How Midnight Network stabilized its documentation during a fast-moving blockchain launch
When the team brought Hackmamba in, their documentation had fallen behind a fast-moving product, community contributions were going unaddressed, and the environment beneath the docs kept shifting. Over the engagement, Hackmamba helped stabilize the documentation, clear the backlog, and keep things moving through the chaos.
Key outcomes
- Cleared a backlog of unreviewed community pull requests, restoring the open source contribution loop
- Audited and updated outdated, inconsistent, and incomplete documentation across key developer workflows
- Maintained documentation continuity through multiple environment shifts across preprod, production, and canary
- Established an async-first workflow using Git, Asana, and Slack that did not depend on direct engineering access
Company snapshot
- Industry: Blockchain / Web3
- Company Size: Early-stage / startup
- Location: Remote (Global)
- Use case: Developer documentation stabilization and community PR management
- Products: Midnight blockchain protocol, Compact smart contract language
The challenge
Midnight Network is building in one of the more technically demanding corners of blockchain development. Its protocol uses zero-knowledge proofs and selective disclosure to let applications verify sensitive data without exposing it, and developers write smart contracts in Compact, a language designed to abstract ZK complexity while staying close to TypeScript syntax. The developer experience depends heavily on documentation being accurate, current, and navigable.
By the time Hackmamba came on board, the documentation had accumulated significant debt. Content was outdated across multiple sections, coverage had gaps in key developer workflows, and writing quality was inconsistent throughout. For a protocol this technically demanding, unclear or incorrect documentation is not a minor inconvenience. It directly affects how quickly developers can build and how much they trust the platform.
The more pressing issue for the team was a growing backlog of unreviewed community pull requests. Midnight's documentation is open source, and contributions from the developer community are a core part of how it evolves. Leaving those PRs unaddressed sent the wrong signal to contributors and slowed the feedback loop between the community and the core team.
The operational structure added another layer of difficulty. Midnight Network's DevEx team managed the relationship, but the engineers with the deepest product knowledge sat at Shielded Technologies, the companion company responsible for building the protocol. Direct access to the people writing release notes and shipping features was limited. Information had to travel through an additional layer before it could reach the documentation.
We brought Hackmamba on at a chaotic moment in our documentation work, and David proved to be a reliable, fast-learning partner through it - Lauren Lee, Director of Developer Relations, Midnight Network
On top of that, the environment the documentation pointed to kept changing. Midnight was operating across preprod, production, and canary environments during this period, and which one served as the primary reference shifted multiple times during the engagement. Updates that applied to one environment one week applied to a different one the next.
Our approach
Diana Payton, Hackmamba's documentation manager, led the engagement. David, the technical writer on the project, came in with a strong technical foundation and reached full working confidence on Midnight's specific domain, zero-knowledge proofs, selective disclosure, and the Compact smart contract language, within two weeks of starting.
Once oriented, the work focused on three areas.
1. Clearing the community PR backlog
Open source documentation depends on community contributions being reviewed and merged in reasonable time. Hackmamba worked through the accumulated pull requests, reviewing, editing where needed, and resolving contributions that had been waiting. This restored the feedback loop between Midnight's developer community and the core team and signalled to contributors that their work was being acted on.
2. Auditing and updating existing content
David reviewed the documentation section by section for accuracy, gaps, and consistency. Outdated content was brought current, missing coverage was added across key developer workflows, and inconsistent writing was standardized. Given the complexity of the subject, ZK-proof mechanics, Compact contract syntax, environment-specific deployment flows, accuracy required close coordination with the DevEx team and careful cross-referencing against available release notes and internal product updates.
3. Working async through the noise
With engineering knowledge concentrated at Shielded Technologies and direct access to those engineers limited, Hackmamba leaned into asynchronous communication. Git comments, Asana, and Slack formed the operational backbone of the project. Changes were tracked, priorities were documented, and decisions moved forward without requiring synchronous calls that the team's structure could not reliably support.
When the primary environment shifted, sometimes week to week, Hackmamba absorbed the change, assessed what needed updating, prioritized the list, and worked through it. Lauren and the DevEx team would flag an unexpected change, and rather than treat it as a disruption, Hackmamba sat down, took stock of what had shifted, put it in order, and got on with it.
He came up to speed fast on a difficult and rapidly evolving subject area, stayed responsive, and helped us stay afloat during a demanding transition - Lauren Lee, Director of Developer Relations, Midnight Network
Results
- Community PR backlog cleared - open source contributions that had been waiting without review were assessed, edited where needed, and resolved
- Documentation brought current - outdated, inconsistent, and incomplete content was audited and updated across developer-facing workflows
- Continuity maintained through environment shifts - multiple changes between preprod, production, and canary were absorbed without derailing progress
- Async workflow held the project together- Git, Asana, and Slack coordination kept the project moving without depending on direct engineering access or real-time availability
We were grateful for the support when it counted - Lauren Lee, Director of Developer Relations, Midnight Network
Closing thoughts
Documentation for a privacy-first blockchain is hard to get right. The subject matter is genuinely complex, the product moves fast, and the community watching the docs is technical enough to notice when something is wrong or missing. What Midnight needed during this period was not just a writer who could learn the domain quickly, they needed a team that could stay calm, keep working, and not add to the chaos already in the system.
That is what the engagement delivered. No matter what shifted around the project, Hackmamba kept the documentation moving forward.
If your documentation is falling behind your product, or you are managing a difficult transition and need a team that can operate with minimal oversight, Hackmamba helps developer-first companies build, maintain, and improve technical documentation at the pace their product demands.
