Nemo Curator Docs

NeMo Curator Docs Maintenance

Unified skill for adding, updating, moving, and removing pages on the NeMo Curator Fern documentation site.

Scope Rule

ALL docs edits happen under fern/. The legacy docs/ directory is deprecated — do not add or move content into it. Release notes, migration guides, and every new page belong under fern/.

Layout at a Glance

fern/
├── fern.config.json          # Minimal Fern config (org + CLI version)
├── docs.yml                  # Site config: versions, tabs, redirects, libraries
├── versions/
│   ├── latest.yml            # Symlink → v26.04.yml (do not edit directly)
│   ├── v26.04.yml            # Nav tree for current train
│   ├── v26.04/pages/         # MDX content for current train
│   ├── v25.09.yml
│   └── v25.09/pages/
├── components/               # Custom TSX components (footer, etc.)
├── assets/                   # Images, SVGs, favicon
├── substitute_variables.py   # CI: resolves {{ variables }} in MDX
└── AUTODOCS_GUIDE.md         # Library reference generation guide

Current train: v26.04. Default all new pages there unless the user specifies a version.

File system                              Published URL
───────────────────────────────────────  ────────────────────────────────────────
fern/versions/v26.04/pages/              docs.nvidia.com/nemo/curator/latest/
  └─ get-started/text.mdx                  └─ get-started/text
fern/versions/v26.04.yml ── nav for ──┐  docs.nvidia.com/nemo/curator/v26.04/
fern/versions/latest.yml ─ symlink ───┘    └─ get-started/text
fern/versions/v25.09/pages/              docs.nvidia.com/nemo/curator/v25.09/
  └─ get-started/text.mdx                  └─ get-started/text

Operations

Add a Page

1. Gather: page title, target section, filename (kebab-case .mdx), subdirectory under fern/versions/v26.04/pages/.
2. Create fern/versions/v26.04/pages/<subdirectory>/<filename>.mdx:

---
description: "One-line SEO description"
categories: ["<category>"]
tags: ["<tag-1>", "<tag-2>"]
personas: ["<persona>"]
difficulty: "beginner"      # beginner | intermediate | advanced
content_type: "tutorial"     # tutorial | how-to | reference | concept | index
modality: "text-only"        # text-only | image-only | video-only | audio-only | universal
---

# <Page Title>

<content>

3. Add a nav entry in fern/versions/v26.04.yml under the correct section:

- page: <Page Title>
  path: ./v26.04/pages/<subdirectory>/<filename>.mdx
  slug: <filename>

4. If this also applies to latest, no action needed — latest.yml is a symlink to v26.04.yml.

Update a Page

1. Locate by path, title, or keyword (grep -rn in fern/versions/v26.04/pages/).
2. Content only — edit the MDX directly.
3. Title change — update the frontmatter and the - page: name in fern/versions/v26.04.yml.
4. Section move — git mv the file, update its path: in the nav, and fix all incoming links.
5. Slug change — update slug: in the nav and add a redirect in fern/docs.yml so old URLs keep working.

Remove a Page

1. Find incoming links: grep -r "<filename>" fern/versions/v26.04/pages/ --include="*.mdx".
2. git rm fern/versions/v26.04/pages/<subdirectory>/<filename>.mdx.
3. Remove the - page: block from fern/versions/v26.04.yml. If it was the last page in a section, remove the - section: block.
4. Fix or remove all incoming links found in step 1.
5. Add a redirect in fern/docs.yml if the URL was public.

Back-port to an Older Version

Only when explicitly asked. Repeat the operation in the corresponding fern/versions/vXX.YY/ tree and vXX.YY.yml nav. MDX content often diverges between trains — do not blindly copy.

Worked Example: Adding a Page

Request: "Add a how-to for benchmarking text pipelines under Curate Text."

1. Create fern/versions/v26.04/pages/curate-text/benchmarking.mdx:

   ---
   description: "Benchmark text curation pipelines and interpret throughput and memory metrics"
   categories: ["how-to"]
   tags: ["text-curation", "benchmarking", "performance"]
   personas: ["mle-focused"]
   difficulty: "intermediate"
   content_type: "how-to"
   modality: "text-only"
   ---
   
   # Benchmark Text Pipelines
   
   <content>
   

2. Add nav entry in fern/versions/v26.04.yml under the existing Curate Text section:

   - page: Benchmark Text Pipelines
     path: ./v26.04/pages/curate-text/benchmarking.mdx
     slug: benchmarking
   

3. cd fern && fern check then fern docs dev and verify the page renders at /curate-text/benchmarking.

Worked Example: Renaming a Slug (with Redirect)

Request: "Rename /curate-text/benchmarking to /curate-text/performance."

1. Update slug: in fern/versions/v26.04.yml: slug: performance.

2. (Optional) git mv the MDX file if you want the filename to match the slug.

3. Add a redirect to fern/docs.yml so old links keep working:

   redirects:
     - source: "/nemo/curator/latest/curate-text/benchmarking"
       destination: "/nemo/curator/latest/curate-text/performance"
     - source: "/nemo/curator/v26.04/curate-text/benchmarking"
       destination: "/nemo/curator/v26.04/curate-text/performance"
   

4. grep -rn "/curate-text/benchmarking" fern/versions/v26.04/pages/ and update any incoming links.

Content Guidelines

NeMo Curator uses Fern-native MDX components directly (unlike Dynamo, which converts GitHub callouts in CI). Do not use > [!NOTE] syntax — it will not render.

Images live in fern/assets/ (shared) or fern/versions/vXX.YY/pages/_images/ (version-scoped). Reference with root-relative paths.

Component examples:

<Tip>
If `uv` is not installed, see the [Installation Guide](/admin/installation).
</Tip>

<Warning>
GPU-accelerated dedup requires CUDA {{ recommended_cuda }} or later.
</Warning>

<Cards>
  <Card title="Text Curation" href="/get-started/text">
    Set up and run text curation workflows.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Image Curation" href="/get-started/image">
    Set up and run image curation workflows.
  </Card>
</Cards>

Frontmatter Fields

Required: description. Optional but strongly preferred: categories, tags, personas, difficulty, content_type, modality. Existing pages in the same section are the best reference for valid values.

title is taken from the - page: entry in the nav file; the MDX file itself uses an # H1 heading matching the page name.

Variable Substitution

Tokens like {{ product_name }}, {{ container_version }}, {{ current_release }}, {{ github_repo }}, {{ min_python_version }} are resolved by fern/substitute_variables.py at CI time. Use them instead of hard-coding versions or URLs. Canonical list in DEFAULT_VARIABLES at the top of that file.

Example in MDX:

Install {{ product_name }} {{ current_release }} from {{ github_repo }}.
Requires Python {{ min_python_version }}+ and CUDA {{ recommended_cuda }}.

After substitution at CI time:

Install NeMo Curator 25.09 from https://github.com/NVIDIA-NeMo/Curator.
Requires Python 3.10+ and CUDA 12.0+.

To preview substitution locally:

python fern/substitute_variables.py versions/v26.04 --version 26.04 --dry-run

Validate

cd fern
fern check                   # YAML + frontmatter validation
fern docs broken-links       # link check
fern docs dev                # localhost:3000 hot-reload preview

fern check must pass before commit. Broken-link check can be deferred but must pass in CI.

Commit & Preview

git add fern/
git commit -s -m "docs: <add|update|remove> <page-title>"

DCO sign-off (-s) is required on every commit. CI enforces it. If you forget, amend with git commit --amend --no-edit -s and force-push the branch.

PRs that touch fern/** get an automatic Fern preview URL posted as a comment by .github/workflows/fern-docs-preview-comment.yml. No manual step needed.

                    ┌─ fern-docs-ci.yml         → fern check + autodocs
PR (touches fern/) ─┼─ fern-docs-preview.yml    → preview build
                    └─ fern-docs-preview-*.yml  → 🌿 preview URL comment

Merge to main      → NO publish. Site is unchanged.

Tag push (docs/v*) → publish-fern-docs.yml      → docs.nvidia.com/nemo/curator

Publishing to Production

Merging to main does NOT publish. Production only updates when a tag matching docs/v* is pushed (or the workflow is manually dispatched from the Actions tab). Do not push tags unless the user asks.

Tag must be docs/v<MAJOR>.<MINOR>.<PATCH> — the docs/v prefix is required by the workflow trigger and the semver suffix should match the docs release in CHANGELOG.md.

# Correct — triggers publish
git tag docs/v1.1.0
git push origin docs/v1.1.0

git tag docs/v1.2.0-rc1     # pre-release suffix is fine, still matches docs/v*
git push origin docs/v1.2.0-rc1

# Wrong — these will NOT trigger publish
git tag v1.1.0              # missing docs/ prefix
git tag docs/1.1.0          # missing v
git tag docs-v1.1.0         # wrong separator

URL → version mapping after publish:

docs.nvidia.com/nemo/curator/latest/...   → symlink to current train (v26.04 today)
docs.nvidia.com/nemo/curator/v26.04/...   → 26.04 train
docs.nvidia.com/nemo/curator/v26.02/...   → 26.02 train
docs.nvidia.com/nemo/curator/v25.09/...   → 25.09 train

Version Ship Checklist (when cutting a new train)

When the user ships a new version (e.g. cutting v26.06 while v26.04 is current):

1. Copy fern/versions/v26.04/pages/ → fern/versions/v26.06/pages/ and edit content.
2. Copy fern/versions/v26.04.yml → fern/versions/v26.06.yml and update all ./v26.04/ path prefixes to ./v26.06/.
3. Repoint the symlink: ln -sf v26.06.yml fern/versions/latest.yml.
4. Update fern/docs.yml versions: list — add the new display-name, mark older trains stable.
5. Add redirect rules in fern/docs.yml for /nemo/curator/26.06/:path* → /nemo/curator/v26.06/:path* (see existing patterns).
6. Add */index.html redirect for the new version (e.g. /nemo/curator/v26.06/index.html → /nemo/curator/v26.06). The :path* rule does not match the empty-path case, so each version-root index.html needs its own explicit rule.
7. Align display-name strings with CHANGELOG.md and nemo_curator/package_info.py.

Holding a Version Back from Publish

A version is included in the published site only when it appears in the versions: block of fern/docs.yml. The MDX tree (fern/versions/vXX.YY/) and nav file (fern/versions/vXX.YY.yml) can sit in the repo unpublished — Fern doesn't auto-publish every YAML it finds.

To stage a version without publishing it (e.g. work-in-progress on v26.06 while v26.04 is current):

# fern/docs.yml
versions:
  - display-name: "Latest · v1.1.2 (26.04)"
    path: versions/latest.yml
    slug: latest
  - display-name: "26.04 · v1.1.2"
    path: versions/v26.04.yml
    slug: v26.04
  # v26.06 staged in repo but not listed here → not published

To pull an already-shipping version back (e.g. hold v26.04 while pushing fixes to older trains):

1. Remove the v26.04 entry from versions: in fern/docs.yml.
2. If latest should also stop serving 26.04 content, repoint the symlink: ln -sf v26.02.yml fern/versions/latest.yml. Otherwise leave latest alone — it will keep serving v26.04 content under /latest/ even with v26.04 removed (since latest.yml references the v26.04 pages directly).
3. Tag and push docs/v* to publish.
4. Restore the entry (and symlink) when ready.

This is a temporary maneuver — track the change so it gets reverted.

Audiences (alternative): Fern supports audiences: on versions plus separate instances: (e.g. staging vs production). This is heavier setup — only adopt if multi-instance publishing is genuinely needed. NeMo Curator does not currently configure instances. References: Fern versioning, Fern publishing.

Do not use hidden: true to hide a version from publish. Hidden versions are removed from navigation/search/indexing but remain accessible by direct URL — still effectively published.

Library Reference (Autodocs) and the Fern Cross-Ref Bug

fern/docs.yml declares one libraries: entry, and a script provides a second, temporary one (both write to fern/product-docs/nemo-curator/Full-Library-Reference/, gitignored):

• nemo-curator (input.git, committed in docs.yml) — used by CI/publish/preview; requires fern login or FERN_TOKEN. Workflows run fern docs md generate --library nemo-curator.
• nemo-curator-local (input.path: ../nemo_curator, injected temporarily by fern/scripts/generate-library-local.sh) — local dev without Fern auth; requires Docker. Run npm run generate:library:local from fern/. The entry must NOT be committed to docs.yml: fern docs dev rejects path-input libraries ("'path' input which is not yet supported") and renders a blank page, while --local generation only accepts path inputs.

For a full API reference locally (424 pages), use npm run generate:library. The local Docker parser is beta and currently produces fewer pages — fine for testing the no-auth flow, not a substitute for CI generation.

Known bug in the Fern Python library generator (filed upstream): the generator emits cross-references that miss the /nemo/curator site basepath (links use /nemo-curator/... instead of /nemo/curator/nemo-curator/...) and tacks on Sphinx-style #nemo_curator-… fragments that don't match any rendered anchor. Result: ~540 broken links across the generated API reference.

No in-repo workaround currently. A post-generation rewrite (walking the generated MDX, fixing the basepath, dropping stale fragments) is feasible but not yet wired up. Track the upstream Fern fix; revisit if it doesn't land soon.

fern/_fix_broken_links.py separately rewrites a long list of legacy URL patterns (/api/reference/api-reference/, old Sphinx slugs, etc.) on the committed MDX under fern/versions/v25.09/pages/ and fern/versions/v26.02/pages/. CI does not run it, so committed pages can drift. Re-run locally and commit the diff if you see drift:

python3 fern/_fix_broken_links.py

Redirect Quirks

• :path* does not match the empty-path case. /nemo/curator/:path*/index.html will not catch /nemo/curator/index.html — that needs its own explicit rule. Same for every version-root: /nemo/curator/{latest,vXX.YY}/index.html each need a dedicated entry. Pattern: define the explicit empty-path rules before the :path* rule.
• Order matters. Fern processes redirects top-down, first match wins. Put more specific rules above catch-alls.
• Version slugs in fern/docs.yml use the vXX.YY form (e.g. v26.04). Calendar-train forms (26.04) need redirects to the v-prefixed slug.

Debugging

Key References