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Re:Ask HN: How do you keep your technical docs in sync with ... by hitchstory on Monday September 18, 2023 @06:09AM (#37554272)
With annotated, declarative step-based YAML integration tests. They autogenerate how-to markdown documents via a jinja2 template:

https://github.com/hitchdev/hitchstory (there are a few toy examples listed there)

Depending on the app the docs might also embed artefacts generated under test - e.g. screenshots from playwright.

Re:Ask HN: How do you keep your technical docs in sync with ... by ardalanpouya on Monday September 18, 2023 @06:26AM (#37554358)
This is a very interesting idea. but I foresee two challenges here: (1) it sounds like alot of maitnance to keep a set of annotated tests that updates docs. (2) this does not sound like a solution for a company which produces handful of system behavior explaining docs on a daily basis. it looks like it is more so intended with low level documentation
Re:Ask HN: How do you keep your technical docs in sync with ... by hitchstory on Monday September 18, 2023 @06:45AM (#37554499)
The integration tests require maintenance like all tests do. The doc compilation step doesnt require much maintenance.

There are examples there to demonstrate use on any level - e.g. to create unit-test level tests for a library or that generate code docs for programmers or playwright e2e tests that generate user-readable how to docs.

The interaction code requires maintenance but a lot of it very boilerplate. E.g. you need a function to interpret the "click" step to do the proper playwright click or drag-drop but it should function more or less the same for everybody.

Re:Ask HN: How do you keep your technical docs in sync with ... by ardalanpouya on Monday September 18, 2023 @06:56AM (#37554572)
Gotcha! will take a deeper look. thanks :)