documentationappears

Documentationappears is a term used in software development and knowledge management to describe the phenomenon where documentation for a project or feature becomes available after significant development has taken place, rather than being produced concurrently with coding. It often results from post hoc authoring, automated documentation generation, or contributions from external maintainers.

The term is a neologism found in online discourse within open source communities and documentation discussions. It is used to describe the timing and appearance of documentation relative to the codebase, highlighting how documentation can lag behind or catch up to evolving software.

There are several pathways by which documentationappears. Automated tools such as API doc generators, literate programming workflows, and documentation pipelines can produce docs from code or annotations. Retrospective documentation sprints or community pull requests may document features after they exist. In some projects, living documentation practices encourage ongoing updates so that docs evolve in step with the codebase.

Implications of documentationappears vary. On one hand, it can improve coverage and ensure that users have access to up-to-date information when documentation is generated or added after releases. On the other hand, there is a risk of drift or inconsistency if documentation is not continuously synchronized with ongoing development, leading to documentation debt.

Related concepts include living documentation, API documentation, documentation generation, and doc-as-code.