Automatic Documentation Generation – How It Works and When It Makes Sense

Why Manual Documentation Stops Working

In most IT projects, documentation is created manually—in files, wikis, or tools like Confluence. The problem arises when the application starts to grow. Changes in the API, frontend logic, or integrations cause the documentation to become outdated very quickly. In practice, this results in documentation debt, which increases with every sprint.

What Is Automatic Documentation Generation

Automatic documentation generation involves creating and updating project descriptions based on actual sources of information, such as:

• REST API structure,
• application configuration,
• functional descriptions and design decisions,
• data from the code repository.

Documentation is no longer a separate task but becomes a natural outcome of working on the project.

Documentation as Code (Docs as Code)

The “Docs as Code” approach assumes that documentation is treated similarly to code:

• it is version controlled,
• remains consistent with the state of the application,
• is subject to reviews and updates.

Advantages: up-to-date, consistent, easy team collaboration. Disadvantages: without the right tools, it can be hard for non-technical users to understand.

How to Automate Documentation Without Slowing Down Development

The key is to offload the development team. Automation works best when:

• the PM defines the documentation structure,
• data is gathered automatically from the project,
• AI supplements and organizes the descriptions without manual writing.

This way, documentation is created in parallel with application development.

Integrating Documentation with the Code Repository

Modern tools allow documentation to be linked with repositories (e.g., Git), which enables:

• tracking changes,
• updating documentation with every significant modification,
• maintaining consistency between code and project descriptions.

How AI Is Changing Project Documentation

AI enables generating descriptions of:

• API endpoints,
• application features,
• dependencies between modules,
• project changes.

For the PM, this means documentation that keeps up with the project without having to constantly “chase the team.”

How to Reduce Documentation Debt

Automatic documentation updates allow you to:

• maintain a single source of truth,
• shorten onboarding for new people,
• reduce the risk of bad decisions based on outdated data.

The Solution: Documently

By integrating with project management applications such as Linear, Documently can generate documentation changes based on tasks from the current sprint. This greatly speeds up the process of updating documentation. Tasks from Linear are synchronized to Documently via webhooks (one-way communication). Then, based on the status of a completed task, Documently generates documentation updates based on the contents of the completed task in Linear. The only job for the PM is to review and publish the changes.