Documentation

When to use

• "Write a README for this repo."
• "Generate API docs from the OpenAPI spec" or "from these route files".
• "Write an ADR for choosing Kafka over SQS."
• "Produce a CHANGELOG entry for v1.4.0."
• "Document this module / this CLI command."

Do not use this skill for marketing copy, blog posts, or long-form narrative — those are outside its scope.

Inputs

The artifact type — one of:

• readme
• api-docs
• adr
• changelog
• module-doc
• runbook

Plus inputs specific to the type (see Procedure).

Outputs

Markdown files placed at the repo's conventional location:

• README.md at repo root.
• docs/adr/NNNN-title.md for ADRs (sequential zero-padded number).
• CHANGELOG.md at repo root (Keep a Changelog format).
• docs/api/ for API reference.
• docs/runbooks/.md for runbooks.
• docs/modules/.md for module-level docs.

Tool dependencies

• Read, Grep, Glob for codebase inspection.
• Bash for git log, git tag, git diff.
• Optional: openapi-cli / redocly to render OpenAPI.

Procedure

README

1. Detect the project shape: languages (by file extensions), build tool (package.json, pyproject.toml, go.mod, Cargo.toml, Makefile), entry points, Dockerfile, CI config.
2. Extract the one-sentence purpose from the existing top of README.md if present, from description in the manifest, or from a repo description. If none, ask the user.
3. Draft sections in this order:

• Title + one-sentence description.
• Status badges (CI, coverage, license, latest release) — only ones that actually exist.
• Quickstart: the three commands that take a new developer from clone to "it runs" (install, build/test, run). Verify commands by inspecting scripts; do not invent.
• Usage: the two or three most common invocations with real examples.
• Configuration: table of env vars with purpose, default, required-ness (read from .env.example, config schema, or source).
• Development: test command, lint command, format command, pre-commit setup.
• Deployment: link to runbook or pipeline if present.
• Contributing: link to CONTRIBUTING.md if present; otherwise a short block (branch naming, commit style, PR review expectations).
• License: one line, name and link.

1. Keep the README under ~200 lines. Push depth to docs/.

API docs

1. If an OpenAPI / GraphQL SDL file exists, use it as the source of truth. Render a Markdown reference grouped by resource; include request/response examples drawn from the spec's examples.
2. Otherwise, walk route definitions (express.Router, FastAPI @app.get, go-chi mux.Get, axum Router::new().route) and extract method, path, summary (from docstring/handler comment), auth scope, and reference schemas.
3. For each endpoint: path, method, description, auth, path params, query params, request body schema, response schemas per status code, example request, example response.
4. Include a top-level section on auth (how to obtain a token), error envelope, pagination, versioning, rate limits — link to api-standards.md for the underlying conventions.

ADR (MADR format)

File: docs/adr/NNNN-short-title.md.

# NNNN. 

- Status: proposed | accepted | deprecated | superseded by ADR-XXXX
- Date: YYYY-MM-DD
- Deciders: 

## Context

## Decision

## Alternatives considered

- Option A: 
- Option B: 
- Option C (chosen): 

## Consequences

### Positive

- ...

### Negative

- ...

### Neutral / follow-ups

- ...

## References

- Links to related tickets, prior ADRs, external research.

Infer the next sequential number by reading docs/adr/. Start at 0001.

Changelog (Keep a Changelog)

Maintain CHANGELOG.md:

# Changelog

All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/),
and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).

## [Unreleased]

### Added
### Changed
### Deprecated
### Removed
### Fixed
### Security

## [1.4.0] - 2026-04-19
...

Procedure:

1. Read git log ..HEAD --pretty=format:'%h %s'.
2. Group commits by Conventional Commits type:

• feat -> Added or Changed.
• fix -> Fixed.
• perf -> Changed.
• refactor / chore / docs / test -> omit unless user-visible.
• BREAKING CHANGE: -> Removed or Changed, called out.

1. Rewrite each entry in user-facing terms, not commit terms: "Added bulk export for invoices" not "feat(invoices): bulk export handler".
2. Move [Unreleased] into the new version heading with the date; create a new empty [Unreleased].
3. Update the bottom [version]: links.

Module doc

For a single module/package: purpose, public API, example usage, collaborators and dependencies, failure modes, instrumentation (metrics, logs), ownership.

Runbook

Every on-call runbook has: service name and owners, dashboard links, alert catalogue (each alert -> diagnosis steps -> mitigation), common incidents with step-by-step responses, escalation path, known risks. Avoid including credentials or exact thresholds that will drift — link to the source of truth.

Examples

Happy path: README for a Node CLI

Generated section (excerpt):

# inv-cli

Command-line client for the Invoices API.

## Quickstart

```bash
pnpm install
pnpm build
pnpm exec inv-cli invoices list --limit 5

Configuration

| Variable | Purpose | Default | Required | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | INV_API_URL | Base URL of the Invoices API | https://api.acme.example | no | | INV_API_TOKEN | Bearer token | — | yes | | INV_TIMEOUT_MS | Per-request timeout | 10000 | no |

Development

• Test: pnpm test
• Lint: pnpm lint
• Format: pnpm format

License

MIT. See [LICENSE](LICENSE).

### Edge case: ADR for picking Kafka vs SQS

File `docs/adr/0007-choose-kafka-over-sqs.md`:

```markdown
# 0007. Choose Kafka over SQS for the invoice-events bus

- Status: accepted
- Date: 2026-04-19
- Deciders: platform team (Alex, Priya, Marco)

## Context

Invoice events drive billing, notification, and downstream analytics. The
current load is 2k events/s with peaks at 12k/s during end-of-month runs.
We need: (1) replay for the last 7 days, (2) per-customer ordering,
(3) at-least-once delivery, (4) consumer groups to fan out to 4 services.

## Decision

Use Kafka (MSK) as the event backbone. Partition by `customer_id`. Retention
7 days. Consumer groups per service.

## Alternatives considered

- Option A: SQS with FIFO queues. Pro: low ops. Con: per-group throughput cap
  (300 msg/s) insufficient for our largest customer; no replay.
- Option B: Kinesis. Pro: AWS-native, replay. Con: higher per-shard cost at
  our rates; weaker ecosystem of tooling (schema registry, ksqlDB).
- Option C (chosen): Kafka on MSK. Pro: partitioning, replay, ecosystem.
  Con: operational overhead of consumer-group lag monitoring and rebalance
  tuning.

## Consequences

### Positive
- Replay for debugging and backfills.
- Headroom to 100k msg/s without redesign.

### Negative
- On-call burden: consumer lag alerts, rebalance storms.
- Schema registry adds a deployment dependency.

### Neutral / follow-ups
- Write a runbook for consumer-lag triage (#4821).
- Evaluate tiered storage after 3 months.

## References

- Load test report: docs/loadtest/2026-03.md
- Ticket: PLAT-742

Constraints

• Never invent commands. Verify every pnpm/make/go/python invocation against the repo.
• Never fabricate env vars, endpoints, or config keys. Trace them back to source.
• Never include secrets, tokens, internal URLs, or customer names in public docs.
• Do not write marketing language ("blazing fast", "best-in-class"). State what the software does.
• Do not claim test coverage numbers, SLA targets, or compliance certifications unless the user provides them.
• Do not generate an ADR for a reversible trivial decision. ADRs are for decisions that are costly to reverse.

Quality checks

• Every command in the README runs from a clean clone (mentally walk through it).
• Every env var in the config table is referenced in the code.
• ADR sections (Context, Decision, Alternatives, Consequences) are all present and each has real content.
• CHANGELOG entries are user-facing, not commit-message-shaped.
• Links are relative for in-repo references; absolute for external.
• No emojis, no decorative headings, no sentences that could be deleted without losing information.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: tahirraufkeeyu
• Source: tahirraufkeeyu/software-development-agent-stack--sdas
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.