# AI Documentation Pipelines Need an Explicit Authority Source ## Claim When I build an AI-assisted documentation pipeline, I need a config-level rule stating which sources count as authoritative, or the AI will present unmerged, unshipped work as if it already exists. <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> ## Scope & conditions - Holds for any tool that lets AI draft "what's new" or changelog-style documentation from a live issue tracker or PR queue, where open-but-unmerged items are visible to the model alongside completed work. - The fix is a config file or explicit instruction restricting the model to completed/merged sources — not a general "double-check the AI" habit, which doesn't scale across a project with many contributors. - Does not claim this eliminates hallucination generally — only that it closes this specific, reproducible failure mode (treating open issues as shipped features). ## Evidence Milana Cap's DocToMe tool (a WordPress/FAIR documentation scaffolder) ships a project-level config file — analogous to `package.json` or `composer.json` — that designates which sources are authoritative for generated documentation. Her stated reason: "AI tends to go to GitHub issues and collect stuff that are not merged yet and just fantasize about the tool that we all want." The fix works whether or not AI is actually used, since it's a structural constraint on the pipeline, not a prompt instruction. ## Links - [[DevRel MOC]] — the config-level decision that keeps generated docs anchored to something true - [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/The Maker Should Not Grade Its Own Homework]] — because extends: both claims solve the same underlying problem (an unattended generator is biased toward confirming its own draft) by adding an external, non-negotiable check — a separate verifying agent there, an authority allowlist here. - [[3. Resources/MOCs/Open Source Governance MOC]] — because applies-in: this is a concrete governance mechanism for keeping AI-assisted project documentation trustworthy at scale. - [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Stale Guidance Steers Agents Wrong Rather Than Merely Aging Out]] — because this is what the authority source is defending against: without one, a pipeline has no way to decide which of two divergent statements is the stale one. - [[3. Resources/MOCs/Documentation & Technical Writing MOC]] — applies-in: the docs discipline map, "docs that agents read" cluster ## Tests / falsifiers - Run DocToMe with and without the authority config against a WordPress release branch with several open-but-unmerged Trac tickets; check whether the config version omits references to the unmerged tickets. - Check whether the same pattern (AI treating open issues as shipped) appears in other AI-assisted documentation tools without an equivalent authority mechanism. ## Maintenance - Last tended: 2026-08-16 - Next review: 2026-11-16 ## Source - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/Milana Cap About WordCamp Belgrade, Tech Events, and Open Source Contributions Kinsta Talks]] — describes DocToMe's authority-config design and the specific hallucination pattern it targets.