User Manual API Docs

1. Inventory the real external, administrative, and internal API surfaces. Never infer that an endpoint is public from its route alone.
2. Prefer checked-in contracts. For OpenAPI or AsyncAPI, lint and bundle before rendering. Read openapi.md.
3. Produce separate audience bundles so internal or administrator operations cannot leak into public output.
4. Document purpose, caller, authentication concept, permissions, method/path or channel, parameters, request/response schemas, statuses/errors, evidenced limits, versioning, and safe synthetic examples.
5. Explain each operation in plain language before presenting technical reference.
6. If no reliable contract exists, mark the generated reference as a draft and record the missing contract as documentation debt.