TL;DRDocs are the content type agents handle best: every fact already sits in the repo, and anything invented is easy to catch. The flow has three moves — have Codex extract a fact sheet from the code, generate per reader layer ('someone who needs this in five minutes'), then manually check for anything the repo does not actually contain.
Sources SOURCES
Distilled from public community discussions. This page only breaks them down and verifies — it never reposts the original; opinions belong to their authors.
Facts FACTS
Check these claims against the listed sources. For allowance mechanics, first-party account displays outrank community summaries.
- Codex can walk the repo reading code, configs, and scripts, then generate explanatory text from that content — everything doc generation needs lives inside the repo, with no external input required.
- Doc quality is cheap to verify: run every command you wrote down, and check every described feature against the code.
Concepts CONCEPTS
Not everything said in a community thread is a fact — each concept carries its nature label. Read the label first.
The order is the whole trick: first have it produce a 'repo fact sheet' (entry points, commands, dependencies, config keys), you check the sheet, and only then do docs get written from it. Generating a README in one shot is the main source of invented features.
Write the same facts three times for three readers: a five-minute quickstart for newcomers, a command reference for users, architecture notes for maintainers. Far more useful than one giant all-things README.
The most effective anti-fabrication discipline: actually run every command in the doc, and point at the code for every feature claim. The command that does not run gets deleted.
Step-by-step SOP STEP BY STEP
- 01Extract the fact sheet
Ask: 'Read-only, change nothing: list the project entry points, install and run commands, external dependencies, and config keys, citing the source file for each.'
- 02Check the sheet by hand
Verify every citation; mark items that 'should exist but do not' (a missing env var, say) as documentation priorities.
- 03Generate the newcomer layer
From the sheet, write the README's 'up in five minutes' section: what to install, what to run, what you should see. Execute every command to verify it actually works.
- 04Generate the command reference
Build the common-commands table (dev, test, deploy); run each command before it earns a row.
- 05Generate architecture notes
Have Codex write one paragraph per module — 'what this is, what to watch when changing it' — then you add the business constraints only the team knows.
- 06Install a freshness hook
Note it in AGENTS.md: when an entry point or command changes, update the matching README section. Debt cleared stays cleared.
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