Glossary

A glossary defines terms used in technical writing and AI, including agentic workflows, LLMs, MCP, RAG, and vibe coding, along with coined terms like devling, product truth, documentation theater, the Ferri Paradox, NVE docs, do11y, and the Columbo Technique.

Glossary Short definitions for terms that come up often in these posts. General terms Agentic workflow A sequence of tasks carried out by an AI agent that plans, calls tools, and checks its own output with limited human intervention, as opposed to a single prompt-response exchange. Docs as code The practice of treating documentation like source code: stored in version control, reviewed through pull requests, and built through the same pipelines as software. LLM large language model A machine learning model trained on large amounts of text that generates or transforms language, used here as shorthand for tools like Claude, GPT, or Gemini. MCP Model Context Protocol An open standard that lets LLMs call external tools and read external data sources through a common interface, rather than each integration being built from scratch. RAG retrieval-augmented generation A technique where an LLM’s answer is grounded by first retrieving relevant passages from a document store, then generating a response based on those passages instead of the model’s training data alone. Tech writer Shorthand for technical writer: someone who researches, structures, and writes documentation, often bridging engineering, product, and support teams. Vibe coding Writing software by iterating on prompts to an AI coding assistant rather than writing code by hand, often with limited review of the generated output. Coined on this blog Terms and frameworks introduced or adapted and renamed in these posts, defined the way they were defined there. Devling A technical writer who has grown proficient enough with code and developer tools to act as a trusted coding associate on an engineering team — not a developer, but no longer just a spectator either. Coined as “young developer, developer spawnling” in Coding as a tech writer https://passo.uno/tech-writer-learn-to-code/ . Product truth The tension and nuance behind a mature feature — the support tickets, customer feedback, and sense of unfinishedness that shape a product but rarely make it into a spec. Pictured as concentric circles, from the outermost what exists and where to the innermost why , in Circles of Product Truth https://passo.uno/circles-product-truth/ . Documentation theater The act of creating documentation for its own sake — so a box can be checked, an issue closed, or a project completed — rather than to address a real need. Named after developer Annie Mueller’s parody of tutorials in When docs become performance art, everybody loses https://passo.uno/documentation-theater-everybody-loses/ , where it’s also noted the author once called the same idea cargo-cult documentation. Ferri Paradox “Any document describing a system is necessarily inaccurate.” Offered, tongue-in-cheek, as the reason to write docs quickly rather than chase an unreachable completeness, in How I write docs quickly https://passo.uno/how-write-tech-docs-quickly/ . Not-viable-enough docs NVE docs Documentation that falls short of even “minimum viable” — usually a symptom of underlying product issues rather than a writing problem. Sometimes the only fix available is “palliative docs care”: content that helps users cope with a flawed reality rather than fixing it. Introduced in How I write docs quickly https://passo.uno/how-write-tech-docs-quickly/ . do11y documentation observability Tracking how docs and product usage interact — for example, whether a user who hit an error, read the linked doc, and successfully retried their API call should count as a doc’s success. Modeled on software observability o11y and coined in a conversation with Bob Watson, in Docs observability, or measuring docs inside a product-docs system https://passo.uno/docs-observability-do11y/ . The Columbo Technique An approach to extracting information from subject-matter experts modeled on Lieutenant Columbo: playing genially unassuming so SMEs correct, elaborate on, and ultimately confirm the details a document needs, rather than simply answering direct questions. See The Columbo Technique for Technical Writers https://passo.uno/the-columbo-technique-for-technical-writers/ . The Seven-Action Documentation Model A framework for structuring docs around what users are trying to accomplish rather than what content type to produce: Appraise Discern , Understand Learn , Explore Discover , Practice Train , Remember Recall , Develop Integrate , and Troubleshoot Solve . See The Seven-Action Documentation model https://passo.uno/seven-action-model/ . Docs Hierarchy of Priorities A Maslow-style pyramid of what a documentation effort needs before the next level becomes possible, starting with an organization simply recognizing that docs — and someone accountable for them — are needed at all. See Docs Hierarchy of Priorities: A Proposal https://passo.uno/docs-hierarchy-of-needs/ . Context curator A technical writer who orchestrates and executes a content strategy around both human and AI needs — or AI needs alone — treating context, not generic “content,” as the unit of value that AI systems actually draw on. From AI must RTFM: Why technical writers are becoming context curators https://passo.uno/from-tech-writers-to-ai-context-curators/ . Peripheral professionals Humanists and artists — writers included — who bridge the gap between the technical core of software and the humans using it, and whose jobs are often first on the chopping block when AI reshapes what a company treats as essential. From Technical writing predictions for 2025 https://passo.uno/tech-writing-predictions-2025/ . Tools slop The flood of narrow, disposable tools that AI coding assistants make trivial to spin up and tempting to over-promote, lacking the reach, sociality, and finish of a tool built to last beyond its own creator. See Most vibe-coded tools are not for you https://passo.uno/tools-slop-is-a-problem/ . Impersonaid A docs user simulator the author built: point it at a document, pick a persona, and hold a conversation about the content to see where a reader gets stuck — turning an argument about clarity into a reproducible transcript. From Conjuring digital companions: How I’m thinking better through AI https://passo.uno/thinking-better-through-ai/ . Roles are verbs, not nouns A model for structuring a documentation team around four poles — Product Vision, Knowledge Design, Engineering Depth, and Delivery Strategy — where people move fluidly between them instead of being locked into fixed job titles. From In the team of the future, roles are verbs, not nouns https://passo.uno/docs-team-of-the-future/ . The four modes of AI-augmented writing A framework for where AI fits into a technical writer’s workflow, from most to least hands-on: the watercooler conversation chat-based Q&A , the whisperer inline suggestions , the wordsmith shaping drafts from context , and the assembly line agentic checks, rewrites, and tests . See The four modes of AI-augmented technical writing https://passo.uno/four-modes-ai-augmented-tech-writing/ . Documentation bestiary A satirical taxonomy of documentation content types cast as medieval beasts: the Releasaurius release notes , Realisticasius scenarios , Examplanatii examples , Solutionarius troubleshooting , Optimarius best practices , and Interfacilus UX writing . See Bestiary: On Doc Types and Other Animals https://passo.uno/docs-bestiary-taxonomy/ .