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awesome-documentation

📃 A curated and up-to-date list of resources on software documentation templates, tools, guides, examples, etc.
https://github.com/pengqun/awesome-documentation

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Documentation Types
- User Documentation
  - The Documentation System
  - Tutorial - Lean how to write good tutorials from The Documentation System.
  - Tutorial template - Open-source template provided by The Good Docs Project.
  - Writing a perfect technical tutorial - How to start creating tutorials, gather feedback, and the next steps once the tutorial is published.
  - SDK Reference Manuals: A flow-based approach - Give users of SDK reference docs a quick, enjoyable, user-oriented experience.
  - How-to guides - Learn how to write good how-to guides from The Documentation System.
  - Explanation - Learn how to write a good explanation from The Documentation System.
  - The Facts About FAQs - Explore various questions we might frequently ask ourselves about FAQs.
  - Driver.js - A light-weight, no-dependency, vanilla JavaScript engine to drive the user's focus across the page.
  - Troubleshooting template - Open-source template provided by The Good Docs Project.
  - Example: Build your first Astro Blog - A well-structured and good-looking tutorial that covers Astro's key features by building a fully-functioning blog, from zero to full launch.
  - Reference guides - Lean how to write good reference guides from The Documentation System.
  - The Power of Empathy in Support Documentation: A 5-Step Guide - Apply empathy and iteration to customer support documentation projects.
- API Documentation
  - The Bezos API Mandate
  - Slate - Beautiful static documentation for your API.
  - Widdershins - OpenAPI / Swagger / AsyncAPI / Semoasa definition to Slate / ReSlate compatible markdown.
  - RAML Specification - RESTful APIs, creating client/server source code, and comprehensively documenting the APIs for users.
  - Swagger Petstore - A sample Pet Store Server based on the OpenAPI 3.0 specification.
  - Redoc - An open source tool for generating documentation from OpenAPI (formerly Swagger) definitions.
  - RapiDoc - WebComponent Custom Element for OpenAPI Spec viewing.
  - Fern - Generate SDKs and API documentation from OpenAPI definitions.
  - Elements - Beautiful API documentation powered by OpenAPI and Markdown.
  - Scalar - Generate interactive API documentations from Swagger files.
  - GraphQL
  - GitHub GraphQL API documentation - A great real world example of GraphQL API from GitHub.
  - SpectaQL - A Node.js library that generates static documentation for a GraphQL schema.
  - GraphQLDocs - Ruby library and CLI for easily generating beautiful documentation from your GraphQL schema.
  - Magidoc - A a JavaScript library that auto-generates static documentation from any GraphQL schema.
  - gRPC
  - protoc-gen-doc - Generate HTML, JSON, DocBook, and Markdown documentation from comments in your .proto files.
  - DevDocs - Combines multiple developer documentations in a clean and organized web UI with instant search, offline support, mobile version, dark theme, keyboard shortcuts, and more.
  - Zeal - Offline documentation browser inspired by Dash.
  - apiDoc - RESTful web API Documentation Generator.
  - OpenAPI Specification - agnostic interface to HTTP APIs. An OpenAPI definition can then be used by documentation generation tools to display the API.
  - Swagger UI - Dynamically generate beautiful documentation from a Swagger-compliant API.
  - AsyncAPI Specification - driven APIs in a machine-readable format, which can also be used to generate API documents.
  - Async API Generator - Use AsyncAPI definition to generate literally anything, including Markdown documentation and HTML documentation.
  - AsyncAPI React Component - Rendering documentation from your specification in real-time in the browser.
  - World Music API - A live example using RAML to HTML documentation generator.
  - Example - A sample HTML documentation generated by protoc-gen-doc.
  - Sabledocs - A simple static documentation generator for Protobuf and gRPC contracts.
  - Example - A sample documentation created with sabledocs, from parts of the Protobuf contracts of the Google Cloud SDK.
  - Petstore Kafka - A functional example for describing with AsyncAPI and OpenAPI.
  - API Console - An interactive REST console based on RAML/OAS files.
  - RAML to HTML - A simple RAML to HTML documentation generator, written for Node.js, with theme support.
  - RAML Specification - RESTful APIs, creating client/server source code, and comprehensively documenting the APIs for users.
- Architectural Documentation
  - arc42 - Proven, practical and pragmatic template for documentation and communication of software and system architectures.
  - Template Download - The arc42 template in various formats, including docx, asciidoc, markdown, latex, rst, html, Confluence, etc.
  - Example: arc42 + C4 model - Shows how to use arc42 in combination with the C4 model with the Documentation as Code technique.
  - docToolchain - An implementation of the docs-as-code approach for software architecture, which use arc42 as template.
  - Example: HTML Sanity Checker - Verbose example for the documentation of a Gradle plugin, created by Dr. Gernot Starke.
  - Example: biking - A real world example for a bike activity tracker, created by Michael Simons.
  - C4Sharp - A .net library for building diagrams as code, based on C4 Model.
  - Goa Design - Model - Create your software architecture models and diagrams in Go. The Model DSL is implemented in Go and follows the C4 Model.
  - Log4brains - Log Architecture Decision Records (ADR) right from your IDE and to publish them automatically as a static website.
  - C4 Diagrams | Mermaid - Mermaid's C4 diagram syntax is compatible with plantUML.
  - The Ultimate Guide To Software Architecture Documentation - Write, structure, visualize and manage software architecture documentation in a lean way using appropriate documentation tools, including arc42.
  - c4-draw.io - A C4 Modelling plugin for draw.io, which provides C4 Notation Elements in draw.io.
  - C4-PlantUML - Includes macros, stereotypes, and other goodies (like VSCode Snippets) for creating C4 diagrams with PlantUML.
  - Structurizr - C4 models as code - visualise and document your software architecture with the C4 model.
  - C4-Builder - A lightweight Node.js cli tool for building, maintaining and sharing a software architecture project using only text.
- Code Documentation
  - Best-README-Template - An awesome README template to jumpstart your projects.
  - Awesome README - A curated list of awesome READMEs, including examples, articles and tools.
  - readme.so - An online drag-and-drop editor to easily build READMEs.
  - Jeff Atwood
  - 101 to 404s: How to write great error messages - Even the shortest error message can evoke far stronger, negative emotions in your end users than the majority of your documentation.
  - Best practices for writing code comments - 9 rules to help you write better comments, providing examples and explaining how and when to apply them.
  - Code Of Conduct template - Open-source template provided by The Good Docs Project.
  - Rustdoc - Generate documentation for Rust projects.
  - Docs.rs - An open source project to host documentation of crates for the Rust Programming Language.
  - TomDoc for Ruby - A code documentation specification that helps you write precise documentation that is nice to read in plain text, yet structured enough to be automatically extracted and processed by a machine.
  - The Engineer's Guide to Writing Meaningful Code Comments - Covers types of comments, when and how to write code comments, some best practices, and when not to write them.
  - NERD Commenter - Vim plugin for intensely nerdy commenting powers.
  - License templates - Templates for open source and other licenses.
  - JSDoc - An API documentation generator for JavaScript.
  - documentation.js - The documentation system for modern JavaScript.
  - Docz - Write and publish beautiful interactive documentation for your code.
  - Storybook - A frontend workshop made for UI development, testing, and documentation.
  - TSDoc - A doc comment standard for TypeScript.
  - Docstring Conventions - This PEP documents the semantics and conventions associated with Python docstrings.
  - Comments and Docstrings - From Google Python Style Guide.
  - Documenting Python Code: A Complete Guide - Covering differences between commenting and documenting, use of docstrings, and guidelines for documenting Python projects.
  - phpDocumentor - The de-facto documentation tool for PHP projects, offering a robust solution for generating comprehensive documentation effortlessly.
  - Docfx - Static site generator for .NET API documentation.
  - Doxygen - The de facto standard tool for generating documentation from annotated C++ sources.
  - JavaDoc - A documentation generator created by Sun Microsystems for the Java language (now owned by Oracle Corporation) for generating API documentation in HTML format from Java source code.
  - Maven Javadoc Plugin - Uses the Javadoc tool to generate javadocs for the specified project.
  - javadoc.io - A free service that indexes and serves JavaDoc for Maven Central.
  - Dokka - An API documentation engine for Kotlin.
  - Go Doc Comments - Extract documentation from Go source code.
  - Swag - Cconverts Go annotations to Swagger Documentation 2.0.
  - perlpod - The Plain Old Documentation format - a simple-to-use markup language used for writing documentation for Perl, Perl programs, and Perl modules.
  - SchemaSpy - Document your database simply and easily.
- Test Documentation
  - SONiC Test Plan Template - A test plan template from Software for Open Networking in the Cloud (SONiC).
  - Writing Test Plan Items | VS Code - A guide for writing Test Plan Item (TPI) for VS Code project.
  - IEEE Test Plan Template - IEEE 829 templates in HTML5 and Markdown formats.
  - Performance Test Plan Document - A free .docx template for performance test plan from PerfMatrix.
  - TestCases and Templates for Manual Software Testing - General Test Cases for performing Manual Testing and API Testing on the Web/Mobile application.
  - Test Case Template (Download Sample Excel) - A free test case template from Guru99, with both Excel and Word formats.
  - Test Case Template with Examples: Free Excel & Word Sample for Download - A free test case template from Katalon, with guidelines and direct download links.
  - Performance Test Report Template - A free .docx template for performance test report from PerfMatrix.
  - Performance Testing Results Report: How to Write It (with Example) - A guide on performance testing report, including why, how and a real world example.
  - A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Powerful Performance Summary Report - Discuss the best practices for creating a performance test summary report and the key components that should be included in it, with a full example.
- Other Types
  - PRD: Product Requirements Doc templates - A bunch of PRD templates from Notion, both free and paid.
  - Product Templates: Product Requirements Document (PRD) - Free PRD Templates from Product School.
  - PRD templates for product managers - PRD templated from Aha! software.
  - Request for Comment template - Open-source template provided by The Good Docs Project.
General Tools
- Site Builder
  - Read the Docs - Hosts documentation for the open source community, which supports Sphinx docs written with reStructuredText.
  - Markdoc - A Markdown-based syntax and toolchain for creating custom documentation sites and experiences.
  - Starlight - Build beautiful, accessible, high-performance documentation websites with Astro.
  - Docco - A quick-and-dirty, hundred-line-long, literate-programming-style documentation generator.
  - bookdown - Authoring Books and Technical Documents with R Markdown.
  - Docus - themes/docus) - Create document-driven websites with Vue & Markdown.
  - Doctave - A batteries-included developer documentation site generator.
  - Docsify - A magical documentation site generator.
  - MkDocs - A fast, simple and downright gorgeous static site generator that's geared towards building project documentation.
  - Material for MkDocs - material) - A powerful documentation framework on top of MkDocs.
  - mdBook - lang/mdBook) - Create book from markdown files. Like Gitbook but implemented in Rust.
  - Sphinx - doc/sphinx) - Make it easy to create intelligent and beautiful documentation.
  - Docusaurus - A project for building, deploying, and maintaining open source project websites easily.
- Wiki Builder
  - Wiki.js - A modern and powerful wiki app built on Node.js.
  - MediaWiki - A free and open-source wiki software package written in PHP. It serves as the platform for Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects.
  - DokuWiki - A simple to use and highly versatile Open Source wiki software that doesn't require a database.
  - Gollum - A simple wiki system built on top of Git.
  - VimWiki - A a personal wiki for Vim, which can be used to write documentation.
  - GitHub Wiki
  - Awesome GitHub Wikis - A curated list of awesome GitHub Wikis, including examples, tips and tricks.
  - Federated Wiki
  - The Federated Wiki - Use federation to ease sharing, by Ward Cunningham.
  - Node.js server version - Federated Wiki node server as npm package.
- Knowledge Base
  - Documize - Modern Confluence alternative designed for internal & external docs.
  - Trilium Notes - A hierarchical note taking application with focus on building large personal knowledge bases.
  - Seafile - High performance file syncing and sharing, with also Markdown WYSIWYG editing, Wiki, file label and other knowledge management features.
  - Logseq - A privacy-first, open-source platform for knowledge management and collaboration.
  - MrDoc - An online document system suitable for individuals and small teams to manage documents, wiki, knowledge and notes.
  - AFFiNE - A next-gen knowledge base that brings planning, sorting and creating all together.
- Checker & Formatter
  - LanguageTool - Style and Grammar Checker for 25+ Languages.
  - Spellcheck GitHub Actions - A GitHub Action that spell checks Python, Markdown, and Text files.
  - TeXtidote - A correction tool for LaTeX documents and other formats.
  - alex - Catch insensitive, inconsiderate writing.
  - Lychee - Finds broken URLs and mail addresses inside Markdown, HTML, reStructuredText, websites and more.
  - linkinator - A super simple site crawler and broken link checker.
  - Readability checker - Score your writing based on the Flesch reading ease scale, which looks at how long your words and sentences are.
  - Capitalize My Title - An easy, smart title capitalization tool that uses title capitalization rules published by leading professional organizations to ensure your titles and headlines are capitalized correctly.
  - CasePolice - Scan all your source files and fix the cases of known names.
  - Tables Generator - Generate tables in HTML, Markdown, Latex, MediaWiki, etc.
- Diagramming
  - (Chinese) Architecture Diagramming: Tools and Methodologies - It discusses the benefits of using diagrams in architecture document, and highlights some standards and best practices.
  - Excalidraw - An open source virtual hand-drawn style whiteboard for sketching hand-drawn like diagrams.
  - draw.io - A JavaScript, client-side editor for general diagramming.
- Multimedia
  - Screenity - The free and privacy-friendly screen recorder with no limits.
  - Kap - An open-source screen recorder built with web technology.
  - rrweb - A tool for recording and replaying users' interactions on the web.
  - ScreenToGif - Record a selected area of your screen, edit and save it as a gif or video.
  - Peek - Simple animated GIF screen recorder with an easy to use interface.
  - Flameshot - Powerful yet simple to use screenshot software.
  - Tenacity - An easy-to-use, privacy-friendly, FLOSS, cross-platform multi-track audio editor for Windows, macOS, Linux, and other operating systems.
  - asciinema - A command-line tool for recording terminal sessions.
  - Terminalizer - Record your terminal and generate animated gif images or share a web player.
  - Animockup - A web-based tool that helps you create animated mockups for your product teasers.
  - Slidev - Presentation slides for developers.
  - reveal.js - Open source HTML presentation framework.
  - carbon - Create and share beautiful images of your source code.
  - Code Hike - Helps you create a superior code reading experience, whether you are writing blog posts, documentation, tutorials, coding videos, or any type of technical content.
  - Unsplash - Beautiful, free images and photos that you can download and use for any project.
  - Illustrations | Popsy - Free vector illustrations for Notion and Popsy websites.
  - KindPng - Explore millions of transparent png image for personal and non-commercial use.
- Commercial
  - Swimm document - Code documentation for developer productivity, including AI support to improve readability.
  - Kapa.ai - Generate an LLM-powered chatbot that answers developer questions automatically and helps you find gaps in your docs.
  - Project documentation | Slite - Brings your scattered project documents into one place:
  - Confluence - A powerful collaboration and project management software, which is widely used for enterprise documentation management.
  - Confluence in a Docker container - Atlassian Confluence wrapped in a Docker image.
  - Writerside | JetBrains - The most powerful development environment – now adapted for writing documentation.
More Topics
- Comunities
  - Write the Docs - A global community of people who care about documentation.
  - The Good Docs Project - Educates and empowers people to create high-quality documentation.
  - Technical Writing | Reddit - For people who take the unbelievably complicated things that scientists and engineers devise and make it understandable for non-technical people.
- Examples
  - Awesome Open Source Documents - A curated list of awesome open source or open source licensed documents, guides, books.
  - Awesome Documentation | vipulgupta2048 - A curated list of awesome real-life documentation examples.
  - 9 Great API and Developer Documentation Examples - Cover common areas of documentation, plus some areas you might not typically see called docs.
- Formats
  - Pandoc - A universal document converter, which can convert files from one markup format into another.
  - Mammoth - Convert Word documents (.docx files) to HTML.
  - Markdown - A lightweight markup language for creating formatted text using a plain-text editor.
  - MarkText - A simple and elegant markdown editor, available for Linux, macOS and Windows.
  - Glow - A terminal based markdown reader, which can be used to read documentation directly on the command line.
  - Asciidoctor - A fast, open source, Ruby-based text processor for parsing AsciiDoc and converting it to output formats such as HTML 5, DocBook 5, manual pages, PDF, EPUB 3, and other formats.
  - Antora - A modular documentation site generator that helps you organize and publish content written in AsciiDoc to the web.
  - reStructuredText - The default plaintext markup language used by Sphinx.
  - DocBook - An XML schema for writing books and manuals about technical subjects.
  - LaTeX - A document preparation system.
- Books
  - Technical Documentation and Process - Provide the background and structure to help you document your projects more effectively.
  - Docs-as-Ecosystem: The Community Approach to Engineering Documentation - Teaches readers how mastering the docs-as-code ecosystem empowers communities to understand better their favorite products and Open-Source (OSS) technologies better.
  - Living Documentation: Continuous Knowledge Sharing by Design, First Edition - Use an Approach Inspired by Domain-Driven Design to Build Documentation That Evolves to Maximize Value Throughout Your Development Lifecycle.
  - Docs for Developers: An Engineer's Field Guide to Technical Writing - Teaches you the craft of documentation for each step in the software development lifecycle.
  - Communication Patterns - Shows you how to create documentation and diagrams that actually get the message across to the different audiences you'll face.
  - Crafting Docs for Success : An End-to-End Approach to Developer Documentation - Provide an easy to follow blueprint for building successful developer documentation by using the award winning platformOS developer portal as inspiration.
  - Documenting Software Architectures: Views and Beyond, Second Edition - Provides the most complete and current guidance, independent of language or notation, on how to capture an architecture in a commonly understandable form.
  - Communicating Design: Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning, Second Edition - Shows you how to make the documentation you're required to provide into the most efficient communications tool possible.
  - Information Development: Managing Your Documentation Projects, Portfolio, and People - A completely new look at best practices for all phases of the document development lifecycle.
- Guidelines
  - Style Guides - Collections of style guides from Write the Docs community.
  - Google developer documentation style guide - Provides editorial guidelines for writing clear and consistent Google-related developer documentation.
  - Microsoft Writing Style Guide - If you write about computer technology, this guide is for you.
  - Editorial guidelines for Apple - Provides guidelines to help maintain a consistent voice in Apple materials, including documentation.
  - GitHub Docs Style guide - Make sure GitHub's documentation stays consistent and follows clear patterns that our readers can understand.
  - How to Write Good Documentation | UC Berkeley - Help you to prepare your code for publishing through writing a good documentation.
  - Series: Writing Great Documentation - A series of articles laying out the tools, tips, and techniques author learned over the years he've spent helping to write Django's docs.
  - Command Line Interface Guidelines - An open-source guide covering CLI help text and documentation.
- Courses
  - Technical Writing Courses for Engineers - This collection of courses and learning resources from Google aims to improve your technical documentation.
  - Technical Writer HQ - Hosts popular certification courses covering different aspects of technical writing in an applicable way.
- DocOps
  - What is Continuous Documentation? The manifesto
  - Shifting to Continuous Documentation as a New Approach for Code Knowledge
  - DocOps Collection - These articles offer an introduction to the concept of DocOps.
  - What is DocOps, anyway? - Awesome article from Write the Docs community.
  - Docs as Code - Awesome article from Write the Docs community.
  - DocOps Lab - A platform for collaboratively developing and exploring docs-as-code infrastructure, automation, workflows, etc.
- Localization
  - Localize the Docs - Awesome video from Write the Docs community.
  - Found in Translation: Lessons from a Year of Open Source Localization - Awesome video from Write the Docs community.
- SEO
  - Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide | Google - Provides the best practices to make it easier for search engines (not just Google) to crawl, index, and understand your content.
  - Search engine optimization (SEO) for documentation - SEO guide from Write the Docs community.
  - Five ways to improve SEO of your technical documentation and OpenAPI references - Five ways to improve the search engine rankings of your technical docs and OpenAPI specification.
  - How to do search engine optimization (SEO) for documentation projects - Explains how documentation can be optimized to appear in search results, ultimately increasing traffic to your docs.
  - Search engine optimization (SEO) | Docusaurus - Show how Docusaurus as documentation site builder supports SEO in a variety of ways.
- Accessibility
  - Color Contrast Checker - Find out whether your site meets WCAG color requirements.
  - WebAIM - Web accessibility in mind.
  - Pa11y - Runs accessibility tests on your doc pages via the command line or Node.js.
  - Create accessible documents | UW Madison - Follow these basic steps to increase the accessibility of your Word, HTML, PowerPoint and PDF documents.
  - Documents Accessibility - The Definitive Guide - How to make your documents meet accessibility standards.
  - Website Accessibility Checker - Scan your website for free, identify accessbility issues, and get exact instructions on how to fix them.

Programming Languages

JavaScript 28 TypeScript 22 Ruby 5 Rust 5 Go 4 HTML 4 C++ 4 C# 3 Java 3 PHP 3

Ecosyste.ms: Awesome

awesome-documentation

Documentation Types

User Documentation

API Documentation

Architectural Documentation

Code Documentation

Test Documentation

Other Types

General Tools

Site Builder

Wiki Builder

Knowledge Base

Checker & Formatter

Diagramming

Multimedia

Commercial

More Topics

Comunities

Examples

Formats

Books

Guidelines

Courses

DocOps

Localization

SEO

Accessibility