Documentation that engineers actually open mid-sprint

Long pages rot because no one owns pruning. Decision records live beside the backlog item they explain, expire after the feature ships, and link to the pull request that implemented the outcome.

Encourage sketches and bullet lists; forbid passive voice policy tone unless legal counsel truly requires it. Pair writers with reviewers from another squad to catch jargon blind spots.

When onboarding spikes, assemble a reading trail of five links max. Anything beyond that belongs in office hours, not midnight self-study.