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Umbraco Documentation Content Skill

Source of Truth

The contributing guide is the single source of truth for documentation standards. Read these files for the full rules:

• Style guide: contributing/documentation/style-guide/README.md
• Markdown conventions: contributing/documentation/style-guide/markdown-conventions.md
• Code samples: contributing/documentation/style-guide/code-samples.md
• File structure and images: contributing/documentation/style-guide/structure.md

For acronym exceptions and how to add new ones, read references/acronyms.md.

Workflow Checklist

When creating or modifying documentation, follow this checklist:

1. Write content following the style guide summary below
2. Use correct markdown per the conventions below
3. Add to SUMMARY.md if this is a new article
4. Add redirects to .gitbook.yaml if moving/renaming/deleting
5. Add images to the first .gitbook/assets directory found when looking up in the file structure from where the article is.

Style Guide Summary

• Write in second person ("you"), present tense, active voice
• No editorializing — avoid: simple, simply, just, easily, actually
• Keep sentences under 25 words — split at conjunctions ("and", "or") or trailing clauses ("without", "which"). For example, instead of "You can use the API to serve content to front-end apps, mobile apps, and other consumers without relying on server-side rendering" (27 words), write two sentences: "You can use the API to serve content to front-end apps and mobile apps. This removes the need for server-side rendering."
• Don't use "it" or "this" as vague references
• No punctuation at end of headings; use # only once (the title)
• Use relative paths for internal links; use the article title as link text

For all rules including lists, terms, Umbraco-specific casing, brands, and good/bad examples, read contributing/documentation/style-guide/README.md.

Article Template

New articles must have YAML frontmatter and an H1 title:

---
description: >-
  A one-to-two sentence description of what this article covers.
---

- The article description will be displayed directly under the page title.
- The description should be no longer than 160 characters, as it's also used as the meta description

# Article Title

Introduction paragraph explaining what the reader will learn.

## First Section

Content here.

File and Directory Structure

/topic/
├── README.md              # Landing page (required)
├── another-article.md
└── subtopic/
    ├── README.md
    ├── article.md

• All names: lowercase, hyphens for spaces
• Parent articles are always README.md
• Images are placed in a .gitbook/assets directory at the root of the product directory

For full structure rules and image guidelines, read contributing/documentation/style-guide/structure.md.

SUMMARY.md Format

Each product has a SUMMARY.md that controls navigation. Articles not listed here won't appear on the site.

# Table of contents

* [Product Documentation](README.md)

## Section Name

* [Article Title](path/to/article.md)
  * [Sub Article](path/to/sub-article.md)
    * [Deep Article](path/to/deep-article.md)

• Use ## Section Name to create navigation groups
• Indent with two spaces for nesting
• Link text = article title, path = relative from SUMMARY.md

.gitbook.yaml Redirects

When moving, renaming, or deleting articles, add a redirect:

redirects:
    old/path/without/extension: new/path/with/extension.md

• The old path has no file extension
• The new path includes the .md extension
• Point deleted articles to their replacement or parent article

Structural Change Procedures

For any structural change, apply the SUMMARY.md and .gitbook.yaml rules above:

• Add: create the file + add to SUMMARY.md
• Move: move the file + update SUMMARY.md path + add redirect + if the destination is a new directory, create a README.md landing page for it
• Rename: rename the file + update SUMMARY.md title and path + add redirect
• Delete: remove from SUMMARY.md + add redirect to replacement or parent + delete file

Code Samples

• Always add syntax highlighting and a caption (filename) to code blocks
• Provide complete, compilable code with real-life examples

For caption format, syntax highlighting languages, file-scoped namespaces, and all other code guidelines, read contributing/documentation/style-guide/code-samples.md.

Images

• Store in the .gitbook/assets directory closest in the file structure to the article that references them
• Always provide alt text
• Provide caption when relevant

For formats, naming, and markdown syntax, read contributing/documentation/style-guide/structure.md.

Markdown Conventions

• Use GitBook hint blocks for notes/warnings (info, success, warning, danger)
• Do not edit Cards HTML on landing pages

For hint syntax, links, content-ref, expandables, and other markdown conventions, read contributing/documentation/style-guide/markdown-conventions.md.

Source: umbraco/UmbracoDocs — distributed by TomeVault.