Technical Documentation
For writing style, tone, and voice guidance, use Skill(ce:writer) with The Engineer persona.
Core Principles
1. Progressive Disclosure
Reveal information in layers:
| Layer | Content | User Question |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | One-sentence description | What is it? |
| 2 | Quick start code block | How do I use it? |
| 3 | Full API reference | What are my options? |
| 4 | Architecture deep dive | How does it work? |
Warnings, breaking changes, and prerequisites go at the TOP.
2. Task-Oriented Writing
markdown
<!-- Bad: Feature-oriented --> ## AuthService Class The AuthService class provides authentication methods... <!-- Good: Task-oriented --> ## Authenticating Users To authenticate a user, call login() with credentials:
3. Show, Don't Tell
Every concept needs a concrete example.
Formatting Standards
- •Sentence case headings: "Getting started" not "Getting Started"
- •Max 3 heading levels: Deeper means split the doc
- •Always specify language in code blocks
- •Relative paths for internal links
- •Tables for structured data with 3+ attributes
Quality Checklist
- • Code examples tested and runnable
- • No placeholder text or TODOs
- • Matches actual code behavior
- • Scannable without reading everything
- • Reader knows what to do next
Anti-Patterns
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| Wall of text | Break up with headings, bullets, code, tables |
| Buried critical info | Warnings/breaking changes at TOP |
| Missing error docs | Always document what can go wrong |
Templates
For README, API endpoint, and file organization templates, see references/templates.md.
Related Skills
- •
Skill(ce:writer)- Writing style, tone, and voice (load The Engineer persona) - •
Skill(ce:visualizing-with-mermaid)- Architecture and flow diagrams