Document how to statically provide GraalVM hints

Closes gh-42515

Author: wilkinsona

spring-boot-project/spring-boot-docs/src/docs/asciidoc/native-image/advanced-topics.adoc

@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ For further reading, please see {graal-native-image-docs}/metadata/AutomaticMeta
 
 [[native-image.advanced.custom-hints]]
 === Custom Hints
-If you need to provide your own hints for reflection, resources, serialization, proxy usage etc. you can use the `RuntimeHintsRegistrar` API.
+If you need to provide your own hints for reflection, resources, serialization, proxy usage and so on, you can use the `RuntimeHintsRegistrar` API.
 Create a class that implements the `RuntimeHintsRegistrar` interface, and then make appropriate calls to the provided `RuntimeHints` instance:
 
 include::code:MyRuntimeHints[]
@@ -172,6 +172,15 @@ include::code:MyRuntimeHintsTests[]
 
 
 
+[[native-image.advanced.custom-hints.static]]
+==== Providing Hints Statically
+If you prefer, custom hints can be provided statically in one or more GraalVM JSON hint files.
+Such files should be placed in `src/main/resources/` within a `+META-INF/native-image/*/*/+` directory.
+The <<native-image#native-image.introducing-graalvm-native-images.understanding-aot-processing,hints generated during AOT processing>> are written to a directory named `+META-INF/native-image/{groupId}/{artifactId}/+`.
+Place your static hint files in a directory that does not clash with this location, such as `+META-INF/native-image/{groupId}/{artifactId}-additional-hints/+`
+
+
+
 [[native-image.advanced.known-limitations]]
 === Known Limitations
 GraalVM native images are an evolving technology and not all libraries provide support.

spring-boot-project/spring-boot-docs/src/docs/asciidoc/native-image/introducing-graalvm-native-images.adoc

@@ -53,13 +53,15 @@ A Spring AOT processed application will typically generate:
 
 * Java source code
 * Bytecode (for dynamic proxies etc)
-* GraalVM JSON hint files:
+* GraalVM JSON hint files in `+META-INF/native-image/{groupId}/{artifactId}/+`:
  - Resource hints (`resource-config.json`)
  - Reflection hints (`reflect-config.json`)
  - Serialization hints (`serialization-config.json`)
  - Java Proxy Hints (`proxy-config.json`)
  - JNI Hints (`jni-config.json`)
 
+If the generated hints are not sufficient, you can also <<native-image#native-image.advanced.custom-hints,provide your own>>.
+
 
 
 [[native-image.introducing-graalvm-native-images.understanding-aot-processing.source-code-generation]]