Mintlify Writer: the ghostwriter your codebase didn't ask for

What it does

Mintlify Writer is a VS Code (and IntelliJ) extension that generates documentation for your code on demand. Highlight a function, hit ⌘ + . or click “Write Docs,” and it spits out a docstring in your chosen format. It supports a dozen languages from Python to Rust and outputs to JSDoc, reST, NumPy, Doxygen, and others.

The interesting bit

The project is essentially a thin client: your code leaves your machine, gets processed by Mintlify’s servers, and returns as formatted documentation. The README is admirably blunt about this — “your code does leave your machine” — which is rarer than it should be in AI tooling.

Key highlights

• Supports 12+ languages including TypeScript, Go, Rust, and Dart
• Outputs to 9 docstring formats (JSDoc, reST, NumPy, Google, etc.)
• Available as both VS Code extension and IntelliJ plugin
• 3,129 GitHub stars with active Discord community
• One-key workflow: highlight, ⌘ + ., done

Caveats

• No longer maintained: The Mintlify team has discontinued updates; they’re pushing users to their commercial documentation product instead
• Cloud-dependent: All code analysis happens server-side, not locally
• “More under construction”: Several languages and formats marked with 🚧 emoji suggest incomplete coverage

Verdict

Worth a look if you want to retrofit docstrings onto legacy code without the typing. Skip it if you need offline tooling, ongoing support, or have strict data residency requirements — this is abandonware with a cloud dependency.