docs-writing

Documentation structure

File / Path	Rendered where	Audience	Notes
README.md	GitHub repo	GitHub visitors, developers
docs/index.md	MkDocs site	MkDocs site visitors
docs/*.md	MkDocs site	MkDocs site visitors
CHANGELOG.md	GitHub repo	Developers, release readers	Auto-generated — do not edit manually. Updated by cog bump.

README.md and docs/index.md must be kept in sync

Both files describe the same project. When you update one, always update the other:

• README.md may use GitHub-flavoured Markdown: <div align="center">, <img> tags, emoji, and HTML attributes like align="center".
• docs/index.md must use plain Markdown only — no HTML tags, no inline <img> (use ![alt](path) instead). Raw HTML is stripped by Python-Markdown unless md_in_html is enabled, and image paths relative to the repo root will 404 in MkDocs.
• Keep the content (overview, benefits, app list, dataset list) in sync. The style (emojis, HTML layout) may differ between the two.

MkDocs nav

All new docs/*.md files must be added to the nav: block in mkdocs.yml. Without this, MkDocs will warn and the page will not appear in the sidebar. New guides go under Guides: in alphabetical order by display name.

Markdown conventions

• Indent: 4 spaces for Markdown files (enforced by .editorconfig and dprint).

• Line endings: LF, trailing newline required.

• Table alignment: dprint auto-formats tables — run mise exec -- dprint fmt FILE after editing tables rather than aligning by hand.

• Admonitions: Use MkDocs Material admonition syntax for callouts — they render as styled boxes on the site and are readable as plain text in editors.

  <!-- dprint-ignore -->
  !!! warning "Title"
      Body text indented 4 spaces under the !!! line. This is required — unindented
      text renders outside the block.
  
  <!-- dprint-ignore -->
  !!! note
      Note without a custom title.
  
  <!-- dprint-ignore -->
  !!! tip
      Tip callout.
  
  <!-- dprint-ignore -->
  !!! info "Credit"
      Info / attribution callout.
  

  Critical: every line of the admonition body must be indented exactly 4 spaces. Text at column 0 renders as normal paragraph text outside the box.

  Always prefix admonitions with <!-- dprint-ignore --> — dprint's Markdown plugin interprets 4-space-indented text as a code block and strips the indentation, which breaks the rendering. The ignore comment tells dprint to leave the block untouched. Supported types: note, tip, warning, danger, info, success, question, failure, bug, example, quote.

• Code blocks: Always specify a language for syntax highlighting (```sh, ```yaml, ```text, etc.).

• Links to other docs: Use relative paths ([Architecture](ARCHITECTURE.md)), not absolute URLs, so they work both on GitHub and on the MkDocs site.

docs.yml workflow

The docs CI workflow (.github/workflows/docs.yml) runs mkdocs build --strict on pull requests and deploys to GitHub Pages on push to main.

--strict mode means any warning (missing nav entry, broken link, etc.) is treated as an error. Always run mkdocs build --strict locally before pushing doc changes if MkDocs is installed.

Formatting and linting

After editing any Markdown file, run:

mise exec -- dprint fmt docs/FILE.md   # auto-format
mise exec -- dprint check docs/FILE.md # verify

Or format all docs at once:

mise exec -- dprint fmt

Writing pasteable shell code blocks

Shell code blocks in guides are often copy-pasted directly into a terminal. Write them defensively:

• No inline # comments — zsh disables interactivecomments by default, so # comment on its own line or after a command causes zsh: command not found: #. Move explanations into prose or a table above the block.
• Explain variables in a table, not in comments. Use a Markdown table with Variable / Example / What to set columns above the code block, then keep the block itself comment-free and pasteable.
• Prefer variables over hardcoded values. Define all configurable values as shell variables at the top of a section (a single "set variables" block). All subsequent commands reference ${VAR}. This makes guides reusable without editing individual commands.
• Use heredocs for generated config files — cat > filename << EOF … EOF lets variable substitution happen automatically when the reader runs the block, rather than requiring manual find-and-replace in the file afterward.
• Split local and remote steps clearly. If a guide switches between local machine and SSH session, make the boundary explicit in prose and re-declare required variables at the start of each remote block (don't assume the reader's shell state carries over).