December 6, 2025
AI docs: magic or madness?
Roko's Dancing Basilisk
Auto-doc site amazes one coder, enrages the crowd
TLDR: An AI site auto-generated about 30 pages of documentation for a long-running blog engine, catching one real bug and a few quirks. Commenters blasted it for polluting search results and misleading users, with some blocking it entirely, while a few admitted quick overviews can help—trust remains the fight
The blog post’s punchline: an auto-doc site called DeepWiki churned out nearly 30 pages for a 26-year-old codebase—mostly correct, a little weird (it can’t count layers) and downright “meh” on visuals. The author even found a real bug thanks to the diagrams. But the audience? Pure chaos. Terr_ squints at the clicky title, asking if the bad docs are “the Basilisk’s vengeance”—a wink at the internet myth of a future AI that punishes non-believers. Others aren’t laughing.
riffraff groans that DeepWiki now shows up in searches uninvited, while rustman123 says they blocked the site after being misled by its “documentation,” calling it “utter bullshit.” The vibe: AI-written docs might wow one coder, but they’re spamming everyone else. Meanwhile, the post got “hugged” (too much traffic), so hrimfaxi dropped an archive link like a lifeboat.
The community’s split: Some appreciate quick, broad overviews that can even surface bugs; many say AI doc-dumps clutter the internet and trick users. Jokes about “dancing basilisk” swirled alongside eye-rolls at UI gripes (tiny diagrams, endless repetition). Verdict on DeepWiki: impressive for speed, dangerous for trust—and it’s invading your search results whether you want it or not. Readers called it helpful, harmful, and hilariously confusing today
Key Points
- •DeepWiki generated ~30 pages of documentation for the author’s mod_blog repository, capturing several system behaviors accurately.
- •A mismatch was noted: the text claimed three primary layers while the diagram showed five (Entry, Processing, Rendering, Storage, Configuration).
- •Usability issues included a hidden-scroll menu, inconsistent diagram sizing/layouts, and content repetition; site remained usable without JavaScript, albeit with missing diagrams.
- •Specific inaccuracies: RSS 0.91 vs claimed RSS 2.0; $BLOG_CONFIG check location; unnecessary --config flag when $BLOG_CONFIG is set; omission of SUID usage details; misinterpretation of posthook failure effects.
- •Reviewing the generated docs helped the author identify two code issues in mod_blog: a caching-related bug and use of a literal constant instead of a defined constant.