In 2011, this is how you check a project's vital signs: https://github.com/sgillies/shapely/commits/master/.
In my honest opinion (disclaimer: I am the lead developer and manual author), Shapely's documentation is right up there with any other GIS software; maybe not quite as good as the PostGIS manual (crême de la crême), but better than ArcPy's, and much better than GEOS's.
