Contribute to the MyST documentation

The documentation of MyST is inspired by the Diataxis Documentation Framework.

Build the MyST guide documentation locally¶

To build the MyST guide documentation:

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/jupyter-book/mystmd

2. Install MyST Markdown by following these instructions

3. Navigate to the docs folder:

   cd docs/

4. Start a MyST server to preview the documentation:

   myst start

This will build the documentation locally so that you can preview what your changes will look like.

How this relates to the documentation at mystmd.org¶

The documentation in this repository serves the content that lives at mystmd.org/guide.

The full content and theme for mystmd.org is hosted at jupyter-book/mystmd.org, which pulls in the content from this folder along with several other documentation sources into one place.

However, the documentation here can be built independently for previewing your changes.

The documentation theme infrastructure¶

The MyST website at mystmd.org is a custom MyST theme designed by the community in order to aggregate documentation from many locations into one website.

The custom theme is a Remix website and is deployed on Vercel.

It is an example of how to generate a custom application/site using MyST components. For example, mystmd.org/guide is pulled from jupyter-book/mystmd: /docs/, and mystmd.org/jtex is pulled from jupyter-book/mystmd: /jtex/docs/. It also includes some custom applications like the Sandbox and MyST demo on the landing page.

It is not how most people build websites with MyST Markdown, but is a good “Advanced Use” example.

Where the mystmd.org theme is located¶

The MyST documentation uses a custom theme that inherits from a chain of base themes. Here’s a brief overview of where to look for things:

• The MyST documentation theme is a custom MyST theme defined in the jupyter-book/mystmd.org repository.
• It uses a modified version of the MyST Book theme at jupyter-book/myst-theme: /themes/book/.
• The Book and Article themes are both located in the jupyter-book/myst-theme repository in the /themes directory.
• Each is programmatically published to a repository in the myst-templates GitHub organization for easier and optimized public consumption.
  • Book theme source -> Book theme built version
  • Article theme source -> Article theme built version

Modifying and releasing a theme¶

Below is a brief description for how modifications in a theme are released for public consumption.

1. [dev facing] we make a bunch of changes to the theme, probably changing things in themes/book/*, themes/article/* and packages/*
2. [dev facing] if there were changes in packages/* we release the @myst-theme/* packages (changesets based ci step)
3. [dev facing] we then run make deploy-book and make deploy-article which builds and bundles each theme, making commits to the https://github.com/myst-templates/book-theme and https://github.com/myst-templates/article-theme repos.
4. [user facing] at that point those latest bundle commits will be what is pulled by mystmd clients - people who already have those downloaded need to myst clean --all (as we don’t yet auto bump based on version changes, see #854 for updates).

Deploy previews for pull requests¶

We use the Netlify service to generate deploy previews of the mystmd documentation for all pull requests. These build only the mystmd guide (hosted at https://mystmd.org/guide), not the entire mystmd.org website. They’re just used for convenience and review purposes.

Configuration for our Netlify build exists in the netlify.toml configuration file in the root of the repository.

Any team members can have Developer access to our shared Netlify account, and Steering Council members can have Owner access. If you’d like access, please ask a maintainer.

Documenting in jupyterbook.org vs. mystmd.org¶

Jupyter Book and the MyST Document Engine have heavily overlapping functionality, so it may be unclear whether something should be documented at mystmd.org or jupyterbook.org. That’s OK and expected - here are some guidelines for where to document things:

• The MyST document engine will be a power user tool. It will be more flexible and modular, with an extensive plugin ecosysytem. It will be agnostic to build output, and single- or multi-page documents.
  • MyST should have the complete reference documentation for the MyST engine, as well as longer explanatory content about the MyST ecosystem.
  • As functionaliy is moved into plugins, we similarly prioritize reference documentation and explanation in those spaces.
  • MyST should be a standalone tool and have enough information for a power user to use on its own.
• Jupyter Book will be a tool for typical users focused around multi-page documents and websites. It will be opinionated, focused around the “book themes”, and be more accessible to a new user or someone unfamiliar with JavaScript workflows.
  • Jupyter Book should focus on How-Tos and Tutorials that are driven by use-cases in multi-page workflows (e.g., documentation, books, community websites, etc).
  • Focus on keeping documentation outcome-oriented, and link heavily to the MyST engine docs for more complete reference information and explanation.

How to create and edit Excalidraw diagrams¶

We use Excalidraw diagrams throughout our documentation. This is a lightweight way to create flow charts and diagrams.

To create a new Excalidraw diagram, first create what you wish in Excalidraw. Then, take the following steps:

1. Click the hamburger menu, then export image.
2. Ensure that embed scene is checked. This will include Excalidraw metadata with the output for future editing.
3. Click the SVG button (or PNG if necessary). This will download a local file with the diagram.
4. Put that in the images/ folder and link it from your content.

To make edits to an Excalidraw diagram, follow these steps:

1. Open excalidraw.com.
2. Find the file that you want to edit.
3. Confirm that it is a SVG or PNG that was created with Excalidraw, and that had embed scene checked upon creation.
4. Drag-and-drop that file into the Excalidraw window. (or, click hamburger menu -> open and add your file that way).
5. Make your edits in Excalidraw.
6. Export the new diagram using the steps described above.
7. Replace the old file with the new one and commit it to git. If using an SVG, you can also just copy/paste the new SVG text and replace the old SVG text with it.

How to enable Pull Request previews on Netlify¶

Netlify Deploy Previews allow others to preview the documentation for a repository as part of the Pull Request workflow. This will add a Documentation Preview to the Status Checks of a pull request. To enable it, do the following:

1. Enable Netlify builds for your repository.
2. Go to the configuration -> notifications section and look for emails and webhooks.
3. Go to Deploy Notifications, which lists the notifications that will post to each PR.
4. To add a new notification, click Add Notification -> GitHub Commit Status.
5. Ensure the following notifications are listed for deploy state commit checks:
   • Add deploy state commit checks when Deploy Preview starts
   • Add deploy state commit checks when Deploy Preview succeeds
   • Add deploy state commit checks when Deploy Preview fails