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Documentation reorganization

2026-04-25 — Top tabs and unified operations section

The MkDocs Material layout now uses top-level tabs for the main documentation sections. The former Operate and Operations top-level nav groups were merged into one Operations tab.

Path changes:

  • operations/index.mdoperate/production.md
  • operations/cloud-testing.mdoperate/cloud-testing.md
  • operations/tox-matrix.mdoperate/tox-matrix.md

2026-04-22 — Tree-structured use cases

The use-case docs were reorganized from a flat list (18 pages at the same level) into a decision tree:

  • Three top-level use-case families: Sharded KV storage, Sharded KV + Vector, Sharded Vector search.
  • Each family has a conceptual overview page (shared concepts: sharding, manifests, two-phase publish, safety).
  • Overview pages branch into build and read sections.
  • Writer build pages are merged by writer flavor (one page covers both SlateDB and SQLite backends).
  • KV+Vector build pages use content tabs for Python/Spark/Dask/Ray examples.
  • Reader pages are split by backend (SlateDB vs SQLite) under sync/async.
  • Operate docs were promoted to a top-level nav section.

Directory changes

Old flat path New tree path
use-cases/build-python-slatedb.md use-cases/kv-storage/build/python.md
use-cases/build-python-sqlite.md merged into use-cases/kv-storage/build/python.md
use-cases/build-spark-slatedb.md use-cases/kv-storage/build/spark.md
use-cases/build-spark-sqlite.md merged into use-cases/kv-storage/build/spark.md
use-cases/build-dask-slatedb.md use-cases/kv-storage/build/dask.md
use-cases/build-dask-sqlite.md merged into use-cases/kv-storage/build/dask.md
use-cases/build-ray-slatedb.md use-cases/kv-storage/build/ray.md
use-cases/build-ray-sqlite.md merged into use-cases/kv-storage/build/ray.md
use-cases/build-python-slatedb-lancedb.md use-cases/kv-vector/build/composite.md
use-cases/build-python-sqlite-vec.md use-cases/kv-vector/build/unified.md
use-cases/build-vector-lancedb-standalone.md use-cases/vector/build/lancedb.md
use-cases/build-vector-sqlite-vec-standalone.md use-cases/vector/build/sqlite-vec.md
use-cases/read-sync-slatedb.md use-cases/kv-storage/read/sync/slatedb.md
use-cases/read-sync-sqlite.md use-cases/kv-storage/read/sync/sqlite.md
use-cases/read-async-slatedb.md use-cases/kv-storage/read/async/slatedb.md
use-cases/read-async-sqlite.md use-cases/kv-storage/read/async/sqlite.md
use-cases/operate-cli.md operate/cli.md
use-cases/operate-manifest-history-and-rollback.md operate/history-rollback.md
use-cases/operate-prometheus-metrics.md operate/prometheus-metrics.md
use-cases/operate-otel-metrics.md operate/otel-metrics.md

New pages added:

  • use-cases/kv-storage/overview.md
  • use-cases/kv-vector/overview.md
  • use-cases/vector/overview.md
  • use-cases/kv-storage/build/index.md
  • use-cases/kv-storage/read/index.md
  • use-cases/vector/read/sync.md
  • use-cases/vector/read/async.md
  • use-cases/kv-vector/read/sync.md
  • use-cases/kv-vector/read/async.md
  • operate/index.md

Diagrams restored

Mermaid diagrams from the pre-2026-04-21 deep-dive docs (writers/*.md, reader.md, how-it-works.md) were restored and updated to match current source code behavior. These include data-flow flowcharts for all four writers, manifest lifecycle sequence diagrams, reader refresh safety diagrams, and cold-start fallback flowcharts.


2026-04-21 — Use-case-driven layout

The docs were restructured from a concept-first layout (one page per major concept: writer, reader, vector-search, ...) into a use-case-driven layout (one page per task the user wants to accomplish, plus thin architecture/reference/operations sections).

What moved where

Removed top-level pages

The following pages were superseded and removed. Their content was distributed across use-cases, architecture, and reference:

Old New home
index.md rewritten as a clickable use-case map
getting-started.md merged into per-use-case "Install" + "Minimal example" sections
how-it-works.md split across architecture/*
writer.md architecture/writer-core.md + per-framework use-cases
writers/spark.md use-cases/build-spark-{slatedb,sqlite}.md
writers/dask.md use-cases/build-dask-{slatedb,sqlite}.md
writers/ray.md use-cases/build-ray-{slatedb,sqlite}.md
writers/python.md use-cases/build-python-{slatedb,sqlite}.md
reader.md use-cases/read-{sync,async}-{slatedb,sqlite}.md + architecture/manifest-and-current.md
vector-search.md use-cases/build-vector-*.md + use-cases/build-python-{slatedb-lancedb,sqlite-vec}.md
manifest-stores.md architecture/manifest-stores.md
cli.md use-cases/operate-cli.md + reference/cli.md
observability.md architecture/observability.md + use-cases/operate-{prometheus,otel}-metrics.md
error-handling.md architecture/error-model.md
glossary.md reference/glossary.md
api.md reference/api.md
release.md merged into contributing/

Operations

Old New
operations.md operations/index.md (verbatim)
cloud-testing.md operations/cloud-testing.md (verbatim)
tox-and-dependency-matrix.md operations/tox-matrix.md (verbatim)

Engineering notes

The 9 dated notes were copied verbatim to history/historical-notes/. Six ADRs were extracted to history/design-decisions/. Two still-open plans were also copied to history/implementation-plans/.

Source note ADR(s) Plans
2026-03-14-manifest-history-and-rollback.md ADR-001
2026-03-15-reliable-loser-cleanup-plan.md — (informs ADR-003) open
2026-03-24-test-coverage-gap-closure.md open
2026-03-25-consistent-writer-retry.md ADR-004
2026-03-25-run-registry-for-deferred-cleanup.md ADR-003
2026-03-28-categorical-cel-routing.md ADR-002
2026-04-04-sharded-vector-search.md ADR-005
2026-04-06-vector-search-review.md informs ADR-006
2026-04-19-lancedb-vector-migration.md ADR-006

New sections

  • use-cases/ — 20 task-oriented pages, each following an 11-section template: When to use / When NOT to use / Install / Minimal example / Configuration / Functional properties / Non-functional properties / Guarantees / Weaknesses / Failure modes & recovery / See also.
  • architecture/ — 11 internals pages.
  • contributing/ — 8 pages on how to extend / contribute.
  • reference/api.md, config.md, cli.md, glossary.md.
  • history/ — ADRs + open plans + verbatim notes (this section).

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Validation

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