SpacetimeDB/docs

SpacetimeDB Documentation

This repository contains the markdown files which are used to display documentation on our website. This documentation is built using Docusaurus.

Making Edits

To make changes to our docs, you can open a pull request in this repository. You can typically edit the files directly using the GitHub web interface, but you can also clone our repository and make your edits locally.

Instructions

1. Fork our repository
2. Clone your fork:

git clone ssh://git@github.com/<username>/SpacetimeDB
cd SpacetimeDB/docs

3. Make your edits to the docs that you want to make + test them locally (See Testing Locally)
4. Commit your changes:

git add .
git commit -m "A specific description of the changes I made and why"

5. Push your changes to your fork as a branch

git checkout -b a-branch-name-that-describes-my-change
git push -u origin a-branch-name-that-describes-my-change

6. Go to our GitHub and open a PR that references your branch in your fork on your GitHub

CLI Reference Section

To regenerate the CLI reference section, run pnpm generate-cli-docs.

Docusaurus Documentation

For more information on how to use Docusaurus, see the Docusaurus documentation.

Testing Locally

Installation

1. Make sure you have Node.js installed (version 22 or higher is recommended).
2. Clone the repository and navigate to the docs directory.
3. Install the dependencies: pnpm install
4. Run the development server: pnpm dev, which will start a local server and open a browser window. All changes you make to the markdown files will be reflected live in the browser.

Cutting Docs Versions

Use Docusaurus versioning to snapshot the current docs into versioned_docs.

1. From docs/, cut a version:

pnpm docusaurus docs:version <version-name>

Example:

pnpm docusaurus docs:version 1.12.0

This updates:

• docs/versions.json
• docs/versioned_docs/version-<version-name>/
• docs/versioned_sidebars/version-<version-name>-sidebars.json

After cutting, update docs/docusaurus.config.ts as needed:

• lastVersion for the default version at /docs
• versions.current label/path for prerelease docs
• versions['<version-name>'] label/banner for the stable snapshot

Re-cutting a Version From an Older Commit

If you need a version snapshot from an old commit (instead of current docs/docs), use:

./docs/scripts/get-old-docs.sh <commit> <version-name>

Example:

./docs/scripts/get-old-docs.sh e45cf891c20d87b11976e1d54c04c0e4639dbe81 1.12.0

The script creates a temporary worktree, snapshots docs from that commit, and copies the generated versioned_docs artifacts back into your current branch.

Rewriting Absolute Links to Version-Safe Relative Links

Absolute links like /quickstarts/react can resolve to the default docs version. To keep links inside the current version, rewrite internal links to relative paths.

Dry run:

pnpm --dir docs rewrite-links

Apply changes:

pnpm --dir docs rewrite-links:write

This script rewrites internal absolute links in:

• docs/docs (current/prerelease docs)
• docs/versioned_docs/version-* (all version snapshots)

Adding new pages

All of our directory and file names are prefixed with a five-digit number which determines how they're sorted. We started with the hundreds place as the smallest significant digit, to allow using the tens and ones places to add new pages between. When adding a new page in between two existing pages, choose a number which:

• Doesn't use any more significant figures than it needs to.
• Is approximately halfway between the previous and next page.

For example, if you want to add a new page between 00300-foo and 00400-bar, name it 00350-baz. To add a new page between 00350-baz and 00400-bar, prefer 00370-quux or 00380-quux, rather than 00375-quux, to avoid populating the ones place.

To add a new page after all previous pages, use the smallest multiple of 100 larger than all other pages. For example, if the highest-numbered existing page is 01350-abc, create 01400-def.

Best practices

• Use relative links for linking between documentation pages, as this will ensure that links work correctly with versioning and localization.

License

This documentation repository is licensed under Apache 2.0. See LICENSE.txt for more details