deepwiki

deepwiki is a pipeline alias that chains five workflows into a single command. Give it a repo URL, a documentation URL, or a pinned version, and it produces a verified wiki skill in 3–5 minutes with zero configuration.

If you’re new to SKF and want to try it without reading anything else, start here.

Invocation

Three input types, one command pattern:

@Ferris deepwiki https://github.com/honojs/hono                  — repo URL
@Ferris deepwiki https://docs.example.com                         — doc URL (docs-only)
@Ferris deepwiki https://github.com/honojs/hono --pin v4.6.0      — pinned version

Repo URL — analyzes the full source repository, extracts exports, and compiles a wiki skill from code + docs.
Doc URL — skips source analysis entirely and builds the skill from documentation alone. Useful for closed-source libraries or when the docs are the canonical reference.
--pin <version> — targets a specific release. The version tag is resolved during analysis so the resulting skill is locked to that exact API surface.

Pipeline Stages

deepwiki expands to AN[auto] BS[auto] CS TS[min:90] EX. Each stage runs in headless mode — no confirmation gates, no interactive prompts.

Stage	Workflow	Mode	What Happens
1	Analyze Source (AN)	`[auto]`	Scans the target, detects shape (library/framework/tool/app), discovers exports, and generates a scope + brief automatically.
2	Brief Skill (BS)	`[auto]`	Enriches the auto-generated brief with doc detection results. No interactive scoping — the brief is assembled from AN’s output.
3	Create Skill (CS)	standard	Compiles the skill from the enriched brief. Extracts exports, resolves documentation sources, validates structure.
4	Test Skill (TS)	`[min:90]`	Verifies completeness with a 90% quality threshold (stricter than the default 80%). Fail halts the pipeline.
5	Export Skill (EX)	standard	Validates the package, generates context snippets, and injects into your IDE’s context file.

Data flows automatically between stages — the brief path from AN feeds BS, the skill name from CS feeds TS, and so on. See Pipeline Mode for the general mechanics.

Automatic Behaviors

deepwiki’s [auto] flags activate several behaviors that normally require manual input:

Auto-scope — shape detection (library, framework, tool, application) drives scope decisions. No interactive scope confirmation.
Auto-brief — the brief is generated and enriched with doc-detection results in one pass, without the interactive discovery flow that BS uses standalone.
Coexistence detection — if a skill for the same target already exists, deepwiki detects it and offers three options: create alongside (new version), merge into the existing skill, or skip.
Auto-decomposition — for massive repos (>500 exports or >3 packages), AN automatically decomposes into multiple analysis units before proceeding.

Expected Output

A successful deepwiki run produces a complete skill package in your forge data directory, exported and ready for use. The skill includes:

SKILL.md — the compiled wiki skill with provenance-cited instructions
metadata.json — version, source, confidence tier breakdown
Context snippet injected into your IDE context file (CLAUDE.md, .cursorrules, AGENTS.md, etc.)

The quality threshold is 90% — if the skill scores below that, the pipeline halts at TS with a gap report. Run @Ferris US to address gaps, then @Ferris TS EX to re-test and export.

Timing

A typical library (50–200 exports) takes 3–5 minutes end to end. Factors that increase time:

Massive repos (>500 exports) trigger auto-decomposition, adding 1–3 minutes
Doc-only targets depend on documentation site size and structure
Deep-tier projects (with QMD and CCC) spend more time on enrichment

Migration from onboard

deepwiki replaces the older onboard alias. onboard still works but shows a deprecation notice on every invocation and will be removed in v2.0.

The key difference: onboard runs AN CS TS EX with standard (interactive) modes. deepwiki adds auto-scope, auto-brief, a stricter quality gate (90% vs 80%), and accepts repo URLs and doc URLs — not just project paths.

Workflows — pipeline mode mechanics, headless mode, circuit breakers
Concepts — provenance, confidence tiers, drift, version pinning
BMAD Synergy — how deepwiki fits into BMAD phases, and standalone SKF usage