From Writer to Tool Builder: AI Coding Agents for Technical Documentation

In this session, Rebecca Alves, Senior Technical Writer and AI Innovation Lead at Indeed, shared her real-world experience using AI coding agents such as Cursor and Claude to build documentation automation tools that are now integral to her team’s workflow.

She walked through three major automation projects she built from scratch, shared the challenges she faced, the lessons she learned, and the best practices that helped her succeed.

Key takeaways

Why Docs as Code is the Foundation for Automation

Learn how programmatic access to content, Git-based workflows, and text-based files create endless automation possibilities that were previously inaccessible to technical writers.

Three Real-World Automation Projects

Rebecca walked through practical examples of tools she built:

• Release Notes Automation – Streamlining the process of gathering, categorizing, and formatting release notes from Git commits.
• Translation Sync Tracking – Monitoring translation status across multiple languages with automated dashboards and alerts
• Quality Assessment Tool – Systematically auditing documentation pages using custom rubrics and AI-powered scoring.

Essential Best Practices for AI Collaboration

• Always ask for a plan first, before generating code.
• Write down your manual process before automating.
• Treat AI as a pair programming partner, not a magic solution
• Make AI “show its work” to catch hallucinations.
• Start simple, iterate in small steps.

Choosing Your First Automation Project

Rebecca’s recommendations for where to start:

• Tedious, repetitive tasks
• Rules-based processes with clear patterns
• Low-risk projects (change log generation, broken link checking, file organization)

About the Speaker

Rebecca Alves is a Senior Technical Writer and AI Innovation Lead at Indeed. She specializes in leveraging AI coding agents to build documentation automation in docs-as-code environments, with expertise in prompt engineering, LLM-powered workflows, and responsible AI governance. Previously, she led Indeed’s technical writing function as Technical Writing Manager, guiding teams through organizational changes while maintaining strategic cross-functional partnerships. She is a Doctoral Candidate and holds a Master of Arts in Rhetoric and Public Advocacy from the University of Iowa and is transitioning to developer evangelism and external thought leadership.