Templates for creating API documentation.
The following templates are ready to use: Quickstart and Overview. The Reference template is still a work in progress. The setup template doesn't exist yet.
This repo contains templates that will make it easier to get started with software documentation.
This is not the only place to get templates. I create these primarily to contribute to larger projects. (I will add links as content becomes available elsewhere.)
Here are some reasons to use a template if you're a software engineer:
- Other people have already figured out which documents you should create to meet the minimum requirements of your users. You can benefit from that knowledge without investing the same amount of time (years) required for others to learn it.
- The templates will also tell you what content each document should contain, and in some cases explain why.
- Creating documentation will be easier. (Of course.)
- Your docs will get written faster, because you can focus on explaining how your product works.
- If you follow the simple outline that many others have arrived at, your customers will benefit by:
- time saved, both in learning your product and in getting tasks completed
- greatly reduced frustration
- faster and easier adoption
(These templates can also be helpful if you're a technical writer.)
If you are a software engineer and you need additional help to get going with these (like suggested workflows or a better explanation of how to use the templates) please let me know what additional help you need by opening an issue.
In the meantime, help yourself.
The current set of templates describes the documentation required for an API. Here's a list of those guides, and some more information about each.
| Template Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Reference | An exhaustive listing of all the endpoints, including a consistently formatted listing of all the parameters for each endpoint. |
| Quickstart | A workflow that describes the simplest way to get whatever benefit the API offers. |
| Overview | Basic information about what the service does and does not do. What problem it was designed to solve. How it works, in general. |
| Setup | How to install or configure your environment to ensure that the service works. |
Each template contains a short discussion of why the document is needed and what it is designed to accomplish. Take a look at all the templates before you get started.