I'm making our documentation agent-friendly (and how I'm not) (buildwithfern.com)

In a recent blog post, a technical writer at Fern discusses the dual focus on creating documentation that not only serves human readers but is also optimized for AI agents. Recognizing that current and prospective users primarily access documentation through AI interfaces, the writer emphasizes the importance of structuring content in a way that supports AI-driven tasks. This includes designing processes that AI agents can execute autonomously, like creating and publishing documentation sites, and incorporating additional context for agents to reason about software systems, ensuring the documentation works effectively for both audiences. The significance of this approach lies in its potential to enhance the user experience and functionality of AI tools in developer workflows. By evolving documentation to be both human-readable and agent-friendly, the writer ensures that critical information is accessible, actionable, and current. Key technical elements include using tags that separate content for human consumption from that which assists AI agents, streamlining content to avoid clutter, and maintaining stability in URLs for better agent retrieval. This integrated strategy highlights the necessity of collaboration between content writers and technology platforms, revealing a roadmap for optimizing technical documentation in an increasingly AI-driven environment.