How to Fix a Messy Team Wiki

Your wiki should answer questions fast. If people don’t trust it, they stop using it. This guide shows clear, practical steps to clean things up and keep it that way.

---

Quick diagnosis

• Search returns multiple pages for the same topic
• Docs are out of date after releases
• People can’t tell where to put new content
• Links are broken or point to old pages

---

Problem 1: Duplicate and conflicting content

Symptom: Two similar pages (e.g., “Deployment Guide”) with different steps.

Why it happens: Poor discoverability and no canonical page per topic.

Fix:

1. Create a single “canonical” page per topic.
2. Add a short notice to duplicates that points to the canonical page.
3. Use PRs to update the canonical page instead of creating a new one.
4. Require a “Search before you write” step in your PR template.

Example PR checklist:

- [ ] Searched the wiki for an existing page
- [ ] Updated the canonical page (linked here) instead of creating a duplicate
- [ ] Added redirects or links from older pages

If you use Haxiom, turn on similarity search to surface related docs when creating a page.

---

Problem 2: Outdated documentation

Symptom: Instructions fail after a library or API change.

Why it happens: Docs live outside the development workflow. No owners or review cycle.

Fix (Docs-as-Code):

1. Store docs in the repo next to code (Markdown).
2. Add ownership with CODEOWNERS so the right team reviews changes.
3. Link docs to releases; update as part of the same PR.
4. Add CI checks for broken links and stale references.

Minimal setup:

# CODEOWNERS
/docs/**     @team-platform
/runbooks/** @team-sre

# .github/workflows/docs.yml
name: Docs checks
on: pull_request
jobs:
  links:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: lycheeverse/lychee-action@v1
        with:
          args: --verbose --no-progress "docs/**/*.md"

Haxiom connects to GitHub and keeps docs editable with a real-time editor while staying in Git.

---

Problem 3: No clear structure

Symptom: Content ends up in “General” or “Misc” and is never found again.

Why it happens: No information architecture or naming rules.

Fix:

• Define 5–8 top-level categories (e.g., “Runbooks”, “How-to”, “Architecture”, “Onboarding”).
• Use a simple URL and filename convention:
  • kebab-case filenames
  • one topic per page
  • clear titles with key terms up front
• Use tags for cross-cutting topics (service names, teams, platforms).
• Provide a page template:
  • Context
  • Prerequisites
  • Steps
  • Validation
  • Rollback

If you’re in Haxiom, enable folder suggestions to auto-place new docs.

---

Problem 4: Search that people actually use

Improve search relevance with small changes:

• Put primary keywords in the first 60 characters of the title
• Add a one-line summary under the title
• Use consistent terminology (e.g., “deploy”, not “release” in some places and “ship” in others)
• Add synonyms to your search config if supported

---

Governance: Keep it clean

• Assign an owner per top-level category
• Set review cadence for critical docs (e.g., quarterly for runbooks)
• Track freshness: “last reviewed” vs. “last edited”
• Add redirects when renaming or merging pages
• Monitor metrics: search queries with no results, most-edited pages, most-viewed pages

---

30–60–90 day plan

• 30 days: Choose categories, add CODEOWNERS, migrate top 50 docs to the new structure.
• 60 days: Turn on link checking, add PR checklist, clean duplicates with redirects.
• 90 days: Add review cadences, measure search gaps, iterate on categories.

---

Tools

You can do all of the above with GitHub + Markdown. Haxiom adds:

• Similarity search to prevent duplicates
• Real-time Markdown editor with clean rendering
• GitHub integration for Docs-as-Code
• AI-assisted placement and quick summaries

---

Want a faster start? Try Haxiom’s free beta: https://app.haxiom.io/