Docs Like Code──A modern approach to technical documentation

📘 Now in its Second Edition

Ship better docs by treating them like code

Version control, automation, and real team collaboration — the same workflow developers already use, applied to technical documentation. This site and the book behind it show you exactly how.

Get the Book — Print or Ebook What's inside?

Available in print and ebook via Lulu · by Anne Gentle

Docs Like Code book cover

"This book will be the go-to guide for people looking to get into the Docs like Code world. It has been on my list to write for a while, and I'm glad someone did for me."

— Eric Holscher, Co-founder of Read the Docs & Write the Docs

Version every change

Use Git to track who changed what and why — for docs, not just code.

Automate your builds

CI/CD pipelines that publish your docs on every merge, no manual steps.

Review with pull requests

Writers and developers collaborate in the same workflow they already know.

Scale with your team

Patterns that work whether you're a solo writer or a distributed doc team.

Who this is for

Technical Writers Work alongside engineers without losing control of your docs.
Developer Advocates Publish and maintain API docs that stay in sync with the code.
Engineering Teams Adopt a lightweight docs workflow that fits your existing CI/CD setup.
Doc Team Leads Build systems that don't break when headcount or tooling changes.
What's new in the Second Edition? Updated coverage of modern static site generators, expanded CI/CD automation examples, new case studies from teams at Sysdig, platformOS, and Redis, plus a deeper look at REST API documentation and OpenAPI workflows. See full table of contents →

Try it in your browser — under 10 minutes

No local setup needed. All you need is a GitHub account.

Learn more about docs as code
  1. Create a free GitHub account at github.com. (Free vs Pro — which plan?)
  2. Create a new repository named yourusername.github.io — for example, annegentle.github.io.
  3. On the repository's Code tab, click Add file → Create new file. GitHub Add file and Create file
  4. Name the file index.md and add a line of text — this becomes your live web page. GitHub Edit new file
  5. Click Commit new file. GitHub Commit new file
  6. Wait a few seconds, then visit https://yourusername.github.io. See annegentle.github.io for a live example.

    Don't see a page? Go to Settings → Pages in your repo and verify GitHub Pages is enabled. GitHub Pages settings
    More scenarios at pages.github.com.

That's the core loop: write a file, commit it, and it publishes automatically. The book and guides on this site show you how to take that same idea much further.

📚 Lessons & exercises → 📰 Articles & case studies → 🛒 Buy the book →

Setting up Techdocs on Backstage

Techdocs is Spotify’s homegrown docs like code solution. it allows the user to store documentation to near code thus allowing it to be easily discovered.