rintaraINSIGHTS

Guide · Application Development

Module 7: Document the Current State of the Application

From human decisions to clear, testable and auditable AI instructions.

By Rintara10 MIN READIntermediate

Produce an application-state document that lets others run, review, maintain and continue development safely.

Learning outcome

An evidence-based State of the Application document aligned with the current code version.

Use fictional or sanitised examples. Never paste passwords, API keys, confidential documents or sensitive personal data into a public AI service.

Workflow

  1. Freeze the version or commit being documented.
  2. Gather evidence from code, configuration, migrations and tests.
  3. Record what is complete, incomplete and known to be problematic.
  4. Verify installation, deployment, backup and recovery instructions.

Master Prompt Template

Act as a technical documentation engineer. Audit the repository before writing and do not invent information.

Target repository and version:
[REPOSITORY LOCATION, BRANCH, COMMIT OR VERSION]

Produce a “State of the Application” document containing:
1. Executive summary and application purpose.
2. Version, review date and inspected scope.
3. Stack, architecture and primary data flows.
4. Directory map and responsibilities of important components.
5. Installation requirements and application run commands.
6. Environment-variable names without exposing their values.
7. Data schema, current migrations, seed process and backup strategy.
8. Feature table: Complete/Partial/Not started/Blocked with evidence.
9. Routes, APIs, roles and external integrations.
10. Test status: commands, counts, results and missing tests.
11. Deployment, health checks, logging, rollback and recovery.
12. Known issues, security risks, technical debt and limitations.
13. Important architecture decisions and rationale.
14. Three prioritised next steps.

Include file references or commands supporting every technical claim. Mark “Unable to verify” when evidence is absent. End with a handover checklist.

Practical exercise

Give the document to someone who did not build the application. Ask them to run the tests and identify the current version using only the document.

Completion checklist

  • Version and review date are clear.
  • Instructions were tested, not merely copied.
  • Secrets are not documented.
  • Issues, risks and next steps are stated.