r-package-developer-skill

Generic R Package Developer Checklist

Pre-Implementation

  1. Classify change scope: API, behavior, docs, tests, release metadata, or governance.
  2. Identify impacted public interfaces and compatibility risk.
  3. Decide whether change is additive, behavioral, or breaking.

Implementation

  1. Keep behavior changes explicit in code and tests.
  2. Preserve existing interfaces unless breaking change is intentional.
  3. Keep naming consistent across code, docs, and examples.

Documentation Sync

  1. Update README.md for user-facing behavior changes.
  2. Update changelog (NEWS.md and any additional release notes files).
  3. Update design/architecture docs when architecture or conventions change.
  4. Update relevant vignettes.
  5. Regenerate reference docs (devtools::document()) when roxygen/signatures/imports change.

AI Docs Sync

  1. Verify user-doc readability is preserved (no machine-oriented schema/contract dumps in narrative-first sections).
  2. (If using AI-doc artifacts) Verify machine-oriented artifacts are updated when API/contracts/output schema/folder contracts changed.
  3. (If using AI-doc artifacts) Verify links/index references to machine artifacts are valid.
  4. (If using AI-doc artifacts) Verify dedicated machine pages exist and are indexed (for example: API contracts page and quick function index page).
  5. (If using pkgdown) Verify wrapper vignettes use includes from inst/skills/*/SKILL.md and inst/skills/*/references/*.md (single source, no copied skill/reference text).
  6. (If using pkgdown) Verify one-wrapper-per-skill convention:
    • each skill has one vignettes/skills-<skill>.qmd,
    • references are embedded in that wrapper,
    • no orphan skills-*-ref-*.qmd files remain unless explicitly intended.
  7. (If using pkgdown) Verify _pkgdown.yml keeps a compact skills menu (one entry per skill) and that all skill wrappers are listed under articles.
  8. (If using pkgdown) If skill wrapper pages are pkgdown-only (not package vignettes), ensure they are excluded via .Rbuildignore (for example ^vignettes/skills-.*\\.qmd$) to avoid vignette-engine check notes.

Validation

  1. Run targeted tests for touched modules.
  2. Run package checks appropriate to change risk.
  3. Ensure baseline CI check workflow is present:
    • initialize/refresh with usethis::use_github_action("check-standard").
  4. Run a local package check with devtools::check() and record outcome.
  5. Confirm no stale references to removed/renamed APIs in docs/tests.
  6. Confirm touched R files conform to air formatting rules (ensure air is installed before proceeding).
  7. Pre-commit AI gate:
    • if code changed, AI-readable artifacts were checked and updated where needed.
  8. Reproducibility gate:
    • record exact validation commands and outcomes in commit/PR notes.
  9. (If using AI-doc artifacts) Run AI-doc consistency checks (script or equivalent CI gate) and confirm pass.
  10. (If using pkgdown) Run pkgdown::build_site() and confirm skills pages render without article index or navbar errors.

Release/Merge

  1. Ensure branch policy and branch protections are respected.
  2. If solo-maintainer bypass is configured, confirm it is scoped to PR merges only and does not allow direct pushes to main.
  3. Ensure detailed commit message is used.
  4. Ensure PR description reflects behavior, docs, tests, and breaking changes.
  5. Generated-artifact gate:
    • commit NAMESPACE and man/*.Rd when regenerated,
    • do not commit build artifacts (for example _site/, check/temp outputs).
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