The Library Health Audit

A prompt library that is not audited becomes a library in name only. Over time, without active maintenance, metadata goes stale, prompts accumulate without review, ownership becomes ambiguous, and the library's search results become a mix of current and outdated information. The quarterly health audit is the maintenance ritual that prevents this.

The audit is not a creative exercise. It is a checklist applied systematically to every prompt in the library. The checklist covers five dimensions: coverage (is there a prompt for every task the organization performs regularly?), staleness (which prompts have not been tested in more than 90 days?), metadata completeness (which prompts are missing required fields?), ownership (which prompts have no current owner?), and family health (which variants have drifted from their base prompt?). Each dimension produces an action list. The audit is not complete until the action list is complete.

1. 1. Coverage Audit List every recurring AI task in the organization. For each task, verify that an active prompt exists in the library. Missing prompts are added to the creation backlog. Redundant prompts (two active prompts for the same task) are candidates for consolidation.
2. 2. Staleness Audit Query for all active prompts with test_date older than 90 days. Each stale prompt is either re-validated by its owner (updating the test_date) or marked deprecated-pending if the owner determines it is no longer needed.
3. 3. Metadata Completeness Audit Query for active prompts missing any required metadata fields. Missing fields are either filled in by the owner within 14 days or the prompt is demoted to draft status until the metadata is complete.
4. 4. Ownership Audit Query for active prompts with no current owner, or with an owner who has left the organization. Unowned prompts are flagged and assigned to a triage queue. The queue is reviewed by team leads who claim ownership or initiate deprecation.
5. 5. Family Drift Audit For each prompt family, compare every variant's parent_version anchor against the current base version. Variants that are more than one major version behind are flagged for review. The owning team determines whether to update the variant or deprecate it.

PROMPT LIBRARY HEALTH AUDIT — Q[N] [YEAR]
Conducted by: [owner]
Audit date: [date]

COVERAGE
[ ] All recurring AI tasks have an active prompt
[ ] No duplicate active prompts for the same task
[ ] Creation backlog updated with gaps

STALENESS (>90 days since test_date)
[ ] Stale prompts identified: [count]
[ ] Each stale prompt: re-validated or deprecated-pending
[ ] No active prompts with test_date > 90 days at audit close

METADATA COMPLETENESS
[ ] All required fields present on all active prompts
[ ] Prompts with missing fields: either completed or demoted to draft
[ ] Schema documentation current and accessible

OWNERSHIP
[ ] All active prompts have a current owner
[ ] Owner roster validated against current team
[ ] Unowned prompts: claimed or deprecated

FAMILY HEALTH
[ ] All variants within 1 major version of their base
[ ] Drift-flagged variants: reviewed and actioned
[ ] Deprecated base prompts: all variants also deprecated or migrated

SUMMARY
Active prompts: [count]
Deprecated prompts: [count]
Draft prompts: [count]
Actions completed: [count]
Actions pending: [count] (must be zero to close audit)