Release Maintenance Guide

Release & Maintenance Guide Generator

Produce a single .docx document covering how a project keeps moving forward after a transition — release process, coding conventions, who owns what, what's outstanding, and a concrete ownership-transfer checklist with sign-off. This is the most people-and-process-oriented of the handover documents: prefer checklists and tables over long narrative paragraphs so a new team can act on it, not just read it once.

Sections (in this order)

Cover page, Version History, Document Approval, Revision Log, and TOC are automatic — your sections array starts at "1. Release Overview".

Diagram Policy

Applies to the .docx path only — Markdown embeds Mermaid source directly instead of rendering anything (see "Output Format" below).

Prefer a real Mermaid diagram — rendered via mmdc and embedded with B.diagramImage() — over diagramPlaceholder(), but only once you have concrete structure to draw (real names, not "TBD"). Read references/diagram-generation.md when you're actually about to render one — it has the full build order, the bundled config (assets/mermaid-config.json), the exact mmdc flags, and token-saving tips. Skip it entirely if this document ends up needing no diagrams.

Missing Information Policy

Never invent contacts, known issues, or technical debt items you have no basis for. Use toBeCompleted("...") for sections you lack real input for, explaining what's needed, and still generate everything else. Never place actual passwords, API keys, or secret values anywhere in this document — reference where they're stored (password manager, secrets vault) and who can grant access instead.

Output Format

Ask the user which output format they want, unless they've already said so in this request (e.g., "as a docx", "in markdown," "just give me an .md file") — a quick single-choice question is enough, don't block on it otherwise:

• Word document (.docx) — the default assumption if the person hasn't specified and their context suggests a formal deliverable. Follow "Using the builder" below.

• Markdown (.md) — no script needed, write the file directly. Use these conventions so it stays structurally equivalent to the docx version:

  • Front matter: instead of a cover page, open with the title as an # heading, the project name as an italic subtitle line, then a metadata table instead of separate Version History / Approval / Revision Log tables:

    # Release & Maintenance Guide
    *Acme Order Platform*
    
    | Field | Value |
    |---|---|
    | Version | 0.1 |
    | Author | Jane Doe |
    | Date | 2026-07-19 |
    | Status | Draft |
    | Approved By | Jane Doe (Tech Lead) |
    

  • Headings: #/##/###/#### matching the same section levels used in the table above — don't flatten everything to one level, that's what keeps the document skimmable and consistent with the docx version.

  • Tables: standard Markdown tables.

  • Diagrams — unlike the .docx path, don't render or embed an image here. Write the actual Mermaid source directly in a fenced code block; GitHub, GitLab, Obsidian, and most modern Markdown viewers render mermaid code blocks natively, so this is a real diagram, not a placeholder:

    ```mermaid
    flowchart TD
        A[Client] --> B[API Gateway]
        B --> C[Order Service]
        C --> D[(Database)]
    ```
    

    Only fall back to a text placeholder if you don't yet have concrete enough detail to draw something real (mirrors toBeCompleted above):

    > 📊 **DIAGRAM PLACEHOLDER — TO BE COMPLETED**
    > Not enough detail yet to draw the System Architecture Diagram — need
    > the actual component names and how they connect.
    

  • "To be completed" callout — same blockquote treatment:

    > ⚠️ **TO BE COMPLETED**
    > Explanation of what input is needed to fill this in.
    

  • Save as Release_and_Maintenance_Guide.md instead of Release_and_Maintenance_Guide.docx.

Workflow

Ask the output format first (see "Output Format" above). For Markdown, skip straight to writing the file using those conventions — the numbered steps below describe the .docx path.

1. Gather what's available — issue tracker export, existing contact list, or ask directly about known issues, tech debt, and pending work.
2. Draft each section as data using the builder functions below. Be as concrete and exhaustive as the available information allows on the Ownership Transfer Checklist — it's often the single most useful table in the whole package for the receiving team.
3. Build with scripts/docx_builder.js.
4. Skip PDF conversion by default — docx_builder.js is already tested and hardened (table widths and text alignment are enforced at the library level), so routine generations don't need a re-render just to confirm it worked. Only convert to PDF and view it if the user explicitly asks for visual verification, or if something about this generation is unusual (e.g., a new kind of content the library hasn't handled before, or a reported rendering problem). When you do need it: soffice --headless --convert-to pdf <file>.docx (or libreoffice --headless ...), then pdftoppm -jpeg -r 100 <file>.pdf page and view the images.
5. Save to /mnt/user-data/outputs/Release_and_Maintenance_Guide.docx (or .md if that's the chosen format) and present it.

Using the builder (for the .docx path)

This library requires the docx npm package. Before running any script, check it's available with node -e "require('docx')"; if that fails, install it with npm install docx in the working directory first — don't assume it's pre-installed, since that varies by environment.

const B = require("./scripts/docx_builder.js");

const sections = [
  B.h1("1. Release Overview"),
  B.para("This project is transitioning from the founding team to the Platform Engineering team, effective 2026-08-01."),

  B.h1("6. Team Contacts"),
  B.table(["Name", "Role", "Area of Expertise", "Contact", "Availability After Handover"],
    [["Jane Doe", "Tech Lead", "Order Service", "jane@acme.com", "Available 2 weeks post-handover"]],
    [1800, 1800, 2000, 1800, 1800]),

  B.h1("10. Ownership Transfer Checklist"),
  B.table(["Item", "Transferred?", "Date", "Notes"],
    [["GitHub repo admin access", "No", "", "Pending — needs org owner approval"]],
    [3200, 1600, 1600, 2600]),

  // Prefer B.diagramImage(path, {caption}) with a real mmdc render when
  // possible (see "Diagram Policy" above) — diagramPlaceholder() is the fallback:
  B.diagramPlaceholder({
    name: "Ownership Transfer Flow",
    purpose: "Show the sequence of access/ownership transfers and who approves each.",
    recommendedContent: ["Outgoing team", "Incoming team", "Org admin approvals", "Vendor account transfers"],
  }),

  B.h1("11. Sign-off"),
  B.table(["", "Name", "Signature", "Date"],
    [["Handed over by", "", "", ""], ["Received by", "", "", ""]],
    [2400, 2400, 2400, 1800]),
];

await B.buildDocument("/mnt/user-data/outputs/Release_and_Maintenance_Guide.docx", {
  docLabel: "Release & Maintenance Guide",
  title: "Release & Maintenance Guide",
  subtitle: "Acme Order Platform",
  versionHistory: [["0.1", "2026-07-19", "Jane Doe", "Initial draft"]],
  approvers: [["Jane Doe", "Delivery Manager", "", ""]],
  revisionLog: [],
  sections,
});

Available functions: h1/h2/h3/h4, para, bullets, table(headers, rows, widths), pageBreak, toBeCompleted(explanation), diagramPlaceholder({name, purpose, recommendedContent, notes}), and buildDocument(path, options). Always use heading functions for titles so Word's Table of Contents and Navigation Pane work correctly.

Success Criteria

A new team should be able to release a change, follow the project's conventions, know who to ask about what, and see exactly what access still needs transferring — using only this document.