GitHub Docs moves to a public repository

GitHub has opened the repository for its documentation site, making the source for all articles and guides available at github.com/github/docs. The move is part of an ongoing effort to improve documentation for the millions of developers who rely on GitHub daily, and a recognition that the best way to keep that documentation accurate and useful is to let the community help maintain it.

The company rebuilt its documentation hub in July, consolidating all product guidance at docs.github.com. That site covers everything from using GitHub Actions with Python, to building GitHub Apps, to working with the GraphQL API and getting more out of GitHub Issues. Content is updated continuously with new tutorials and feature guides, while the underlying information architecture has been restructured to make topics easier to locate.

Opening the docs source code allows contributors to suggest edits, report problems, and share knowledge directly through GitHub's standard workflows. To get involved, contributors can use the guidance in the repository's CONTRIBUTING.md file. Several pathways are available depending on how you want to participate:

  • Directly from an article: Any page on docs.github.com offers a link to open a pull request with immediate changes to that page's content.
  • Join a discussion: For questions, ideas, and larger discussions, the community can gather in GitHub Discussions.
  • Open an issue: Spotted something that's outdated or incorrect? An issue is the way to flag it for maintainers.
  • Open a pull request: If an issue is already tracked and you want to take it on, submit a pull request with your fix.

GitHub is starting with the core English documentation but intends to broaden community involvement over time. Planned directions include a section specifically for recipes and community-generated content, as well as accepting contributions for translated versions of the docs. The project's discussions board is the venue for suggesting additional ideas for how the open-source documentation effort can evolve.