Discoverability of language-agnostic rules is poor
- Dominant language
- Java
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Description
### Page link:
_No response_
### Problem description (include actual vs expected text, if applicable):
For a new Bazel user, it can be hard to find all the language-agnostic rules that they should leverage instead of reimplementing. Today they are split between at least three locations:
* Native rules, documented at https://bazel.build/reference/be/overview#language-agnostic-native-rules (this is good!)
* [Bazel Skylib](https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel-skylib), which provides additional, very widely used language-agnostic rules, but is not mentioned in https://bazel.build/reference/be/overview. It's linked to from https://bazel.build/rules, but the text there makes it sound like it contains advanced utilities for rules-writers, not everyday utility rules for regular users like `copy_file` or `native_binary` ("The repository Skylib contains additional functions that can be useful when writing new rules and new macros.").
* [rules_platform](https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_platform), which provides `platform_data`, is not even listed in https://bazel.build/rules.
### Where do you see this issue? (include link to specific section of the page, if applicable)
_No response_
### Any other information you'd like to share?
_No response_
Contributor guide
Research direction
Start by comparing the language-agnostic native rules section at bazel.build/reference/be/overview, the bazel.build/rules page, and the linked Bazel Skylib and rules_platform repositories. Update the documentation so users can find commonly used language-agnostic rules, including Skylib and rules_platform, with descriptions that reflect their regular-user use; done means all three sources are discoverable and accurately described.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Domain
- build-system, documentation
- Issue type
- Documentation
- Difficulty
- 2/5
- Estimated time
- 1-3 hours
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100