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atelier/domains/documentation/first-principles.md
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Jon Chery 496303471d docs(milestone): complete v0.1 — initial framework
---ci---
project: atelier
phase: 7
milestone: v0.1
status: complete
phase_role: final
milestone_complete: true
requirements:
  covered: [ATELIER-01, ATELIER-02, ATELIER-03, ATELIER-04, ATELIER-05, ATELIER-06, ATELIER-07, ATELIER-08, ATELIER-09, ATELIER-10, ATELIER-11, ATELIER-12, ATELIER-13, ATELIER-14, ATELIER-15, ATELIER-16, ATELIER-17, ATELIER-18, ATELIER-19, ATELIER-20, ATELIER-21, ATELIER-22, ATELIER-23, ATELIER-24, ATELIER-25, ATELIER-26, ATELIER-27, ATELIER-28, ATELIER-29, ATELIER-30, ATELIER-31, ATELIER-32, ATELIER-33, ATELIER-34, ATELIER-35]
  partial: []
ship:
  milestone: v0.1
  type: NFR
  tag: v0.0.7
  merge: milestone/v0.1-atelier -> main
  release: https://git.cloudinit.dev/cloudinit-bot/atelier/releases/tag/v0.0.7
---/ci---

Milestone v0.1 — Initial Framework (NFR, complete).
8 core principles (C1-C8), 11 domains, 110 domain principles, 27 derived docs, 4 good + 3 bad examples, 4 language docs, full matrix, 3 review docs.
All 35 requirements covered. 7 patches (v0.0.0 pre-execution through v0.0.7 final). v0.0.7 IS the v0.1.0 milestone release.
2026-08-05 00:36:55 +00:00

1.1 KiB

Documentation — First Principles

1. The Principles

P1. Documentation is Code

It is versioned, reviewed, tested, and owned. Unowned docs rot.

P2. Audience Awareness

Different readers need different docs. A new user, an operator, and a contributor are different audiences.

P3. Examples are Mandatory

Code without examples is incomplete. Show, then explain.

P4. Currency

Docs that lie are worse than no docs. Stale docs are technical debt.

P5. Discoverability

The right doc is findable in under a minute. Structure, search, and indexing are part of the doc.

P6. Conciseness

Say what is needed, no more. Verbose docs are skimmed, then ignored.

P7. Structure

Consistent structure aids scanning. Headings, ordering, and formatting follow conventions.

P8. Why Over What

Document intent, decisions, and tradeoffs. The "what" is in the code.

P9. Living Documents

Docs evolve with code, not after. Doc PRs ship with code PRs.

P10. Public by Default

If it is not documented, it does not exist. The absence of docs is a feature gap.