# Documentation guidance

Applies to `docs/`. Inherits the root `AGENTS.md`. Scope-specific deltas only.

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## Authoring

- Lead with a concrete outcome, count, name, or case. Use plain words near exact tech terms.
- Explain a new term in plain words before naming it. Do not make the reader feel behind.
- Use clear heads and short parts. Make them easy to stop and resume. Put one main point in each part.
- Use numbered steps for a true sequence. Use bullets for items that stand alone.
- Keep each choice, fact, limit, warning, exact name, and asked-for detail. Group long text. Do not cut it short.
- Make the result stand alone. Do needed arithmetic. Give real dates and times. Say what a link proves before the reader opens it.
- Describe current state. Cut dead ends, old trade-offs, weak claims, notes about the draft, and advice no one asked for.
- Before you add text, merge rules, notes, history, and links that say the same thing. Keep one source in charge.
- Use a table, tree, flow, or other view only when it makes a link much more clear.

## Backlog and governance

- Shape each backlog item for a choice: outcome, proof, blocked work, and next step.
- Record a lasting reason once in the file that owns it. Link to that file. Do not retell its past in each status note.
- Keep scoped `AGENTS.md` and `AGENTS.local.md` files to action-changing local deltas.
- In skills and code samples, use comments for intent, hard limits, or trade-offs that names and code shape cannot show.