Documentation

AI helps you create and maintain high-quality, readable documentation. It can read documenation as part of its context.

Guidelines

Create a documentation rules file

Create a documentation rules and instructions for AI file with:

• Naming conventions, formatting rules, and style preferences
• Mandatory sections (Overview, Setup, Usage, Contribution Guidelines)
• Review process and timing
• Sample snippets or diagrams (optional)

Keep documents up to date

Update documentation when you change code to both help team members and AI understand the current system.

Prompt documentation generation

Use a prompt like prompt-add-update-documentation to have AI update documentation regularly.

For architecture decision records, use the Write ADR prompt (opens in new tab) from the Defra Tools Guidance.

Use diagrams

AI can generate and read diagrams. For example Mermaid diagrams (opens in new tab) for sequence diagrams, data models, and other visual documentation.

Use documentation as a knowledge base

Good up-to-date documentation helps AI to understand context and implementation decisions