Manifest-Driven Documentation
Kind: algorithm
Record: algorithms:manifest-driven-documentation
Canonical: Algorithms
Closure: Dependencies in load order
For a module whose public surface is machine-derivable, make its metadata manifest the single documentation source of truth: authored narrative lives in mandated, shape-validated manifest fields (with self-expanding custom fields), the API surface is collected deterministically from the built type-declarations, one marker-layered document is compiled per module from both, and a governance router runs the context-detection rules on the manifest strings where a manifest governs (rendering each field to its markdown fragment first) and on the document itself where none exists. Beyond the module document, a manifest may declare typed documents — each a form plus concern that routes through the pure location function to a computed path — generated and drift-checked the same way, so the manifest is the single content generator with no separate template mechanism.
Listed in Algorithm contracts, after Architectural Contract Algebra and before Consumer Config SSOT.