Documentation Generator

Summary

Documentation Generator is a private, local-first tool that turns project notes into structured proposals and then initializes a ready-to-use GitHub repository with a full professional scaffold (docs, workflows, CI/CD, compose). It is designed for a single developer workflow and runs on a home server.

Core Capabilities

• Generate a proposal from a free-text plan using a fixed template (Markdown + optional PDF).
• Edit proposals in-place, save updates, and reuse past proposals without re-generating.
• Initiate a project: create ~/project/<client>/<project>, generate docs/workflows, init git, and push to GitHub via gh.
• Tiered DevOps scaffolding (Tier 1/Tier 2) with CI gates, releases, and staging/production deploys.
• AI automation in generated repos (PR summary + risk, CI failure explainer, release notes draft).
• Deploy metrics logging (JSONL) plus human-readable deploy log.
• Preflight checks to fail early before spending AI tokens.

Workflow

1. Paste a project plan and generate a proposal.
2. Review and edit the proposal in the UI.
3. Initiate the project to create the scaffolded repo.
4. Configure GitHub settings/secrets and begin implementation.

Requirements

• Go 1.22+
• Git
• GitHub CLI (gh) with authentication
• systemd user services
• Optional (for PDF): pandoc + LaTeX (xelatex)
• Optional (remote access): cloudflared

Setup

1. Clone

git clone https://github.com/alfonsusenrico/documentation-generator.git
cd documentation-generator

2. Configure environment

cp .env.example .env

Fill in the values in .env.

3. Install and run as a service

bash start-server

4. Open the UI

• Local: http://localhost:3000
• Remote: use your Cloudflared tunnel URL

Environment Variables

Name	Required	Example	Notes
OPENAI_API_KEY	yes	sk-...	OpenAI API key
OPENAI_MODEL	no	gpt-5-mini	Default model
PORT	no	3000	Server port
PUBLIC_BASE_URL	no	https://docgen.example.com	Used for download links
LANG	no	en	Output language for body content
PREPARED_BY	no	Alfonsus Enrico	Proposal header default
ENABLE_PDF	no	1	Enable PDF output via pandoc
INIT_TOKEN	no	some-token	Optional header token for /api/init
GITHUB_OWNER	no	alfonsusenrico	GitHub owner/org slug
GIT_USER_NAME	no	Enrico	Optional git identity override
GIT_USER_EMAIL	no	you@example.com	Optional git identity override

Usage

Generate a proposal

• Fill in project name, client/owner, and the plan.
• Click Generate proposal to produce Markdown (and PDF if enabled).
• Edit directly in the preview and click Save edits to persist and update the PDF.

Load existing proposals

• Use Existing Proposals to load from out/ without re-generating.

Initiate a project

• Select stack (python/node), tier (1/2), and visibility.
• Click Initiate project.
• Preflight checks validate gh auth, git identity, repo name, and target path.
• The system creates ~/project/<client>/<project>, commits with [skip ci], and pushes main + dev branches.

AI automation in generated repos

• Set OPENAI_API_KEY (and optional OPENAI_MODEL) in repo secrets/vars to enable:
  • PR summary + risk classification
  • CI failure explainer
  • Release notes draft
• If the key is missing, these workflows no-op and do not block CI.

Generated Repo Contents (Highlights)

• docs/ with: QUALITY, DEPLOYMENT, RUNBOOK, RELEASE, ARCHITECTURE, SECURITY, ENV_VARS, METRICS, GITHUB_SETTINGS.
• .github/workflows/: CI, release, deploy staging/prod, AI automation.
• .github/pull_request_template.md, .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/*, .github/dependabot.yml.
• compose/compose.staging.yml, compose/compose.prod.yml.
• Dockerfile, Makefile, .env.example.
• Deploy logs: docs/DEPLOY_LOG.md and metrics JSONL: docs/DEPLOY_METRICS.jsonl.

Post-init Checklist (New Repo)

1. Apply GitHub settings from docs/GITHUB_SETTINGS.md.
2. Add required secrets: SSH_HOST, SSH_USER, SSH_KEY, SSH_PORT, optional OPENAI_API_KEY.
3. Prepare servers and .env files for staging/production (see docs/DEPLOYMENT.md).
4. Implement a minimal /health endpoint and structured logging.
5. Configure make migrate-check when migrations are introduced.

Data & Cleanup

• Generated proposals are saved in out/.
• Files are cleaned 30 minutes after a download.

Security

• API keys remain server-side.
• For remote access, use Cloudflare Access and/or set INIT_TOKEN.

Project Structure

• cmd/docgen/main.go — server bootstrap
• internal/ — httpapi, AI, scaffolding, project init, stack catalog, progress
• templates/ — proposal, README, docs, workflows, compose, Makefile, stack config
• public/ — UI assets
• start-server — build + systemd service setup
• devops-standard-coverage.md — coverage checklist vs standard

License

Proprietary — All rights reserved. No use, copying, or distribution without permission.