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The Engine’s docs aim to be warm, conversational, respectful of the reader’s time, and concrete. This page is the long version of those vibes, with concrete rules.

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Voice

  • Second person for tutorials and how-tos. “You’ll send a request, read the response, and…” A tutorial is a thing the reader is doing. Address them.
  • Third person for reference and conceptual. “The Engine returns…” “When the agent loop encounters…” Reference and explanation are about the system, not about the reader.
  • Active voice. “The Engine returns” not “is returned by the Engine.”
  • Present tense for behavior. “The Engine retries” not “the Engine will retry.”
  • Past tense only for incidents. “On 2026-04-12 the Engine returned 500s for 12 minutes.”

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Tone

  • Warm, not cute. No emoji in technical content. No exclamation marks.
  • Confident, not arrogant. State what the system does. Don’t apologize for what it doesn’t.
  • Specific, not vague. Replace “many users” with a number or with “users who,” etc.

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Structure

  • Lead with the thing. Don’t open with three paragraphs of context before showing code. Show the smallest working example first; explain after.
  • One thought per paragraph. If a paragraph has more than one argument, split it.
  • Short sentences. Long sentences hide long thinking. Cut ruthlessly.
  • Sentence-case headings. “Streaming events” not “Streaming Events” or “STREAMING EVENTS.” Product names keep their casing.

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Headings

  • Use ## for major sections, ### for sub-sections. Avoid ####. If you find yourself reaching for it, the page wants to be split.
  • Heading text should answer “what’s in this section?” — not “let’s talk about X.”
    • Bad: “About authentication”
    • Good: “How requests are authenticated”

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Lists

  • Bullets when order doesn’t matter.
  • Numbered when order matters.
  • One sentence or short clause per bullet. If a bullet runs to three lines, it wants to be a sub-section instead.

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Code

  • Always tag code blocks with their language: bash, python, js, ts, json, http, sql.
  • Code samples are real and tested. If the code is hypothetical, mark it # pseudocode.
  • Use real values, not placeholders, where possible. claude-sonnet-4-5 beats <your-model>.
  • Wrap inline code in backticks: task_id, X-Engine-Key.

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Tables

  • Use tables for parallel data with the same columns per row (env vars, endpoints, error codes).
  • Use prose for narrative information.
  • First column is the key being defined. Subsequent columns are attributes.

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Linking

  • Link the first time you mention a concept; not every time.
  • Use descriptive link text: “see the agent loop” not “see here.”
  • Internal links use relative paths. External links use full URLs.
  • Cross-link reference pages from concept pages and back.

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Diátaxis discipline

Every page is one of:
ModeTensePurposeExample
Tutorial2nd person, presentLearn-by-doing”Quickstart”
How-to2nd person, presentSolve a specific problem”Migrate from v1 to v2”
Conceptual3rd person, presentBuild a mental model”The agent loop”
Reference3rd person, present, scannableLook up a fact”POST /execute”
Don’t blend modes within a page. If a tutorial wants to explain why, link to the conceptual page. If a reference wants narrative, link to the how-to.

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Internal vs. external

  • Anything not safe for public eyes — roadmap, customer names, cost figures, threat-model attacker profiles, anything touching live credentials — goes on a page with internal: true in frontmatter.
  • The public build strips those pages. Don’t rely on the strip — assume every line you write under internal: true could leak, and write carefully anyway.

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Diagrams

  • Use Mermaid for all diagrams (Mintlify renders it inline). Mermaid produces real boxes, arrows, and clusters that render legibly in every browser.
  • Avoid ASCII art — it’s brittle, hard to maintain, and looks bad in most fonts.
  • Always explain the diagram in prose immediately after.

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House rules for code samples

  • HTTP requests show full headers. No assumed defaults.
  • Python uses httpx. Node uses built-in fetch.
  • Show error handling in real samples; skip it only when the page is explicitly about the happy path.
  • Don’t import what you’re not using.

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Things we don’t do

  • We don’t use marketing words. “Powerful,” “robust,” “best-in-class,” “next-generation.” Cut them.
  • We don’t use “simply” or “just.” If it’s simple, it doesn’t need saying. If it’s not, the word is dishonest.
  • We don’t link to GitHub line numbers — they rot. Link to the file or to the relevant doc page.
  • We don’t write FAQ pages as a substitute for fixing the docs. If the same Q surfaces three times, fix the documentation that should have answered it.