A model of what readers need from documentation, not what content to write.
The seven actions
A descriptive model of user needs for technical documentation. Seven actions cover the goals a consumer of docs may want to accomplish: Appraise, Understand, Explore, Practice, Remember, Develop, Troubleshoot.
- Appraise Discern
- Discern the main qualities of the product and, if applicable, compare it to others.
- Understand Learn
- Grasp the abstractions and mental models the product is built around.
- Explore Discover
- Try the product and discover what it can do with a low barrier to entry.
- Practice Train
- Learn how to operate the product in daily, standard operation.
- Remember Recall
- Recall bits of information that could not be memorized, from parameters to error codes.
- Develop Integrate
- Build upon, extend, or integrate with the product to create additional value.
- Troubleshoot Solve
- Diagnose and resolve issues efficiently, often under pressure.
For agents
- Introduction — Why the Seven-Action Documentation Model exists.
- Glossary — Every term the model uses: the seven actions, their alternative verbs, and what each one means.
- Seven-Action Documentation skill — Install an agent skill for planning and improving documentation with the Seven-Action Model.
- Markdown mirrors — Every page is also available as index.md.
- model.json — Machine-readable model
- llms.txt — Index of the site for language models
- sitemap.md — Sitemap
- AGENTS.md — How agents should read this site
Seven-Action Documentation Model · 2025-01-09 · CC BY 4.0 · Introduction · Fabrizio Ferri Benedetti