documentation-information-architecture

---
name: documentation-information-architecture
description: Audit, organize, and redesign developer documentation information architecture, including content inventory, navigation, landing pages, sequences, hierarchies, webs, breadcrumbs, sidebars, metadata, redirects, migration, platform/tool selection, and maintainable IA decisions. Use when restructuring docs sites, improving findability, planning doc migration, evaluating docs tooling, or organizing large documentation sets.
license: MIT
---

# Documentation Information Architecture

Use this skill to organize developer documentation so readers can find the right content at the right time. It works at doc-set and site level rather than single-page prose level.

This skill is derived from *Docs for Developers: An Engineer's Field Guide to Technical Writing*, especially Chapter 10, "Organizing documentation." It is expanded with paraphrased guidance from Christopher Gales and the Splunk Documentation Team's *The Product Is Docs: Writing Technical Documentation in a Product Development Group*, especially Chapter 17, "Tools and Content Delivery," plus related audience, learning-objective, maintenance, and SaaS guidance from Chapters 3, 9, 10, and 25. Do not copy book prose into user outputs. Source: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4842-7217-6

## Quick Start

1. Load `guidelines.md` to choose the smallest useful reference set.
2. Identify user mental models, common tasks, and existing content inventory.
3. Choose or combine sequence, hierarchy, and web structures.
4. Use `workflows/evaluate-doc-platform.md` when choosing or migrating documentation tooling.
5. Use `workflows/audit-doc-ia.md` for full IA audit or redesign.
6. Preserve redirects, metadata, source decisions, and maintenance rules.

## Default Output

When auditing or redesigning IA, return:

1. **Current-state findings** - navigation, gaps, duplication, stale content, and findability issues.
2. **User model** - major audiences, tasks, and entry points.
3. **Recommended structure** - sequence, hierarchy, web, landing pages, and navigation cues.
4. **Content actions** - keep, remove, review, merge, split, move, or create.
5. **Migration plan** - redirects, metadata, owners, and validation.
6. **Maintenance plan** - how IA decisions stay current.

## Contents

| Need | Start Here |
|------|------------|
| Understand IA patterns | `references/core/knowledge.md` |
| Apply IA rules | `references/core/knowledge.md` |
| See IA examples | `references/core/knowledge.md` |
| Audit or redesign IA | `workflows/audit-doc-ia.md` |
| Evaluate docs platform/tooling | `workflows/evaluate-doc-platform.md` |
| Route by task | `guidelines.md` |

## Core Posture

- Organize docs around user mental models and tasks.
- Use landing pages to route quickly, not to create marketing detours.
- Keep navigation cues useful but economical.
- Treat migration and maintenance as part of IA design.
- Choose tools from reader, authoring, maintenance, and migration requirements rather than feature excitement.