itselfcommenting

Itselfcommenting is the practice of including meta-commentary about the content, its creation, or the process that produced it, either within the output itself or via accompanying tooling. The term is informal and has varied usages across domains, but it generally refers to commentary that reflects on the act of producing the content as well as on the content’s substance.

In technology, itselfcommenting often appears in two forms. First, self-describing or self-documenting code, where the program includes explanations about why a block exists or what it intends to accomplish. Second, runtime commentary such as logs or status messages that narrate the execution flow, decisions made, or results obtained. In artificial intelligence and natural language generation, it can involve providing brief rationales or explanations for statements or actions. While this can enhance transparency and traceability, many systems limit or omit such reasoning to protect privacy, security, or to avoid revealing sensitive internal steps.

In literature and linguistics, the term can describe self-referential or metafictional techniques where a text explicitly comments on its own status as a construction or on the act of narration. This usage highlights reflexive awareness within the discourse rather than a technical need.

Benefits of itselfcommenting include improved debugging, clearer documentation, and educational value. Drawbacks can include information overload, reduced readability, performance costs, and the risk of exposing sensitive or misleading reasoning. The concept aligns with related ideas such as meta-commentary, self-reference, and metafiction, and intersects with discussions about chain-of-thought reasoning in AI.

See also: self-documenting code, metafiction, self-reference, chain-of-thought prompting.