diff --git a/doc/src/Developer.rst b/doc/src/Developer.rst
index 406dd26f59..b0cfcc14fc 100644
--- a/doc/src/Developer.rst
+++ b/doc/src/Developer.rst
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ of time and requests from the LAMMPS user community.
    Developer_org
    Developer_code_design
    Developer_parallel
+   Developer_atom
    Developer_comm_ops
    Developer_flow
    Developer_write
diff --git a/doc/src/Developer_atom.rst b/doc/src/Developer_atom.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..704e4a8961
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/src/Developer_atom.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+Accessing per-atom data
+-----------------------
+
+This page discusses how per-atom data is managed in LAMMPS, how it can
+be accessed, what communication patters apply, and some of the utility
+functions that exist for a variety of purposes.
+
+
+Owned and ghost atoms
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+As described on the :doc:`parallel partitioning algorithms
+<Developer_par_part>` page, LAMMPS uses a domain decomposition of the
+simulation domain, either in a *brick* or *tiled* manner.  Each MPI
+process *owns* exactly one subdomain and the atoms within it. To compute
+forces for tuples of atoms that are spread across sub-domain boundaries,
+also a "halo" of *ghost* atoms are maintained within a the communication
+cutoff distance of its subdomain.
+
+The total number of atoms is stored in `Atom::natoms` (within any
+typical class this can be referred to at `atom->natoms`. The number of
+*owned* (or "local" atoms) are stored in `Atom::nlocal`; the number of
+*ghost* atoms is stored in `Atom::nghost`.  The sum of `Atom::nlocal`
+over all MPI processes should be `Atom::natoms`. This is by default
+regularly checked by the Thermo class, and if the sum does not match,
+LAMMPS stops with a "lost atoms" error.  For convenience also the
+property `Atom::nmax` is available, this is the maximum of
+`Atom::nlocal + Atom::nghost` across all MPI processes.
+
+Per-atom properties are either managed by the atom style, or individual
+classes.  or as custom arrays by the individual classes. If only access
+to *owned* atoms is needed, they are usually allocated to be of size
+`Atom::nlocal`, otherwise of size `Atom::nmax`. Please note that not all
+per-atom properties are available or updated on *ghost* atoms. For
+example, per-atom velocities are only updated with :doc:`comm_modify vel
+yes <comm_modify>`.
+
+
+Atom indexing
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+When referring to individual atoms, they may be indexed by their local
+*index*, their index in their `Atom::x` array. This is densely populated
+containing first all *owned* atoms (index < `Atom::nlocal`) and then all
+*ghost* atoms.  The order of atoms in these arrays can change due to
+atoms migrating between between subdomains, atoms being added or
+deleted, or atoms being sorted for better cach efficiency.  Atoms are
+globally uniquely identified by their *atom ID*. There may be multiple
+atoms with the same atom ID present, but only one of them may be an
+*owned* atom.
+
+To find the local *index* of an atom, when the *atom ID* is known, the
+`Atom::map()` function may be used. It will return the local atom index
+or -1. If the returned value is between 0 (inclusive) and `Atom::nlocal`
+(exclusive) it is an *owned* or "local" atom; for larger values the atom
+is present as a ghost atom; for a value of -1, the atom is not present
+on the current subdomain at all.
+
+If multiple atoms with the same tag exist in the same subdomain, they
+can be found via the `Atom::sametag` array. It points to the next atom
+index with the same tag or -1 if there are no more atoms with the same
+tag.  The list will be exhaustive when starting with an index of an
+*owned* atom, since the atom IDs are unique, so there can only be one
+such atom.  Example code to count atoms with same atom ID in subdomain:
+
+.. code-block:: c++
+
+   for (int i = 0; i < atom->nlocal; ++i) {
+     int count = 0;
+     while (sametag[i] >= 0) {
+       i = sametag[i];
+       ++count;
+     }
+     printf("Atom ID: %ld is present %d times\n", atom->tag[i], count);
+   }
+
+Atom class versus AtomVec classes
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The `Atom` class contains all kinds of flags and counters about atoms in
+the system and that includes pointers to **all** per-atom properties
+availabel for atoms.  However, only a subset of these pointers are
+non-NULL and which those are depends on the atom style.  For each atom
+style there is a corresponding `AtomVecXXX` class derived from the
+`AtomVec` base class, where the XXX indicates the atom style.  This
+`AtomVecXXX` class will update the counters and per-atom pointers if
+atoms are added or removed to the system or migrate between subdomains.
+