Basic concepts

uid: guides.concepts description: The building blocks of a documentation project - content, resources, metadata, overwrite files, templates, and output.

A documentation project is a folder with a docgen.json file. Every path in the configuration is relative to that folder, and the build never reads or writes outside it, with one exception: API metadata sources may name a folder above the project, such as ../src.

website/
  docgen.json          configuration
  docs/                content: Markdown, tables of contents, OpenAPI, catalogs
  images/              resources copied as they are
  overwrite/           overwrite files that amend generated pages
  template/            template folder: partial overrides and public assets
  _site/               output, written by the build
  .docgen/             build state used for incremental publishing

Content

Content files are the pages of the site. The build.content setting selects them with globs:

"content": [
  { "files": ["**/*.md", "**/toc.yml"], "exclude": ["drafts/**"], "src": "docs", "dest": "" }
]

A file is selected when it lies under src, a files glob matches its path inside src, and no exclude glob does. The output keeps that inner path under dest, with .md, .yml, and .json becoming .html. The first mapping that selects a file wins.

The kind of a content file decides how it is read:

Any other selected file is reported with DG603 and skipped; list it as a resource instead.

Resources

Resources are copied to the output without change: images, downloads, and any other static file. They use the same mapping shape as content:

"resource": [ { "files": ["images/**"] } ]

Articles can link to resources, and the build checks that every image and link target exists.

Metadata

Metadata is a set of keys and values attached to each page. Templates read it to decide what a page shows, and the build reads some keys itself. Values come from four places, applied in this order so that later ones win:

1. build.globalMetadata, and the files named by build.globalMetadataFiles.
2. build.fileMetadata rules, which assign a value to every file a glob matches, and the files named by build.fileMetadataFiles.
3. The article's own front matter.
4. Overwrite sections for the page's uid.

---
title: Deploying
uid: guides.deploying
description: Publish the site to any static host.
_disableAffix: true
---

Keys that start with an underscore, such as _appTitle or _disableToc, are read by the template. The complete list is in Templates and theming.

Overwrite files

An overwrite file amends a page or a generated declaration without editing its source. Each section starts with a YAML header that names a uid; the Markdown that follows the header is the section's content.

---
uid: PuduLangDocgen.Docset.build
example: *content
---
Build the project in `website` with the default options:

    Docset.build("website/docgen.json", &Docset.options(), &Build.extensions())

Other keys in the header become page metadata for that uid. Select overwrite files with build.overwrite, using the same mapping shape as content. This site amends <xref:PuduLangDocgen.Docset.build> this way.

Templates

A template decides how pages look. The built-in default template renders every page; template folders listed after it replace its layout or partials and add public/main.css and public/main.js. See Templates and theming.

Output

The build writes the site to build.output, _site by default. Output is validated as a whole before anything is written: every output path must be portable, two outputs may not share a path, and a file may not take the path of a folder.

Publishing is incremental. The .docgen/build.json state file records what the previous build wrote, so unchanged files are left alone and stale files are removed. Pass --force to rewrite every file.

[!IMPORTANT] Keep _site/ and .docgen/ out of version control. The init command writes a .gitignore that does this.