Documentation Cheatsheet

This post list all the tools and templates I use for documenting projects:

1. Incidents / postmortem templates
2. Architectural Decision Record ADR
3. VS Code extensions
4. Shell Scripts: bash and powershell

1. Incidents / postmortem templates

Template

# yaml-language-server: $schema=./incident.schema.json

title: "Incident Title"
ticket: "INC-1234"
internal: false
clients-affected:
  - Client1
environments: 
  - prd
time-window: 
  start: 2023/11/24 20:30
  end: 2023/11/24 22:30
impact: >
  Describe here how this affect us and our clients
cause: >
  Describe here why the incident happened
resolution: >
  Describe here how the incident was resolved. 
  If the incident is still open, describe here the current status.
preventative-measures:
  - Describe here how we prevent this incident from happening again
evidences:
  - Attach here were the evidences are stored
tags:
  - "tag1"

Example

# yaml-language-server: $schema=../templates/incident.schema.json

title: "Database not reachable"
ticket: "INC-1234"
internal: false
clients-affected:
  - Client1
environments:
  - prd
time-window:
  start: 2023/11/24 20:30
  end: 2023/11/24 22:30
impact: >
  Payment system stop working
cause: >
  The payment solution was deployed with a wrong connection string to the database
resolution: >
  The connection string was updated in the configuration and deployed
preventative-measures:
  - Update the solution to consume the connection string from SSM instead of manual input
evidences:
  - Screenshot of the error attached
  - Screenshot of the solution
tags: 
  - "db"
  - "payments"
  - "manual-error"

2. Architectural Decision Record ADR

WIP

example here.

3. VS Code extensions

Function	Extension	Tip	Link for installing it
Create Diagrams	Draw.io Integration	You can save diagrams as draw.io.png so they are visible in the readme!	link

draw.io-integration

I use this extension to manipulate Diagrams in VS code and make them visible in the README.md. Next are creenshots:

Editing Diagrams

Extension Link

Diagram visualization in the README

Readme

README.md content:

# tf-cicd-template

![solution-schema](docs/solution-schema.drawio.png)

Diagram changes visualization in PR

PR adding the diagram

PR editting the diagram

4. Shell Scripts: bash and powershell

Script	Description	When to use
output repository structure	List directory content in tree format	Document the repository structure in the README.md

output repository structure

Bash

1. Install tree command
2. Execute the command. Next are some useful parameters:
   1. -L {LIMIT} option to limit the display to {LIMIT} levels of depth.
   2. -a parameter to list all hiddin files (they start with .) We need this to list files GH workflows files .github/workflow/*
   3. The -I '{FOLDER_TO_IGNORE}/' option tells tree to ignore files under {FOLDER_TO_IGNORE}.
   4. > repo-structure.txt to store the output, edit its content and paste it into your README.md

sudo apt-get install tree

tree -L 3 -a -I 'node_modules' -I '.git' -I '.vscode'  > repo-structure.txt 

Output Example

PowerShell

Tree /F > repo-structure.txt 

Examples:

• REARDME.md wih repo-structure
• PR adding repo-structure

5. Documentation Tips

Markdown in VS Code

Extension: Markdown All in One

Commands:

• Markdown All in One: Create Table of Contents
• Markdown All in One: Update Table of Contents

When updating README.md files. I create a Table of Content to easy navigation. Here is a template:

# REPO_NAME <!-- omit from toc -->

- [Description](#description)
- [Features](#features)
  - [Feature1](#feature1)

# Description

...

# Features

...

## Feature1

GitHub Markdown

Syntax Documentation

Alerts

We can use the next syntax to highlight information in repositories README.md

> [!NOTE]
> Useful information that users should know, even when skimming content.

> [!TIP]
> Helpful advice for doing things better or more easily.

> [!IMPORTANT]
> Key information users need to know to achieve their goal.

> [!WARNING]
> Urgent info that needs immediate user attention to avoid problems.

> [!CAUTION]
> Advises about risks or negative outcomes of certain actions.

• Alerts Documentation
• GH Blog Post - New Markdown extension: Alerts provide distinctive styling for significant content

Other features

• Creating Mermaid diagrams
• Mermaid diagrams files
• Reference labels in Markdown

About me

I'm a Senior Platform Engineer. I build and evolve Internal Developer Platforms — golden paths, self-service tooling, and paved roads spanning AWS governance, CI/CD standardization, and developer enablement — so engineering teams ship faster, safer, and more autonomously, with less cognitive load. My core stack is AWS, Terraform, and GitHub Actions, and I'm an AWS Certified Solutions Architect. I care deeply about paved roads, productivity, and documenting implementations so knowledge scales with the team (yes, I'm an engineer who likes to document 🧑‍💻).

You can check my experience here.

Personal Blog - cangulo.github.io GitHub - Carlos Angulo Mascarell - cangulo
LinkedIn - Carlos Angulo Mascarell

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