Compliance Profiles

DocGuard supports three compliance profiles to match different project needs.

The Problem: Document Tax

Requiring all 5 canonical docs for a weekend side project is overkill. Requiring only ARCHITECTURE.md for a regulated enterprise app is dangerous. Profiles solve this.

Profiles

starter — For side projects and prototypes 

npx docguard-cli init --profile starter

Creates: ARCHITECTURE.md, CHANGELOG.md, AGENTS.md, DRIFT-LOG.md

Validators enabled: structure, docsSync, changelog

Validators disabled: drift, architecture, testSpec, security, environment, freshness

Use when: Solo projects, hackathons, learning projects, anything where “some docs” beats “no docs.”

standard — For team projects (default) 

npx docguard-cli init                    # default profile
npx docguard-cli init --profile standard # explicit

Creates: All 5 canonical docs + AGENTS.md + CHANGELOG.md + DRIFT-LOG.md

Validators enabled: structure, docsSync, drift, changelog, testSpec, environment, freshness

Validators disabled: architecture (deep import analysis), security (secrets scanning)

Use when: Active team projects, repos with 3+ contributors, anything that will live longer than a sprint.

enterprise — For regulated and critical projects 

npx docguard-cli init --profile enterprise

Creates: All 5 canonical docs + all tracking files

Validators enabled: ALL — including architecture (import graph), security (secrets), and freshness

Use when: Regulated industries, SOC2/HIPAA compliance, mission-critical production systems, enterprise monorepos.

Setting a Profile

At init time 

npx docguard-cli init --profile starter

In .docguard.json 

{
  "profile": "enterprise"
}

Overriding specific validators

Profiles set defaults, but you can override anything:

{
  "profile": "starter",
  "validators": {
    "freshness": true
  }
}

This uses the starter baseline but enables freshness checks.

Graduating Between Profiles

As your project grows:

starter  →  standard  →  enterprise
  1. Start with starter — just ARCHITECTURE + CHANGELOG
  2. When your team grows, switch to standard — add all 5 docs
  3. When you need compliance, switch to enterprise — enable all validators

Change the "profile" field in .docguard.json and run docguard diagnose to see what’s missing.

Measuring the Cost 

npx docguard-cli score --tax

Shows estimated weekly maintenance time. If the tax is HIGH, consider downgrading your profile. If LOW, you might benefit from upgrading.