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Classify documentation by audience and content type. Use when planning, auditing, or placing project documentation.
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Based on SOC occupation classification
Write Architecture Decision Records when making significant technical choices. Use when selecting tools, patterns, frameworks, or making structural changes that future developers need to understand.
Write AGENTS.md files that serve as operating contracts for AI agents. Use when creating or updating AGENTS.md for a project. Trigger terms: AGENTS.md, agent instructions, agent contract, agent configuration, coding agent setup.
Quality rules for changelog entries. Use when validating, writing, or reviewing changelog content to ensure user-facing value communication.
Task completion sequence including verification, git, signaling, and handoff. Use when finishing a task or reporting status.
Architecture diagrams for documentation. Covers ASCII, Mermaid, C4, and D2. Applies C4 methodology by default. Trigger terms: diagram, flowchart, architecture diagram, sequence diagram, C4, mermaid, ascii diagram.
Audit project documentation for quality, completeness, and freshness. Use when assessing documentation health, planning cleanup, or measuring improvement.
| name | diataxis-classification |
| description | Classify documentation by audience and content type. Use when planning, auditing, or placing project documentation. |
Two questions: Who reads this? then What do they need?
| Audience | Entry Point | Voice | Key Question |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agents | AGENTS.md | Imperative, terse, verifiable | "What do I DO?" |
| Users | README.md | Welcoming, progressive | "How do I USE this?" |
| Maintainers | CONTRIBUTING.md | Technical, explains why | "How do I CHANGE this?" |
Mixing audiences in one document serves neither. Split.
| Mode | Reader State | Structure | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Learning (tutorial) | Beginner | Numbered steps, verify each | "Build your first widget" |
| Doing (how-to) | Has a problem | Goal → steps → done | "How to configure auth" |
| Looking up (reference) | Needs a fact NOW | Tables, alphabetical | CLI flags, API reference |
| Understanding (explanation) | Curious, has time | Prose, diagrams, tradeoffs | "Why event sourcing" |
| Type | Path | Litmus Test |
|---|---|---|
| Decision (ADR) | decisions/ | "What did we decide and why?" |
| Specification | specs/ | "What must the system do?" |
| User guide | top-level or guides/ | "How does a user do this?" |
| Architecture | architecture/ | "How is it structured?" |
| Research | research/ | "What did we learn?" |
| Runbook | runbooks/ | "What steps fix this?" |
Before placing: check existing folder conventions first. Match what's there.
| Project Maturity | Required Docs |
|---|---|
| Weekend hack | README.md |
| Team project (>2 weeks) | + AGENTS.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, architecture doc |
| Multiple contributors | + tutorials, how-tos, ADRs, onboarding guide |
| Public/OSS | + reference, explanation, troubleshooting, glossary |
