index.md

info: For assistance with this Style Guide page, see https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/product/ux/technical-writing/#assignments-to-other-projects-and-subjects.
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group: unassigned
description: 'Writing styles, markup, formatting, and other standards for GitLab Documentation.'

Documentation Style Guide

This document defines the standards for GitLab documentation, including grammar, formatting, and more. For guidelines on specific words, see the word list.

For style questions, mention @tw-style in an issue or merge request. If you have access to the GitLab Slack workspace, use the #docs-processes channel.

The GitLab voice

The GitLab brand guidelines define the voice used by the larger organization.

Building on that guidance, the voice in the GitLab documentation strives to be concise, direct, and precise. The goal is to provide information that's easy to search and scan.

The voice in the documentation should be conversational but brief, friendly but succinct.

Documentation is the single source of truth (SSoT)

The GitLab documentation is the SSoT for all product information related to implementation, use, and troubleshooting. The documentation evolves continuously. It is updated with new products and features, and with improvements for clarity, accuracy, and completeness.

This policy prevents information silos, making it easier to find information about GitLab products. It also informs decisions about the kinds of content included in the documentation.

Topic types

GitLab uses topic types to organize the product documentation.

Topic types help users digest information more quickly. They also help address these issues:

• Content is hard to find. The GitLab docs are comprehensive and include a large amount of useful information. Topic types create repeatable patterns that make the content easier to scan and parse.
• Content is often written from the contributor's point of view. The GitLab docs are written by a variety of contributors. Topic types (tasks, specifically) help put information into a format that is geared toward helping others, rather than documenting how a feature was implemented.

Docs-first methodology

The product documentation should be a complete and trusted resource.

• If the answer to a question exists in documentation, share the link to the documentation instead of rephrasing the information.
• When you encounter information that's not available in GitLab documentation, create a merge request (MR) to add the information to the documentation. Then share the MR to communicate the information.

The more we reflexively add information to the documentation, the more the documentation helps others efficiently accomplish tasks and solve problems.

Writing for localization

The GitLab documentation is not localized, but we follow guidelines that help us write for a global audience.

The GitLab voice dictates that we write clearly and directly with translation in mind. Our style guide, word list, and Vale rules ensure consistency in the documentation.

When documentation is translated into other languages, the meaning of each word must be clear. The increasing use of machine translation, GitLab Duo Chat, and other AI tools means that consistency is even more important.

The following rules can help documentation be translated more efficiently.

Avoid:

• Phrases that hide the subject like there is and there are.
• Ambiguous pronouns like it.
• Words that end in -ing.
• Words that can be confused with one another like since and because.
• Latin abbreviations like e.g. and i.e..
• Culture-specific references like kill two birds with one stone.

Use:

• Standard text for links.
• Lists and tables instead of complex sentences and paragraphs.
• Common abbreviations like AI and CI/CD and abbreviations you've previously spelled out.

Also, keep the following guidance in mind:

• Be consistent with feature names and how to interact with them.
• Break up noun strings. For example, instead of project integration custom settings, use custom settings for project integrations.
• Format dates and times consistently and for an international audience.
• Use illustrations, including screenshots, sparingly.
• For UI text, allow for up to 30% expansion and contraction in translation. To see how much a string expands or contracts in another language, paste the string into Google Translate and review the results. You can ask a colleague who speaks the language to verify if the translation is clear.

Markdown

All GitLab documentation is written in Markdown.

The documentation website uses GitLab Kramdown, a "flavored" Kramdown engine to render pages from Markdown to HTML. The use of Kramdown features is limited by our linters, so, use regular Markdown and follow the rules in the linked style guide. You can't use Kramdown-specific markup (for example, {:.class}).

For a complete Kramdown reference, see the GitLab Markdown Guide.

The Markdown format is tested by using markdownlint and Vale.

HTML in Markdown

Hard-coded HTML is valid, although it's discouraged from being used. HTML is permitted if:

• There's no equivalent markup in Markdown.
• Advanced tables are necessary.
• Special styling is required.
• Reviewed and approved by a technical writer.

Heading levels in Markdown

Each documentation page begins with a level 1 heading (#). This becomes the h1 element when the page is rendered to HTML. There can be only one level 1 heading per page.

• For each subsection, increment the heading level. In other words, increment the number of # characters in front of the topic title.
• Avoid heading levels greater than H5 (#####). If you need more than five heading levels, move the topics to a new page instead. Heading levels greater than H5 do not display in the right sidebar navigation.
• Do not skip a level. For example: ## > ####.
• Leave one blank line before and after the topic title.
• If you use code in topic titles, ensure the code is in backticks.

Backticks in Markdown

Use backticks for:

• Code blocks.
• Error messages.
• Commands, parameters, and filenames.
• Values. For example: "In the Name text box, type test."

Language

GitLab documentation should be clear and easy to understand.

• Avoid unnecessary words.
• Be clear, concise, and stick to the goal of the topic.
• Write in US English with US grammar. (Tested in British.yml.)

Active voice

In most cases, text is easier to understand and to translate if you use active voice instead of passive.

For example, use:

• The developer writes code for the application.

Instead of:

• Application code is written by the developer.

Sometimes, using GitLab as the subject can be awkward. For example, GitLab exports the report. In this case, you can use passive voice instead. For example, The report is exported.

Customer perspective

Focus on the functionality and benefits that GitLab brings to customer, rather than what GitLab has created.

For example, use:

• Use merge requests to compare code in the source and target branches.

Instead of:

• GitLab allows you to compare code.
• GitLab created the ability to let you compare code.
• Merge requests let you compare code.

Words that indicate you are not writing from a customer perspective are allow and enable. Try instead to use you and to speak directly to the user.

Building trust

Product documentation should be focused on providing clear, concise information, without the addition of sales or marketing text.

• Do not use words like easily or simply.
• Do not use marketing phrases like "This feature will save you time and money."

Instead, focus on facts and achievable goals. Be specific. For example:

• The build time can decrease when you use this feature.
• You can use this feature to save time when you create a project. The API creates the file and you do not need to manually intervene.

Capitalization

As a company, we tend toward lowercase.

Topic titles

Use sentence case for topic titles. For example: