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

<!-- 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