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Software Documentation: Best Practices for Developers

Write effective documentation. API docs, README files, architectural decision records, and wikis.

Rottawhite Team9 min readFebruary 18, 2025

DocumentationAPI DocsBest Practices

Documentation Importance

Good documentation accelerates onboarding and reduces errors.

Types of Documentation

README

Project overview

Quick start

Contributing guidelines

API Documentation

Endpoint reference

Request/response examples

Authentication

Architecture Decision Records

Context

Decision

Consequences

Runbooks

Operational procedures

Troubleshooting guides

Best Practices

Keep docs near code

Update with changes

Use examples

Automate where possible

Review regularly

Tools

Docusaurus

GitBook

Swagger/OpenAPI

Notion

Conclusion

Documentation is a first-class deliverable, not an afterthought.

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