Problem

Right now, Secret Network developers are spending too many support / mentor hours helping other builders due to the documentation lacking up to date information, assuming too much, or completely missing crucial information. The documentation in its current state is lowering the efficiency of all contributors to the Secret Network ecosystem, and is turning away developers looking to start building on Secret Network.

Without an exceptional developer onboarding experience, and a high standard of documentation, it becomes increasingly difficult for the Secret Network to compete with other top projects. There is exceptional talent working to grow the Secret Network, but this talent is being hindered by the workflow and communication practices currently to produce documentation.

For Secret Network to become a top 20 crypto project, and for privacy to win, the documentation must become a priority.

What’s Been Done So Far

1. [Completion of ‘Developer documentation overhaul - Bizdev/Foundation Initiative short term goals](https://github.com/SecretFoundation/docs/issues/30)

Quick repairs on the Docs i.e make sure links work and that nothing is immediately incorrect or broken
- This was meant to be a stop gap solution so while working on the second phase of this initiative incoming developers are not slowed down
Work through active dev docs
- This was the bulk of the short-term work of the proposal. It included going through every stop on all tutorials provided on the SCRT Docs and Figment Learn to fix and improve upon them.
Do a thorough analysis of the docs that compares SCRT documentation to source documentation,, and re-write or purge irrelevant documentation.
Long term goals (not complete)
- Coordinate internal SCRT Tooling. Lots of tools built around Secret are not in a unified location for developers to quickly access. Ex. Why is griptape not referenced?
- Create a ‘how to port your dApp from Terra to Secret’ guide (not relevant now)
- Align Secret dev docs with external cosmwasm dev docs 2. Developer Survey ( https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1KEQ454ajGQ0oNmyZHJHVqbUIfIr71VBEEZQwkUgRuL8/edit ) 3. Docs team formation and communication between Secret Foundation and SCRT Labs
Many parts of the documentation require a specific set of knowledge and skills to create documentation efficiently and at a high level of quality. We formed a team with the skills necessary to efficiently create all sections of Secret Network documentation.
Communication between stakeholders of the docs was lacking and caused a lot of work to be done that was not needed, quickly became outdated, or was not efficient due to insufficient training. We solved these issues through having a daily stand up meeting to focus efforts, offer help, and keep everyone accountable. 4. Transition from Github to Gibook
Github is difficult to work collaboratively on documentation with, provides poor SEO optimization, and makes it hard to produce good looking documentation. We ported over all previous documentation related content to Gitbook, came up with a more user friendly structure for the docs, and established how to use Gitbook effectively as a team. 5. Update docs / add missing information
Much of the documentation lacks context, flow, organization, and is missing critical information for developers and users looking to learn more about Secret Network (what technologies make it possible, how those technologies are used, what’s possible with what is already built, why focus on privacy, etc…)
Completed tasks associated with fixing outdated documentation, and adding missing information are being assigned and tracked via Discord in the ‘Secret University’ server under ‘Documentation’.

Solution / Project Description

Primary Focus

We intend to complete the transition of Secret Network documentation to Gitbook, update parts of the docs that are outdated and/or lack context, and add all content that is missing. There will be a larger focus given to the following sections of documentation: Secret Network Overview, Ecosystem Overview, validators / nodes, and secretcli.

We will not be focusing on parts of the developer documentation destined to change with the upcoming Secret Network upgrade from v0.1 to v1 (examples Handles, queries, Init), unless the current documentation does not work as expected OR is completely missing something that is not set to change (i.e storage).

Secondary Focus

The secondary focus on this project is to establish an efficient and collaborative workflow to create high quality documentation for the Secret Network LONG TERM. This requires a clear path to create, collaborate, and propose changes.

Post Proposal Completion

After completing this proposal there should be at least one person who understands the absolute state of the documentation, what core developers are working on, what the community is working on, and how to best use resources to update and maintain documentation as new technologies and systems are developed and pushed into production across the entire Secret Network ecosystem to maintain / update the documentation after this project is complete.

Team's Experience

1. Norfmenn (Github — LinkedIn) - 20 hours

Technical, scientific, and copywriter with experience exclusively focused on technology and technology companies (8 years – books, technical white papers, wiki articles, blogs, science writing, email marketing, web copy, and app copy)
Knowledge of the fundamentals of programming languages (Javascript, Python, R, Rust, Solidity, Haskell, YAML), linux administration, and dev ops
Close to a decade of experience working in remote team environments within the tech sector
Part-time working within crypto since 2018, and full-time since 2020 2. Schultzie (Github — LinkedIn) - 10 hours
Software Engineer with 8 years experience
Authored dozens of software architectural documents
Member of the former Secret Infrastructure team 3. Danny (Github + Digiline + SecretDreamscape — LinkedIn) - 5 hours
Strong Software development experience, focused primarily on backend development (10 years)
Linux Server management and administration experience (10 years)
Developed the Secret IDE (Secret Network’s “unofficially official” integrated development environment)
Developed Secret DreamScape (fully on-chain game on Secret Network) 4. Lumi (Github + Trivium Node — LinkedIn) - 5 hours
Smart contract development on Secret Network
Developed Blackbox, Anons smart-contract, randomized snip721 minting template
Provides ongoing developer support for multiple new projects and devs 5. Ertemann (Github — LinkedIn) - 10 hours
Experienced scientific writer and documentation writer for data science products
Education lead - focus on structure of the documentation and the tech/ecosystem overview 6. Gino (Github + Digiline + Secret DreamScape— LinkedIn) - No Hours
Product lead Secret IDE and Secret DreamScape
Co-leading the dev committee with Trivium team 7. SRDTRK (Github) - No Hours
Smart contract development on Secret Network
Prepared the factory-offspring template
Project lead for Cover, still ongoing nft lending platform
Reviewed community code
Wrote nft-authorization contract

Project Milestones / Costs

Project Timeline Past

This project started as a continuation of a community pool spend via the BizDev committee led by Schultzie, Norfmenn and Ertemann. At a certain moment the old project had succeeded its goals of temporarily fixing the majority of the developer documentation, but significant verbose descriptions were still lacking.

This follow up Project already started around the end of March / start of April where Ertemann, Schultzie and Norfmenn put in many hours trying to gather a team capable of tackling this together. Getting a team together from the community with the uncertainty of funding can be considered the most important deliverable already — we now have a team highly motivated to see Secret Network thrive.

At the end of April we got a team together willing to spend time (still lacking some commitment from smart contract devs which came later), and got a signal from some SCRT Labs members that funding via a grant or contract might be feasible.We started putting a timeline and structure together for the documentation with guidance from Reuven and Assaf. A signal by Guy for a willingness to fund at the end of may made it so the entire team started dedicating the stated hours above.

A significant time investment went into sketching out a viable structure (lending Development section from earlier work by Gino and Lumi) and gathering thoughts from the community (survey) and the main stakeholders (Foundation for SEO/Rendering. SCRT labs for updating timelines and Funding). In the meantime effort was put in to move the documentation to gitbook and establish a way for people to contribute.

At this moment in time the entire structure is already visible in the new Gitbook alongside some of the “finished” (not reviewed) sections like: Certs - viewing keys and permits, introduction, use cases, validators overview, development handles, development storage, secretCLI multisig, and address types.

With significant work already put into: Ecosystem overview - overview, development queries, development interchain interaction and more.

Milestones

1. See section ‘What’s been done so far’ for more detail (COMPLETE)

Put together docs team and establish daily meetings to discuss what needs to be worked on OR not worked on, ask each other for help, and hold each other accountable
Improve structure of documentation layout
Port over all relevant doc related materials into Gitbook based on the new documentation structure
Updated / added specific doc pages
- Secretcli (multisigs, generating keys, address types/key types)
- Development (viewing keys and permits, storage, handles)
- Secret network overview (overview, introduction, use cases)
- Validator pages are now up to date / complete
Work with SCRT Labs to determine what should be focused on related to documentation with the v1 upgrade coming soon
Held a survey to find pain points in the documentation.

2. Deprecate old documentation for revised documentation (copy editing, fix outdated materials, remove irrelevant content, minor restructuring / formatting of old content) on Gitbook (Estimated completion date is June 24th → ~70% Complete at time of grant proposal)

Finish the Secret Network overview
- Why secret network
  - History, privacy for blockchain, network architecture (scrt/sSCRT), roadmap, community and use cases
- Blockchain technology
  - Tendermint
    - Consensus / decentralization info
  - CosmWasm
  - IBC
    - Security and permissions info
- Privacy technology
  - Intel SGX, encryption protocol - Transaction flow
  - Trusted and untrusted core
  - Sealing (Maybe later)
  - Registration SGX, bootstrap, key derivation, attestation
  - Privacy attacks (Additional info later on)
  - Privacy comparison other technology (might be incomplete
Finish the Ecosystem overview
- Overview with link throughs (AWSM Secret)
- Applications
  - FAQ on the major ones, list with short description on the lesser known ones
- Funding (done, all 5 ways)
- Contributors and entities
  - Core
  - Validators (Might be missing info on some still at this milestone)
  - Secret network dictionary
Copy over some of the user guides - leave rest for later
- Bridge guides
- Application guides
Development Documentation workable on every section
- Improved Permissioned viewing, storage
- No additions on Storage, handles. Queries, init (everything definitely included in CosmWasm V1)
- Do NOT create Full stack guides yet
Validator section close to complete
- Might need more verbose on best practices

3. Complete the following documentation related materials (Estimated completion date is July 15th)

Secret Network Overview (Ertemann + Norfmenn)
- Finish the privacy technology section
- Add infographics to Cosmos tech stack and privacy tech stack
- Spend some extra time on the 2 landing pages for “join the community” with a step by step for both developers and users/investors to find info and get to the correct parties.
Ecosystem Overview (Ertemann + Norfmenn)
- Finish the validator descriptions
- Complete FAQ on even the most recent applications
- Add info on the decentralization of the network
- Add a section on Governance participation in the Ecosystem.
User Guides (Ertemann/Schultzie + editing by Norfmenn)
- Add CLI, ledger and Keplr wallet guides
Development (Lumi + Danny + Srdtrk + editing by Norfmenn)
- Add fullstack guides (front end, back end)
- Add verbose description of best practices for every section
- Add section about novel use cases of Secret contracts
- Add verbose description about the limitations yet optionalities of Secret contracts (reference above use cases) Ex no contract updates, add private keys inside contract
- Secretcli (Norfmenn)
Validators (DONE) (Shultzie + Gino + Norfmenn)
Post Mortems (Schultzie + editing by Norfmenn)
- Add verbose descriptions to the Changelog of Secret Network GIT to explain why certain changes were made and how it impacted the network, certain API calls etc.

4. Review (Complete by July 15th) - will be less thorough because of hour reduction in hours

Review each section
Add verbosity/guides for the last development things.
Set up a contributing md for the future
Move to github contributions from current gitbook live edit strategy

Funding Request

Organizational/setup work+costs (backpay for the work done by the previous documentation team to get a team and structure up and running) $5000

Starting May 23th - July 15th - 8 weeks total 50 hours at $65/hour = $3250/week

For a total of:

$31000 | ~ 31000 SCRT (at $1)

Paid 50% at the completion of phase 2 Paid 50% at the completion of phase 4

We are willing to have the full amount funded in SCRT, any discretionary budget left will be returned after grant completion.

The team is happy to spend time after completion of the proposal on setting up a dedicated team/structure/funding method for keeping an up to date and high quality documentation page. This documentation effort can transform into a developer education style framework if there seems to be need for that after the completion of this docs.scrt.network overhaul.

scrtlabs / Grants

Developer documentation overhaul [docs.scrt.network] #54