About good-docs-writing
A skill for drafting developer documentation in Modal's direct, practical style. It provides rules for structure, examples, terminology, and punctuation, and points to `good-docs-audit` for reviewing existing prose.
Key features
- 01Opens with the concept or benefit
- 02Places runnable examples near the start
- 03Applies concise style and punctuation rules
- 04Formats code identifiers and paths
Use cases
- 01Drafting developer documentation
- 02Adding working examples near the top of a guide
- 03Applying consistent style to docs
Install
Copy the command and run it in a terminal.
npx skills add https:/After installing, type/good-docs-writingin Claude Code to confirm it loaded.
Bundled filesreferences/style-guide.md
Details
From the project READMEGood docs writing
Write docs the way Modal writes them: direct, friendly, confident, and ruthlessly practical. Explain the why in one breath, then show working code. Treat the reader as a capable developer who wants to ship, not a student who needs a lecture.
Read references/style-guide.md for the full rule set (Voice, Structure, Terminology, Punctuation, Code examples, Formatting) and apply every rule while drafting.
The rules that matter most, before you open the reference:
- Address the reader as "you", never "the user" or "one".
- Open with the concept or benefit in the first sentence. No throat-clearing.
- Put a minimal runnable example near the top, then explain what just happened.
- Remove every em-dash. Use a period, comma, colon, or parentheses instead.
- Cut vague intensifiers ("seamlessly", "powerful", "robust", "cutting-edge"). Show a thing being easy instead of calling it easy.
- Backtick every code identifier, command, parameter, path, and filename.
To review existing prose against these rules instead of drafting, use good-docs-audit.