Homeboy provides AI agents with consistent instructions for documentation generation and maintenance. These docs serve as the single source of truth for documentation standards across all Homeboy-managed projects.

Core Philosophy

Single Source of Truth

Code is authoritative. Documentation derives from and adapts to code, never the reverse. Uncommitted changes represent active development that documentation must respect.

Minimal Content, Maximal Coverage

Document every code component with only essential information. Comprehensive coverage means each discrete component gets documentation. Minimal content means concise explanations, not shallow coverage.

Present-Tense Only

Document current implementation state. No historical language, no future plans, no version history.

Code-First Verification

Every documented feature must be verified to exist in code before writing about it. Never document aspirational or planned functionality.

Documentation Types

CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md

AI agent context files. Provide architectural principles, coding standards, and operational instructions for AI agents working in the codebase.

README.md

Project overview for repository viewers. Standard GitHub format with setup instructions, basic usage, and contributor information.

/docs Directory

User-facing documentation. Explains how to use the system from an end-user perspective, not how it’s built.

Using Homeboy for Documentation

Alignment (Existing Docs)

When maintaining existing documentation:

homeboy docs documentation/alignment

Generation (New Docs)

When creating documentation from scratch:

homeboy docs documentation/generation

Structure Standards

For file organization and naming conventions:

homeboy docs documentation/structure

Change Detection

Use homeboy changes to identify what code has changed, informing which documentation may be stale.

Integration with Agent Context Files

Projects using Homeboy can add documentation guidance to their agent context file (CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, COPILOT.md, or similar):

## Documentation Standards
This project uses Homeboy for documentation management.
Run `homeboy docs documentation/index` for documentation philosophy.
When maintaining docs, follow `homeboy docs documentation/alignment`.
When generating docs, follow `homeboy docs documentation/generation`.

This ensures AI agents discover documentation standards through their standard context loading.