This is an experimental port from a C# server/database application - to a GitHub repo/VS Code extension. A concept driven by transformational conversations with a robotics firm - HAL Robotics.
Escape Documentation Hell
Docs Assembler is a text editor for authoring documentation. It is specifically designed for - eliminating duplication - documenting intricate systems - and complex troubleshooting. All scenarios where traditional documentation fails.
Text is built from reusable content parts. If you change a part, it updates everywhere.
There is no lock‑in - it publishes to plain Markdown files, so you can uninstall Docs Assembler and continue working with your files as before.
This website is a guide built with Docs Assembler. The ‘Vertical Kitchen Garden Planner’ below, is a component embedded within it to give an idea of the complexity these guides can manage.
We think in webs, yet we’re sentenced to lines
Human knowledge branches, loops, and layers - a living web of what-ifs, dependencies, and context. Yet we’ve had no way to pour this networked thinking onto paper. Traditional documents force us to flatten complexity into linear prose, losing the very structure that makes expertise usable.
Docs Assembler breaks the sentence.
It applies the principles of software systems that run the clouds to knowledge itself - capturing depth without redundancy or fragility. Networked thinking, made explicit, shareable, and mergeable. So others can understand and learn, or extend and refine.
Its true power, though, lies in what you’ll build with it.
The Problem with Traditional Manuals
Most organisations rely on traditional manuals, PDFs, and wikis, yet these static resources cannot capture the branching logic of expert troubleshooting or the situational nuances users face. This gap forces companies to rely on expensive, person-to-person training, creating a fragile system that hinges on a few key people. The result is an organisation perpetually one retirement away from a crisis: a true documentation hell where essential knowledge is unrecorded, scattered, and ultimately unusable when it matters most.
The Cycle of Dread and Delay
It’s not just about writing documentation - it’s about maintaining it, a task that becomes a source of dread that teams actively avoid until an update is urgently needed. Why?
- Sprawling, duplicated content - across guides, manuals, and wikis, making it impossible to know what’s accurate or current.
- Error-prone updates - you make a critical edit in one place, only to miss that same information duplicated in other files, instantly introducing inconsistencies.
- Brittle, unmanageable docs - resulting from the struggle to document similar-but-diverging scenarios without creating redundancy and contradictions.
Scaling Clarity, Not Complexity
The true power of this approach is that it scales.
Consider managing emergencies at an oil refinery. The variables are endless: fires, explosions, earthquakes, power loss, IT failures, medical crises. The number of internal teams - incident commanders, operators, maintenance, security, medical, PR, IT, legal, HR - is large, and each needs tailored, timely steps. External stakeholders like emergency services and media introduce more jurisdiction-specific requirements. Add in site variability like equipment locations and local laws, and the complexity is staggering.
Now imagine capturing all of that in a single, decentralised, maintainable system. Each team builds and maintains their own domain-specific body of knowledge, yet for the end-user, the experience is seamless and unified. The result is a single source of truth - validated, up-to-date, and turning collective knowledge into decisive action when it’s needed most.