The Hidden Costs of Not Documenting Your Plugin Code

We’ve all done it. You’re deep in the flow, building out a plugin feature, squashing bugs, hitting milestones—and you think, “I’ll document this later.”

Then later becomes never.

I used to think documentation was a “nice-to-have.” Something you do when the real work is done. But over the years—especially maintaining my own WordPress plugins and client custom solutions—I’ve seen how the lack of documentation creates invisible (but very real) costs.

Cost #1: Slower Development (Yes, Even for You)

The biggest lie we tell ourselves is that we’ll remember how something works “because we wrote it.” Six months later, you’re staring at your own code like it’s a riddle written by someone else. Without inline comments or clear README notes, every revisit becomes archaeology.

Worse, even current development slows down when you forget why a helper function behaves a certain way, or what parameters that hook expects.

Documentation isn’t for “someone else.” It’s for future you.

Cost #2: Onboarding Hell

Whether you’re growing a team or just collaborating with another dev for a sprint, a lack of documentation turns simple onboarding into a game of 20 Questions. What does this function do? Is this filter still used? Why is this action hook conditional?

Every minute your teammate spends asking basic questions (or worse—debugging things they don’t understand) is a minute lost to productivity. Multiply that over weeks or months and the time cost is huge.

I’ve had clients switch agencies purely because “the last dev left and no one knows how their plugin works.” That’s not a tech debt issue—that’s a business loss.

Cost #3: Increased Bugs and Regressions

When you don’t document intent, you leave interpretation up to the next developer’s guesswork. And guesses lead to bugs.

I once refactored an old plugin and removed what I thought was redundant logic. Turns out it was a workaround for a very specific WishList Member bug that I myself fixed from 5 years ago. That workaround wasn’t documented anywhere—only realized the issue after customers started reporting it in support.

One comment or note would’ve saved hours of debugging.

Cost #4: Lower Plugin Adoption and Community Contribution

This one’s especially true for public plugins. If people can’t figure out how to use your plugin or contribute to it because there’s no clear documentation, they’ll move on to one that is documented—even if it’s less powerful.

I’ve seen talented devs build incredible tools, only to wonder why no one uses them. The code may be clean, but if the onboarding experience is confusing, your plugin will sit idle.

Documentation isn’t marketing, but it is user experience.

Cost #5: Burnout

This one’s more subtle.

When you’re the only person who understands the plugin codebase, everything lands on your plate. Every question, every issue, every tweak. You can’t delegate, you can’t scale, and eventually… you get tired.

I’ve burned out maintaining side projects because no one else could help, and the idea of “explaining everything” felt more exhausting than just doing the work myself. That’s a trap.

Good documentation is how you offload that burden. It’s how you give yourself permission to rest and step away when needed.

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So Why Don’t We Document?

Honestly? It’s not sexy. You don’t get dopamine hits from writing function descriptions. There’s no client applause for a well-written README.

But over time, I’ve found a quiet pride in it. When a junior dev says, “I figured it out from your comments,” or when I revisit old code and don’t feel lost—it feels damn good.

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How I Approach Documentation Now

Nothing fancy. Just consistent:

• Inline comments for logic that’s not immediately obvious
• DocBlocks for all public functions and hooks
• README.md files that explain the plugin’s purpose, how to install, how to use, and how to contribute

When I’m pressed for time, I at least leave TODO comments or open a Notion page to circle back.

The key is to treat documentation like part of the code—not an afterthought. Just like you wouldn’t commit broken syntax, don’t leave logic undocumented.

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Final Thought

Code is temporary. Even plugins you’ve maintained for years will eventually evolve, be handed off, or sunset. But documentation is what gives that code clarity, life, and continuity.

If you’re not documenting your plugin code, you’re silently agreeing to future confusion, wasted time, and limited collaboration.

It’s not about perfection. It’s about leaving breadcrumbs—so someone else (or future you) doesn’t get lost.

Write the damn docs.