Writing Great Documentation: A Developer's Superpower

Code tells you how. Docs tell you why and how to start.

The README.md

The face of your project.

1. Title & One-liner: What is this?
2. Quick Start: npm install && npm start.
3. Features: Bullet points.
4. Screenshots: Visual proof.

Code Comments

Don't comment i++ // increment i. Comment: // optimization: using bitshift for performance. Explain the "Why".

API Docs (Swagger/OpenAPI)

Don't write manual wikis. They get outdated. Use tools to generate docs from code.

• Node: swagger-jsdoc
• Python: FastAPI does it automatically.

Architecture Decision Records (ADR)

When you choose "Postgres" over "Mongo", write it down. docs/adr/001-database-choice.md

• Context
• Decision
• Consequences

6 months later, when you ask "Why did we pick this?", you have the answer.