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Design Drift Report

Audits every design doc or README against the actual codebase and writes a dated, differences-only drift report.

Dev & CodingIntermediate★ 11,295⑂ 770AI score 8/10Last updated: Nov 3, 2026

What it does

  • Walks through each design document or README in a target directory, extracts the intent plus the exact filenames, symbols and endpoints it names, and locates the matching source via grep/code search.
  • Hunts for four drift types: missing features, data models missing specified fields, hardcoded shortcuts where dynamic logic was planned, and architectural divergence from the proposal.
  • Reports only the discrepancies (or "No drift detected") and appends them in a strict markdown format to {YYYY-MM-DD}_DRIFT_REPORT.md.
  • Nudges you to add explicit doc-to-code links so future audits are cheaper, and processes files sequentially to avoid output buffer overflow.

Who it's for

  • Engineers and tech leads on teams that ship from design docs or RFCs
  • Open-source maintainers checking whether READMEs still match real behavior
  • PMs and reviewers verifying implementation coverage before a release

Example uses

  • "Detect drift across everything in docs/designs/" → one report with a section per document
  • "Check the README against the current CLI flags before release" → lists flags documented but missing, and options that exist but are undocumented
  • "Compare the design's data model to the actual dataclasses" → bullets out missing fields and type mismatches

· · · Install guide · · ·

Try it now, no install

Paste this into Claude to use the skill without installing anything.

Read the instructions in this file and follow them to help me:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/google/elephant-goldfish-model/HEAD/distributions/claude/skills/egm-drift-report/SKILL.md

What I want: (describe your task here)

If Claude can't open the link, open it yourself and paste the contents instead.

↓ If it works for you, download the ZIP below and install it. Then it runs on its own — no pasting each time.

Install in the Claude app (no terminal)
  1. Download the ZIP with the button below.
  2. In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities and turn on 'Code execution and file creation'. (one time)
  3. Go to Customize → Skills → + → 'Upload a skill' and upload the ZIP.
↓ Download ZIP
Install in Claude Code

Let Claude do it — paste this into Claude Code

Install the skill I found on AI Skill Mart.
Copy the distributions/claude/skills/egm-drift-report folder from the GitHub repo google/elephant-goldfish-model into my ~/.claude/skills/egm-drift-report/.
When it's done, tell me in one line what this skill can do.

Install with a command instead

git clone https://github.com/google/elephant-goldfish-model.git && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r elephant-goldfish-model/distributions/claude/skills/egm-drift-report ~/.claude/skills/

⚠ This is a third-party skill. Check the source repository before installing.

  1. Open a terminal.
  2. Clone the repo: git clone https://github.com/google/elephant-goldfish-model.git
  3. Create the skills folder: mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
  4. Copy the skill: cp -r elephant-goldfish-model/distributions/claude/skills/egm-drift-report ~/.claude/skills/
  5. The skill reads docs/claude.md, so also copy the repo's docs folder or install it as a plugin so ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT} resolves.
  6. Restart Claude Code, then ask it to "detect drift across my design docs" and name the directory to audit.
View source on GitHub ↗License: Apache-2.0