Keeping code and documentation aligned during AI development

Give each document a clear purpose

Define the role of requirements, startup guidance and persistent agent instructions. Independently copied requirements can drift depending on which copy was updated last. Kiro specs or steering and Claude Code project instructions still need an owner to identify the authoritative record. Before generating more prose, keep the current decision in one place and make other documentation point to it. Rejected historical ideas should not remain permanent instructions. The useful measure is whether a maintainer can find and explain the present behavior, not whether the repository contains a larger collection of plausible documents.

Trace changed behavior to explanations

Trace the patch to user actions, configuration names, errors and startup commands. Ask the agent to identify affected explanations before rewriting documentation wholesale. Unrelated style harmonization can bury the meaningful update in a large diff. If a setting was removed, inspect examples, operating instructions and shared guidance for its old name. Text search alone is not a full verification; connect the mention to the actual startup path or configuration reader. This prevents an apparently tidy documentation edit from deleting a similarly named but still necessary setting elsewhere in the project.

• Kiro vs Claude Code: specifications and repository investigation

Hypothetical task: a configuration rename

Suppose a hypothetical service renames the environment variable identifying a connection. Add the new name to code and examples and decide whether an old-name compatibility period exists. Align startup, tests, deployment and incident guidance with that decision. Documentation needs variable names and configuration ownership, not secret values. Have another maintainer start from the example and verify the agreed behavior when only the old name exists. This is a proposed exercise, not a reported product result. It tests whether implementation and operating instructions can move together without an undocumented assumption left in the original developer’s environment.

Distinguish guidance from enforcement

Claude Code documentation describes project instructions as context rather than enforced configuration. Kiro steering also provides guidance; writing a restriction does not by itself establish command or access enforcement. Check effective permissions and the environment separately. When instructions grow, review whether each remains necessary and consistent with the authoritative record. Before purchasing a larger context allowance to carry everything into every task, separate stable conventions from one-change requirements. A smaller current instruction set can be easier to maintain and inspect than a long accumulation whose contradictions the next agent is expected to resolve.

• Minimizing repository context supplied to AI

Bound automatic documentation work

For hooks or CI, separate detection from mutation. Finding an obsolete setting or broken command is different from automatically generating and overwriting prose. Start with a proposed diff and human review of meaning. If automation calls a model on every event, record consumption and inspect repeated rewrites. Documentation work does not inherently require production configuration or release authority. Exercise commands and examples in the appropriate environment afterward, and mark unexecuted procedures honestly. A grammatically confident instruction is not evidence that the described process has been run successfully under the required conditions.

Leave ownership for the next revision

Identify who changes requirements, reviews documentation and owns operating configuration. Have another maintainer complete startup and a small revision without the conversation to test whether the necessary explanation exists. Tie paid capacity to actual updating work and human checking effort. A healthy handoff leaves the current specification and examples in the repository after model access ends. When changing tools, do not copy every historical instruction unexamined. Separate guidance required by the new arrangement from retired assumptions. The next update should have an owner and a verifiable starting point, rather than another opportunity to reconstruct undocumented intent.

• AI coding-agent workflows: investigate, change and review