tendermint/docs/DOCS_README.md

Docs Build Workflow

The documentation for Tendermint Core is hosted at:

• https://docs.tendermint.com/

built from the files in this docs directory for master and other supported release branches.

How It Works

There is a GitHub Actions workflow in the tendermint/docs repository that clones and builds the documentation site from the contents of this docs directory, for master and for the backport branch of each supported release. Under the hood, this workflow runs make build-docs from the Makefile.

The list of supported versions are defined in config.js, which defines the UI menu on the documentation site, and also in docs/versions, which determines which branches are built.

The last entry in the docs/versions file determines which version is linked by default from the generated index.html. This should generally be the most recent release, rather than master, so that new users are not confused by documentation for unreleased features.

README

The README.md is also the landing page for the documentation on the website. During the Jenkins build, the current commit is added to the bottom of the README.

Config.js

The config.js generates the sidebar and Table of Contents on the website docs. Note the use of relative links and the omission of file extensions. Additional features are available to improve the look of the sidebar.

Links

NOTE: Strongly consider the existing links - both within this directory and to the website docs - when moving or deleting files.

Links to directories MUST end in a /.

Relative links should be used nearly everywhere, having discovered and weighed the following:

Relative

Where is the other file, relative to the current one?

• works both on GitHub and for the VuePress build
• confusing / annoying to have things like: ../../../../myfile.md
• requires more updates when files are re-shuffled

Absolute

Where is the other file, given the root of the repo?

• works on GitHub, doesn't work for the VuePress build
• this is much nicer: /docs/hereitis/myfile.md
• if you move that file around, the links inside it are preserved (but not to it, of course)

Full

The full GitHub URL to a file or directory. Used occasionally when it makes sense to send users to the GitHub.

Building Locally

Make sure you are in the docs directory and run the following commands:

rm -rf node_modules

This command will remove old version of the visual theme and required packages. This step is optional.

npm install

Install the theme and all dependencies.

npm run serve

Run pre and post hooks and start a hot-reloading web-server. See output of this command for the URL (it is often https://localhost:8080).

To build documentation as a static website run npm run build. You will find the website in .vuepress/dist directory.

Search

We are using Algolia to power full-text search. This uses a public API search-only key in the config.js as well as a tendermint.json configuration file that we can update with PRs.

Consistency

Because the build processes are identical (as is the information contained herein), this file should be kept in sync as much as possible with its counterpart in the Cosmos SDK repo.