Initial Release

This post documents the initial release of Casper Studios' internal documentation website. The site is now live and will serve as the primary repository for all project-related documentation, engineering standards, and operational processes.

Rationale

The decision to build a dedicated documentation site stems from several operational inefficiencies that have become increasingly apparent as the number of concurrent projects has grown:

1. Knowledge Fragmentation — Project information has historically been scattered across Notion pages, Slack threads, Google Docs, and various other platforms. This fragmentation makes it difficult to locate specific information and leads to duplicated effort when team members independently search for the same resources.

2. Onboarding Overhead — Without a centralized knowledge base, onboarding new team members or bringing contractors up to speed on existing projects requires significant time investment from senior engineers who must repeatedly explain the same concepts and locate the same resources.

3. Inconsistent Documentation Practices — The absence of standardized documentation templates and conventions has resulted in varying levels of documentation quality across projects. Some projects have thorough documentation while others have virtually none.

4. Loss of Institutional Knowledge — Meeting transcripts, client communications, and decision rationale are often lost or become difficult to retrieve after project completion. This creates problems when revisiting projects for maintenance or when similar challenges arise on new engagements.

Site Structure

The documentation is organized hierarchically by client project, with each project containing standardized subdirectories that correspond to our delivery phases:

Project Directories

Each client project receives its own top-level directory within the /docs folder. The naming convention follows the pattern {client-name}/ where the client name is lowercase and hyphenated.

Phase Subdirectories

Within each project directory, documentation is organized into the following phase-based subdirectories:

• 0000-prospecting — Contains all documentation generated during the initial client engagement phase. This includes prospect call transcripts, proposal documents, competitive analysis, and any preliminary research conducted before contract signing.

• 0001-discovery — Houses requirements documentation, stakeholder interview notes, technical feasibility assessments, and scope definition artifacts. This phase establishes the foundation for all subsequent work.

• 0002-design — Stores UI/UX specifications, design system documentation, component libraries, and any design decision records. Links to external design tools (Figma, etc.) are also maintained here.

• 0003-engineering — Contains technical specifications, architecture decision records, API documentation, deployment guides, and implementation notes. This is typically the largest section for each project.

• 1000-transcripts — A dedicated directory for meeting transcripts, organized chronologically. These transcripts are cross-referenced from relevant documentation in other phase directories.

Technical Implementation

The site is built using Docusaurus, a static site generator developed by Meta. The decision to use Docusaurus was based on the following considerations:

• Markdown-Native — All documentation is written in standard Markdown with optional MDX support for interactive components. This removes friction from the documentation process and allows engineers to write docs using familiar tooling.

• Version Control Integration — Documentation lives alongside code in Git repositories, enabling the same review and approval workflows used for code changes. This also provides a complete audit trail of documentation changes.

• Built-In Search — Docusaurus includes search functionality out of the box, which is critical for a documentation site of any meaningful size.

• Minimal Maintenance Burden — As a static site, there are no databases to manage, no server infrastructure to maintain, and deployment is handled through standard CI/CD pipelines.

Documentation Standards

To address the historical inconsistency in documentation quality, this site enforces several conventions:

• All documentation files follow a numeric prefix naming convention (e.g., 0001-feature-name.md) to ensure consistent ordering in the sidebar navigation.

• Each document includes YAML frontmatter with required metadata fields including title, description, and relevant tags.

• Documents are written in a technical, factual style. The intended audience is other engineers and stakeholders who need to quickly locate specific information.

Opportunity for Internal Tooling and Automations

Beyond serving as a documentation repository, this site represents a foundation for building internal tooling and automations that can improve operational efficiency across the company. Now that we have a structured, version-controlled system in place, there are several opportunities worth pursuing:

Automations

• Transcript Processing Pipeline — Client calls are already being recorded and transcribed. With a standardized directory structure, we can automate the process of formatting transcripts, extracting action items, and placing them in the correct project folder. This eliminates manual file management and ensures transcripts are immediately searchable.

• Project Scaffolding — When a new client engagement begins, a script can automatically generate the full directory structure with placeholder documents, category configurations, and templated content. This removes the friction of manual setup and ensures consistency across all projects.

• Documentation Linting — Automated checks can validate that all documents have required frontmatter fields, follow naming conventions, and include necessary metadata. This can run as part of CI to catch issues before they reach the main branch.

• Change Notifications — Integrations with Slack or other communication tools can notify relevant team members when documentation in their project areas is updated. This keeps stakeholders informed without requiring them to manually check for changes.

Reusable Components

Docusaurus supports MDX, which means we can build custom React components that are reusable across all documentation:

• Status Indicators — Components for displaying project phase, health status, or completion percentage that pull from structured data.

• Client Metadata Cards — Standardized components for displaying client information, contract details, and key contacts at the top of project documentation.

• Meeting Summary Blocks — Formatted components for displaying meeting metadata (date, attendees, duration) alongside transcript content.

• Dependency Matrices — Interactive tables for displaying technical dependencies, integration points, or feature relationships.

• Timeline Visualizations — Components for rendering project timelines, milestone tracking, or phase transitions.

Internal CLI Tools

The structured nature of this documentation system also opens the door for command-line tooling:

• casper docs new <client-name> — Scaffold a new project with all required directories and templates
• casper docs transcript <file> — Process and format a raw transcript file into the correct location
• casper docs validate — Run all documentation linting checks locally before committing
• casper docs search <query> — Search documentation from the terminal without opening a browser

The point is that having a structured, consistent system creates leverage. Each automation or component we build can be applied across every project rather than being a one-off solution. This is the kind of internal infrastructure that compounds in value over time.

Ongoing Maintenance

Documentation is not a one-time effort. The expectation is that relevant documentation is updated as part of regular sprint work. Pull requests that introduce significant features or architectural changes should include corresponding documentation updates.

The site will be expanded as new projects are onboarded and existing documentation gaps are identified.