📘

Beta Feature

We're excited to announce that bi-directional sync is currently in beta and will be gradually available to our ReadMe customers! If you’d like to be among the first to try it out, feel free to join our waitlist in the app. We can’t wait to have you on board!

Overview

Ready to start editing with bi-directional sync? Whether you're making quick updates in ReadMe's intuitive editor or pushing changes through Git, bi-directional sync keeps everything in perfect harmony. Your edits in ReadMe automatically flow to your GitHub repository, and any changes you commit to GitHub appear right in your ReadMe hub. Don't worry about version conflicts or maintaining multiple copies – bi-directional sync handles the heavy lifting, so you can focus on creating great documentation wherever you prefer to work.

Setting Up Bi-Directional Sync

Prerequisites

1. Your project must be enabled for the new editing UI.
2. You must have a GitHub account and an empty private repository.

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Important Note

External repositories connected to your project must be empty on initial sync.

Initial Configuration

1. Go to Settings > Git Connection in your ReadMe project settings.
2. Create a new empty private repository in your GitHub account.
3. Click Sync with GitHub in ReadMe.
4. Authenticate with GitHub when prompted.
5. Select the repositories you want ReadMe to access (including your new repo).
6. Choose your project and click Sync Repository.

Documentation Structure

Project structure

Each ReadMe project will be equivalent to a GitHub repository. See the diagram below:

File Organization

The bi-directional sync feature offers a format that closely mirrors the well-organized ReadMe project structure. With folders neatly organizing your documentation and markdown files serving as individual pages, it creates a user-friendly experience that will feel instantly familiar to ReadMe users.

Your documentation follows this standardized structure:

📂 project
├── 📁 guides
│   ├── 📂 category-folder
│   │   ├── 📄 page.md
│   │   └── 📃 sidebar.yml
│   └── 📃 sidebar.yml
├── 📁 recipes
├── 📁 custompages
└── 📁 references

Each component serves a specific purpose:

• guides: Contains your main documentation content, organized in categories.
• recipes: Holds step-by-step tutorials and how-to guides.
• custompages: Stores any custom pages you've created.
• references: Contains API reference documentation.
• sidebar.yml: Manages the navigation structure for each section.

This organization mirrors your ReadMe project structure, making it easy to maintain consistency between your Git repository and ReadMe documentation.

File Format

Documentation pages use Markdown with front matter metadata:

---
title: List all owls
api:
  file: hoot.json
  operationId: get_owls
hidden: false
metadata:
  title: My SEO Title
  description: A brief description for SEO
  keywords:
    - keyword1
    - keyword2
---

# Main Content

Your documentation content goes here...

Guides Structure

Page order and navigation are controlled by _order.yml files:

- welcome-page
- getting-started
- advanced-topics
  - feature-one
  - feature-two

API Reference Navigation Structure

Code Example

- reference:
  - Owl Sanctuary API:
    - owls:
      - postowls
      - index
      - getsightings
      - getowlsid
      - getowls
    - habitats:
      - index
      - gethabitats

Image Example

This is after uploading a sample OAS file, hoot.json. The above matches the following sidebar:

Editing in ReadMe

Making Changes

1. Navigate to the page you want to edit in ReadMe.
2. Make your changes using the ReadMe editor.
3. Save your changes.
4. Changes will automatically sync to your Git repository.

Handling Conflicts

When conflicts occur during saving:

1. ReadMe will display a conflict notification.
2. You can choose to:
   • Overwrite the changes in Git.
   • Cancel the save and incorporate Git changes first.
3. Review the changes carefully before deciding.

Editing in Git

When editing documentation in Git, you can use your preferred code editor or Git tools. The bi-directional sync feature will detect changes made to your Git repository and automatically update your ReadMe documentation.

Content Structure

1. Markdown Files:

   • Files must include required frontmatter (title, summary)
   • Content follows standard Markdown format.
   • File names should match the intended URL slug.

2. Navigation:

   • Page order is controlled by sidebar.yml files.
   • Each category folder can have its own sidebar.yml
   • Navigation structure mirrors your ReadMe project.

Managing Versions

Version Control with Git

• Each documentation version corresponds to a Git branch.
• The default branch represents your main version
• Create new branches for major versions:
  Shell

  git checkout -b v2.0
  

Version Settings

Version-specific settings like public/deprecated status are managed in ReadMe's interface, not in Git.

Conflict Resolution

Handling Conflicts in ReadMe

When a conflict is detected while saving in ReadMe, the system will:

1. Display a conflict notification indicating changes were made in another session
2. Present you with two options:
   • Overwrite the changes in Git
   • Cancel the save and continue editing

This gives you the chance to check for changes made in Git and incorporate those changes manually in the ReadMe editor before saving again.

Handling Conflicts Outside ReadMe

Users who run into conflicts will be able to resolve those conflicts using their preferred tool:

• Manually in a code editor
• Tools offered by their Git service
• Other preferred conflict resolution methods

Branch Synchronization

When working with branches across ReadMe and GitHub, there are some important synchronization behaviors to understand:

Creating Branches in ReadMe

• The initial commit in ReadMe is required to establish the branch synchronization with GitHub.

Creating Branches in GitHub

• If you create a branch in GitHub, you must create a corresponding version in ReadMe with the same name.
• While the branch exists in GitHub, ReadMe won't recognize it until you create the matching version in the ReadMe interface.

Synchronizing Branch Content

• After the initial ReadMe change, all content from both GitHub and ReadMe will be synchronized (assuming there aren't any conflicts).