📖 Developer Satisfaction 2026 Report

🗂️ Technical documentation

tl;dr

Wikis are still popular tools for...
- reading documentation - wikis are still the most popular place to read documentation (similar to last year)
- writing documentation - 80% prefer to write documentation on wiki, similar to last year.
When faced with an obstacle during Wikimedia development work, the two most preferred methods for finding solutions are searching on codesearch and using a generic websearch (whereas last year, the top two were searching on a wiki and searching on codesearch).

# Reading documentation on wikis

“How often do you read technical documentation on a wiki?”

A majority (75%) said they read technical documentation on a wiki very or somewhat frequently
19% said occasionally
4% said very infrequently

# Reading preference

“Where do you prefer to read technical documentation? Rank the following from 1 (most preferred) to 4 (least preferred)”

On a wiki had the highest mean rank, and was also ranked #1 (most preferred) by the most participants.

For the respondents who said "somewhere else", one emergent theme was that the location or format of documentation may be less relevant than just finding something accurate that answers your question.

Several replies mentioned using LLMs or AI chat bots
Several replies mentioned other other websites, like Stack Overflow or Read the Docs.

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# Finding information

“When you hit a roadblock/obstacle during a Wikimedia development task, how do you look for information to find a solution?”

Last year, there was a tie between "Searching on a single wiki" and "Searching on codesearch" being ranked as the top methods for solution-finding.

This year, the top method was overwhelmingly "Search on codesearch". "Using a generic web search" was the second most highly ranked (up from third last year). "Searching on a single wiki" was the third most highly ranked.

For respondents who ranked "somewhere else", Phabricator recurred most frequently as another place people look for information to unblock themselves.

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# Writing documentation

“How often do you write technical documentation?”

45% said somewhat or very frequently write documentation
35% said they occasionally write documentation
17% said very infrequently write documentation
3% were unsure

Of note: 0% said never write documentation, down from 9% last year.

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# Writing documentation preference

“Where do you prefer to write technical documentation?”

Respondents could select more than one answer.

80% said “on a wiki” (similar to 84% last year)
56% said “in code comments” (down from 65% last year)
45% said “in Markdown files in a code repository” (similar to 48% last year)
4% said “somewhere else” (similar to 4% last year)