April 2, 2026
Making Platform Docs Learnable
Starter apps can make platform docs easier to learn because developers can run the flow before they understand every moving part.
Docs should help developers get to a working app quickly.
For platform products, reference docs are not enough. Developers also need to see how the pieces fit together in an app.
I worked on React Native mobile documents (mDocs) tutorials for MATTR’s mobile credential software development kits (SDKs). The tutorials live in mattrglobal/sample-apps.
There are two examples:
react-native-mdocs-holder-tutorial: claim a mobile document into a holder appreact-native-mdocs-verifier-tutorial: verify a mobile document from a React Native verifier
Each tutorial has a starter app and a complete app.
The starter app gives developers the boring parts up front: project structure, dependencies, screens, and a clear place to begin the tutorial work.
The complete app shows the expected end state. It keeps the tutorial body shorter because the final code is there when someone needs it.
That split made the docs easier to use. The tutorial could stay focused on the flow. The repo carried the setup, the running app, and the known-good version to compare against.