Dynamic Documentation

Dynamic documentation is an approach to creating and maintaining software documentation that is automatically generated, updated, and integrated with the codebase, often using tools to extract information from source code, comments, and other artifacts. It ensures documentation stays current with code changes, reducing manual effort and inconsistencies. Common implementations include API documentation generators, code documentation tools, and live documentation systems that reflect real-time application states.

Also known as: Auto-generated documentation, Live documentation, Code-driven docs, Automated docs, Doc-as-code

Why learn Dynamic Documentation?

Developers should use dynamic documentation to maintain accurate, up-to-date documentation in fast-paced development environments, especially for APIs, libraries, and complex systems where manual updates are error-prone. It is crucial for projects with frequent changes, large teams, or when documentation needs to be synchronized with code for compliance, onboarding, or external developer consumption, such as in open-source projects or microservices architectures.

Learning Resources

• docs: What is Dynamic Documentation?
• tutorial: Automating Documentation with JSDoc
• docs: Doc-as-Code: Treat Your Documentation Like Code
• video: Dynamic API Documentation with Swagger/OpenAPI
• docs: Automated Documentation in Python with Sphinx