notarius/docs/policy/documentation.md

# Documentation Policy

**Base Policy Version:** 1.11

**Last Updated**: 2026-09-28

**Upstream Source**: https://gitea.maximumdirect.net/eric/policy/src/commit/d84a38ebab26f048cafbe59a2246700c35d29843/docs/policy/documentation.md

## Purpose

This policy assigns each documentation topic to one canonical owner. Its goal is
to keep this application's documentation accurate, concise, discoverable, and resistant
to drift for users, operators, developers, integrators, and LLM coding agents.

## Core Rules

### One Canonical Owner

Each authoritative fact belongs in one document. A non-owning document may give
a short, stable summary for orientation, but it must link to the canonical owner
for volatile details.

Volatile details include commands, flags, configuration fields and defaults,
module keys, schemas, file names, paths, status codes, retry behavior, and
runtime guarantees. If readers could reasonably treat a statement as a
contract, maintain it only in the owning document.

### Current And Future Behavior

Outside `docs/roadmap/`, documentation describes implemented behavior only.
Partial features may be described only to their implemented boundary.

Architectural constraints may govern future changes. Describe current structure
from implemented behavior.

ADRs may record an accepted architectural decision before implementation. The
roadmap owns implementation status and sequencing until the decision is
implemented. Current architecture, user, operator, integration, and internal
documentation are updated when the behavior lands.

### Audience And Detail

Write for the document's stated audience and include only the detail needed for
its owned topic. Keep user and operator docs focused on using and operating the
application. Developer docs should link to user-facing and external contracts
for their definitions.

### Examples

Complete copyable files belong in `examples/`. Documentation may use the
smallest illustrative snippet needed to explain its owned topic, but should link
to maintained examples for complete copyable files.

Examples must be valid, secret-free, and tested where practical. Commands and
configuration used in documentation should match the application.

### Security And Privacy

Documentation and examples must not contain real credentials, private keys,
private environment dumps, sensitive source material, or private infrastructure
details unless intentionally public. Document secret-handling mechanisms, not
secret values.

## Canonical Ownership

| Topic | Canonical owner | Owned content | Content owned elsewhere |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Product orientation and minimal end-to-end quickstart | `README.md` | Purpose, value, shortest successful invocation, and navigation, including licensing and attribution. | Complete command reference, configuration reference, operational procedures, implementation detail. |
| Contributor entry point | `docs/development.md` | Task-oriented reading guide, contributor orientation, baseline validation commands, and canonical links. | Package inventory, architecture rules, subsystem behavior, detailed change recipes. |
| Application architecture policy | `docs/policy/architecture.md` | System shape, normative ownership, dependency direction, boundaries, invariants, safety properties, and non-goals. | Concrete package inventory, implementation mechanics, contributor procedures, decision history, future work. |
| Policy-set provenance and upstream navigation | `docs/policy/meta.md` | Policy-set origin, local authority, adoption baselines, and upstream adoption and update links. | Task-specific reading triggers, detailed adoption procedures, and formal attribution notices. |
| Agent policy | `docs/policy/agents.md` | Proportionate, idiomatic implementation; rules against inventing requirements, restrictions, guarantees, or policy. | Application contracts, architecture, testing policy, and contributor procedures. |
| Documentation policy | `docs/policy/documentation.md` | Documentation ownership, audience boundaries, maintenance rules, and ADR/document lifecycle. | Application architecture or product behavior. |
| Testing policy | `docs/policy/testing.md` | Test philosophy, risk sufficiency, boundaries, doubles, coverage, regressions, and test maintenance. | Subsystem behavior, application contracts, subsystem-specific test inventories, and implementation plans. |
| Release policy | `docs/policy/release.md` | Versioning, compatibility, release integrity and immutability, release documentation, proportionate gates, publication controls, completion, and required versus optional checks. | Repository-specific commands, product installation guidance, CLI version semantics, historical release summaries, and CI implementation detail. |
| Open source licensing and attribution policy | `docs/policy/oss.md` | License defaults and author choices, COPYRIGHT and attribution formats, license/notice links, discoverability, maintenance, and concrete exceptions. | Component entries, license texts, release commands, and dependency security review. |
| Project copyright and license grant | `COPYRIGHT` | Project identity, copyright holders and years, SPDX expression, grant, warranty disclaimer, and third-party statement. | Complete license texts and upstream component attribution. |
| Project license texts | `LICENSE` | Complete project and incorporated companion license texts, with required project-specific fields. | General licensing policy and upstream component attribution. |
| Upstream component attribution | `docs/oss/attribution.md` | House Format component entries: identity, material scope and modifications where applicable, copyright, license, required notices, and license, notice, and source links. | General attribution policy, exception reasoning, research narratives, compliance commentary, and complete standard license texts. |
| Standard dependency license texts | `docs/oss/licenses/` | Complete, verbatim standard license texts shared by applicable entries. | Project-specific upstream notices, attribution prose, and policy interpretation. |
| Repository-specific release procedure | `docs/release.md` | Maintainer prerequisites, candidate preparation, validation and source-only publication commands and automated guards, optional consumer verification, and recovery. | General release requirements, product installation guidance, historical release summaries, and current compatibility contracts. |
| CLI contract (if applicable) | `docs/cli.md` | Commands, arguments, flags, invocation semantics, and exit codes. | End-to-end operating procedures, configuration field definitions, runtime filesystem layout, module implementation details. |
| Configuration contract (if applicable) | `docs/config.md` | Discovery, precedence, schema, fields, defaults, environment overrides, validation, and selectable module and validator keys. | Complete example files, CLI syntax, runtime state lifecycle, module implementation details. |
| Operations (if applicable) | `docs/operations.md` | Runtime workflows, physical filesystem and state layout, output, cache and debug handling, resume, cleanup, permissions, recovery, and limits. | CLI flag syntax, configuration field definitions, logical output schemas, implementation mechanics. |
| Subprocess consumer guidance | `docs/consumers/` | Task-oriented subprocess use, minimal examples, and consumer responsibilities. | CLI invocation semantics, external protocol contracts, internal implementation detail. |
| Integration contracts for external components (if applicable) | `docs/integrations/` | External formats and protocols, upstream and downstream contracts, logical output paths and schemas, media types, and compatibility. | Physical runtime placement and lifecycle, internal transformations, CLI syntax, configuration defaults. |
| Inventory of implemented internal packages | `docs/internal/overview.md` | Implemented packages and components, responsibilities, and links to focused internal docs. | Normative architecture, contributor reading policy, external contracts. |
| Behavior and architecture of internal packages | Other files under `docs/internal/` | Implementation flow, collaborators, state transitions, package-local guarantees and failures, and relevant tests. | Global architecture invariants, configuration definitions and defaults, external schemas, operator procedures. |
| Architectural decision records | `docs/adr/` | Significant decisions, context, alternatives, rationale, consequences, and supersession history. | Current behavior reference, implementation status, task sequencing. |
| Future work and implementation status | `docs/roadmap/` | Proposed, accepted, deferred, or rejected work; implementation status, sequencing, and task breakdowns. | Implemented behavior reference and architectural decision rationale. |
| Release-note history | `docs/releases/` | One checked-in summary per source release under the procedure; the note at its immutable tag is the release record. | Current commands, behavior, contracts, and compatibility definitions. |
| Complete copyable artifacts | `examples/` | Maintained configuration, inputs, and other copyable or runnable files. | Field-by-field reference, command reference, prose explanation. |

Create supporting documents for existing interfaces and responsibilities when
substantive content is available.

## Boundary Rules

### Orientation

Link among orientation, architecture, and internal documents; maintain each
package or behavior description in its canonical owner.

### Commands, Configuration, And Operations

CLI documentation answers how to invoke the application. Configuration
documentation answers what settings mean. Operations answers what happens to
runtime state and how to operate or recover the application. When a workflow
crosses these topics, choose the document that owns the task and link to the
other contracts.

### Releases

The release policy defines requirements and invariants that every release must
satisfy. The repository-specific release procedure defines the commands and
workflow maintainers use to satisfy that policy. Release notes record history
at immutable tags. Maintain current behavior in its canonical documentation,
update it with the corresponding behavior changes, and keep release procedures
consistent with adopted policy.

### Project Licensing And Upstream Attribution

README and release documents link to the canonical licensing and attribution
materials under the [OSS policy](oss.md). The release procedure owns URL
construction and publication mechanics.

### Contracts And Implementation

Integration and API documents define externally observable shapes and
semantics. Internal documents explain how this application implements or consumes those
contracts. Internal docs may name a field, file, or protocol to identify a
dependency, but must link to its canonical contract for the definition.

### Security Topics

This policy owns what documentation and examples may contain. Architecture owns
application security invariants. Configuration owns credential-supply
mechanisms. Operations owns permissions and handling of sensitive runtime
artifacts. Internal docs own implementation mechanisms only.

## Architecture Decision Records

Use sequentially numbered ADR filenames such as
`0001-record-architecture-decisions.md`. Follow the lightweight Nygard format:

1. title;
2. status;
3. date;
4. context;
5. decision;
6. alternatives considered;
7. consequences.

Treat the decision content of an accepted ADR as immutable. When a decision
changes, create a new ADR and update the earlier ADR's status to superseded.
Rejected architectural alternatives belong in the ADR; rejected product ideas
belong in the roadmap.

## Maintenance

When behavior changes, update its canonical owner in the same change. If
ownership moves, remove the old definition and replace it with a link where
navigation remains useful.

Before completing documentation work:

- verify affected behavior and examples;
- check commands, flags, fields, defaults, schemas, and paths against their
  implementation;
- keep unimplemented behavior in the roadmap, subject to the ADR exception;
- remove stale references and validate links;
- confirm that non-owning documents summarize and link rather than redefine;
- confirm that no secrets or sensitive private data were added.