Smarter Week

How to automate it

How to automate “chase engineers and PMs for technical details”

Here are 2 ways to spend less time on this, best first. Each comes with steps you can follow today and, for AI fixes, a prompt to copy.

30 min
typically, every day
40%
of the time can be automated
Some setup
to set up

Fix 1 of 2

Process fixBest fix

Make docs part of the definition of done

When every feature ticket needs a docs note before it closes, writers get the details at the right time instead of chasing them after release.

Typically saves about 35% of the time30 min to set up
  1. 1Add a "docs impact" field or checklist item to feature tickets.
  2. 2Ask engineers to write two or three lines on what changed and any gotchas.
  3. 3Have the ticket tool notify the docs team automatically when the field is filled.
  4. 4Review the process in retros for the first month.

Tools: Jira or Linear · GitHub PR templates

Fix 2 of 2

AI

Point a coding agent at the release diff to draft doc updates

Claude Code, Cursor, Codex or the AI in Mintlify and GitBook can read what changed in the code and draft the matching doc updates, which cuts both writing time and SME chasing.

Typically saves about 40% of the time30 min to set up
  1. 1Get read access to the product repo and keep docs in a repo (docs as code) if you can.
  2. 2Run a coding agent with the prompt below against the release branch or list of merged PRs.
  3. 3Review the drafted changes; send only the remaining questions to engineers.
  4. 4Open one docs PR per release.
Prompt to copy
Compare [RELEASE TAG OR BRANCH] with [PREVIOUS TAG]. List every user-facing change (new settings, changed behavior, new or changed API fields, removed features). For each, find the doc pages in [DOCS FOLDER] that need updating and draft the change in our existing style. List any change where the intended behavior is unclear as a question for the engineer, with the PR link. Do not publish anything.

Tools: Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Cursor or GitHub Copilot · Mintlify · GitBook

Quick wins

Have you tried…

Have you pointed a coding agent at a release to draft the doc updates?
Tools like Claude Code or Cursor can compare two versions of the code, list what users will notice, and draft changes to the matching doc pages.

Who does this task

Roles in our library that list this as one of their common tasks. Each guide covers the rest of that role’s week.

Technical writer

HourLeak · the 8-minute work audit

How many hours does this cost you?

The free 8-minute check works out where your week goes and gives you your top fixes. The team scan does the same for everyone and adds it up, so you know which leaks to fix first.

Take the free check Scan my team, $49

Answers are anonymous. Leaders only see team totals.

Other common tasks for Technical writers