, parses dependencies, and resolves official doc URLs from their respective registries.

watchdocs scan
watchdocs scan --path ./frontend
watchdocs scan --ecosystem npm,go
watchdocs scan --detailed

| Flag | Description | |---|---| | --path <dir> | Target a specific directory instead of cwd | | --ecosystem <list> | Filter by ecosystem(s), comma-separated | | --detailed, -d | Show detailed output with package metadata | | --clear-cache | Clear the local cache before scanning | | --no-cache | Disable reading and writing to the local cache |

watchdocs lookup

Look up a single package by name without needing a manifest file.

watchdocs lookup express --ecosystem npm
watchdocs lookup github.com/spf13/cobra --ecosystem go
watchdocs lookup requests --ecosystem pip --detailed

| Flag | Description | |---|---| | --ecosystem <eco> | Required — one of: npm, go, pip, cargo, pub, maven | | --detailed, -d | Show detailed output with package metadata | | --clear-cache | Clear the local cache before looking up | | --no-cache | Disable reading and writing to the local cache |

Output

With --detailed (or -d):

### Scan Summary
- **Scanned Manifests:** go.mod, package.json
- **Total Dependencies:** 5

### Results
- **express** - https://expressjs.com (`^4.18.0`) — `npm` (`prod`) — `resolved`

Without --detailed (Default - recommended for agents to save context tokens):

- **express** - https://expressjs.com

Supported Ecosystems

| Ecosystem | Manifest files | Registry | |---|---|---| | npm | package.json | registry.npmjs.org | | go | go.mod | proxy.golang.org / pkg.go.dev | | pip | requirements.txt, pyproject.toml, uv.lock | pypi.org | | cargo | Cargo.toml | crates.io | | pub | pubspec.yaml | pub.dev | | maven | pom.xml | search.maven.org | | nuget | *.csproj, packages.config, Directory.Packages.props | api.nuget.org | | composer | composer.json | packagist.org | | swift | Package.resolved | github.com / swiftpackageindex.com |

Building from Source

Prerequisites

• Go 1.21+

git clone https://github.com/prohv/watchdocs-cli
cd watchdocs-cli
go build -o watchdocs .

Project Structure

watchdocs-cli/
├── cmd/                  # CLI commands (scan, lookup)
├── internal/
│   ├── scanner/          # Recursive manifest file detection
│   ├── parser/           # Per-ecosystem manifest parsers
│   ├── resolver/         # Per-ecosystem online resolvers
│   └── models/           # Shared types (Dependency, DocResult)
├── bin/
│   └── watchdocs.js      # npm binary shim
├── binaries/             # Pre-built platform binaries (not in git)
├── package.json
└── main.go

GitHub Repository

Check out the source code, open issues, or contribute at github.com/prohv/watchdocs-cli.