Documentation Impact Review

Every behavior-affecting change must include a documentation impact review.

This applies to implementation, syntax, API, CLI, compiler, runtime,

standard-library, package, release, app, and observable behavior changes.

The review answers one question: what documentation did this change make

incorrect, incomplete, or newly necessary?

Required Review

For every behavior-affecting change, update the ADR and RFC with:

## Documentation Impact Review

- Updated documentation: ...

List every affected documentation location. Include beginner pages and exact

reference pages when both are affected.

Use this form only when no documentation changed:

## Documentation Impact Review

- No documentation update required: ...

The reason must explain why no user, maintainer, syntax, API, CLI, compiler,

runtime, standard-library, package, release, or behavior documentation changed.

What To Check

• Beginner and learning docs: site/, especially site/learn-0x0/,

site/tutorials.html, site/how-to.html, site/cookbook.html, and

site/tasks.html.

• Reference docs: docs/language.html, docs/syntax.html,

docs/language-spec.html, docs/grammar.ebnf, docs/compiler.html,

docs/runtime-capabilities.html, docs/packages.html, docs/core-library.html,

docs/api.html, and related exact reference files.

• Support and publication docs: feature support, package registry, public

domains, release notes, and public site evidence.

• Release docs: release notes, compatibility policy, release checklist, support

matrices, and evidence files.

• Generated or indexed public site files when the site build contract requires

them.

Beginner Versus Reference Style

Learning pages explain the idea first, use small examples, and identify current

limits plainly. They should help an absolute beginner move quickly.

Code-facing documentation remains technical, exact, and professional. Do not

replace precise behavior, API, syntax, or compiler wording with vague tutorial

language.

Gate

Run:

make documentation-impact-check

The gate checks the current change set. If behavior-affecting files changed, it

requires ADR/RFC records with a ## Documentation Impact Review section and

either updated documentation or an explicit reason why no documentation update

was required.

This gate does not prove that every affected page was updated. That remains a

review responsibility. The gate makes the review visible and mandatory.