Documentation21 categories
Turn an internal spec into user-facing docs
The feature shipped and the only writing about it is the design doc.
Rewrite the internal spec below as documentation for the people who will use the feature. First, state in one line who that reader is and what they are trying to accomplish. Everything else follows from that. Then: - Reorganise around user tasks, not around the system's components or the order it was built in - Cut everything that is implementation detail the user cannot observe or act on - Cut the rationale, the rejected alternatives, and the rollout plan. Keep rationale only where it prevents the reader misusing the feature - Convert every internal name to whatever the user actually sees in the interface, and list any that have no user-facing name so we can fix that - Turn each requirement into either an instruction or a reference entry End with a list of open questions the spec leaves unanswered that a real user will ask on day one. Spec:
Making it yours
- Paste your own material where the prompt asks for it. Everything above that line is instruction, not content.
- Delete any rule that does not apply to you. A shorter prompt that fits beats a thorough one that does not.
- If the answer comes back vague, add a line saying what you do not want. Constraints work better than encouragement.
Editing and auditing docs. Finding what is stale or undocumented, cutting what the code already says, rewriting for the reader.
Related prompts
Which of these comments should exist?A file dense with comments that mostly narrate the code.Explain this for a non-technical readerWriting for support, sales, or a stakeholder who needs the shape not the detail.Audit these docs for what is no longer trueDocumentation that was written once and never checked against the code again.Does this comment earn its place?A comment you are not sure is worth the line it occupies.What is undocumented here?Code whose real behaviour has drifted past its documentation.Name this sectionA heading nobody will ever find by searching.
Keep this one
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