Sourcegraph Docs

Important

For support, please reach out to your account team or contact support@sourcegraph.com

Welcome to the Sourcegraph documentation! We're excited to have you contribute to our docs. Our docs tech stack is powered by Next.js, TailwindCSS and deployed on Vercel. This guide will walk you through the process of contributing to our documentation.

Get started

Clone this repository to your local machine using the following command:

git clone https://github.com/sourcegraph/docs.git docs

Navigate to the project directory by typing the following command in your terminal:

cd docs

Before the dependencies are installed make sure your local machine has the following versions of node and pnpm installed:

• node: v24.21.0
• pnpm: 10.25.0

Note: If you have mise available you can install the above versions for only this repository by running the following command from your terminal in the root folder:

mise install

Now that the base requirements of the project have been satisfied, we can install the required dependencies to run the development server!

pnpm install

Spell checking is not part of the project dependencies. To run it locally: npx cspell@10 --no-progress --dot '**/*'

Next, run the development server:

pnpm run dev

Finally, open http://localhost:3000 in your browser to view the website.

Writing and contributing to Sourcegraph Docs

(Easy) Using GitHub to edit existing files

You can easily update existing docs pages using GitHub's file editor. All you need to do is:

1. Find the corresponding .mdx file in the folder structure.
2. Click the pencil icon to open the file editor.
3. Make your changes.
4. Click on the green "Commit changes..." button.
5. Provide a Commit message and an Extended description.
6. Click on the green "Propose changes" button to create a PR.
7. Add a PR reviewer to the Reviewers panel by clicking on the gear icon.
8. Post a link to your PR in the #docs Slack channel to get a quick review.

   NOTE: "Edit from GitHub" is generally recommended for text-based edits. For more structural-based contributions like adding React components and code blocks, it's always better to go with a local setup. This way, you can preview changes before you commit.

(Advanced) Local dev environment

To add new or update existing docs content. Create a new branch and checkout by via:

git switch -c BRANCH_NAME_HERE

Folder structure

The folder structure is exactly the same here. All the docs reside within the /docs folder. Here you'll find separate folders for every docs section like cody, code-search, cli, etc.

• Navigate to the relevant section for your contribution
• If you're adding a new page, create a new MDX file (e.g., my-new-page.mdx) in the appropriate folder

Frontmatter

Each MDX file can include frontmatter at the top of the file to configure page metadata. Here are the supported fields:

Field	Type	Required	Description
title	string	No	The page title
date	date	No	Last modified date (used in sitemap)
seoPriority	number	No	Sitemap priority 0.0–1.0, default 0.5
preview	bool	No	Hidden; 404 without ?preview query

Example:

---
title: Getting Started with Cody
date: 2024-01-15
seoPriority: 0.8
---

Using MDX

We use MDX for our documentation, which allows you to seamlessly integrate JSX (React components) within Markdown. Write your content using standard markdown syntax. For example,

# This is heading 1

This is an introductory paragraph.

## This is heading 2

### This is heading 3

These are the details for heading three.

This is how you add a [demo-link](https://sourcegraph.com/)

- This is a bullet 1
- This is bullet 2
- This is bullet 3

Including React Components

The only difference with this new stack is its ability to use React components. We have a set of reusable React components located in the src/components directory. These components are designed to enhance the user experience and maintain consistency across our documentation.

For example, <Callout> adds a note, info, tip, or warning notice:

<Callout type="note">This feature is currently in Beta for all users.</Callout>

The components available in MDX are registered in src/components/MdxComponents.tsx:

Component	Use
<Callout>	type: note, info, tip, or warning
<TierCallout>	Which plan or tier a feature needs
<QuickLinks>	Card grid; <QuickLink> takes title,
	description, href, icon
<LinkCards>	Card grid with images; <LinkCard> adds
	imgSrc and imgAlt
<ProductCards>	<ProductCard> grid, same props as LinkCard
<Tabs>	Tabbed content; <Tab title="...">
<Accordion title="...">	Collapsible section
<Badge>	Inline label
<SupportedReleasesTable>	Release tables on /releases, also
	<DeprecatedReleasesTable>
<ResourceEstimator>	Page-specific widgets, also <FeatureParity>
	and <AWSOneClickLaunchForm>

For example:

<QuickLinks>
  <QuickLink
    title="Terraform on AWS"
    icon="installation"
    href="/self-hosted/executors/deploy-executors-terraform-aws"
    description="Deploy executors on AWS with Terraform."
  />
</QuickLinks>

Adding a link

To add a link to any docs page, use the following routing syntax: [Link text](path-to-link).

• Do not include /docs in the link paths. The base URL will be sourcegraph.com/docs
• There should be no file extension in the path name

For example, if you want to link to the Cody Quickstart somewhere in the Code Search docs, you should use:

- Link to the [Cody Quickstart](/cody/quickstart)
- Hash-link to a heading:
  [Verify the install](/cody/clients/install-vscode#verifying-the-installation)

Adding media assets (images, videos and gifs)

You can upload images, videos and gifs to Sourcegraph docs. For a more detailed instructions visit this page.

Note: Make sure to use ImageOptim.app to reduce the size of the images before uploading, since large images degrade page loading speed.

Previewing Changes

Locally

As you make changes to the documentation, the development server will automatically update. Review your changes by navigating to http://localhost:3000 in your browser.

Previewing Vercel Deployments

When you open a PR Vercel deploys and provides you with a preview deployment link. To view your deployment, click the Visit Preview link from Vercel's deployment panel in your PRs and you get a preview of your docs

Submitting your Contribution

Once you're satisfied with your changes, follow these steps:

• Commit your changes
• Create a pull request to the Sourcegraph documentation repository, and tag the appropriate reviewers.

Pull request checks

GitHub Actions comment on your PR with anything it introduces:

• Broken links: internal links and #anchors that no longer resolve, absolute links to this site, and external links that 404. This check fails the PR. Locally: pnpm run check links --check-anchors --check-self-links.
• Broken redirects: entries in src/data/redirects.ts whose destination no longer exists. Locally: node dev/check-redirects.mjs.
• Spelling: CSpell on the lines you added, plus the PR title and description. Advisory only. Add product names and identifiers to cspell-allow-list.txt, in alphabetical order.
• Preview links: direct links to the pages you changed on the Vercel preview deployment, once it finishes.

Thank you for contributing to Sourcegraph documentation! Your efforts help us provide top-notch learning experiences for our users. If you have any questions or need assistance, feel free to reach out.