Contributing new content overview

Contributing new content overview

This section contains information you should know before contributing new content.

Contributing basics

Write Kubernetes documentation in Markdown and build the Kubernetes site using Hugo.
The source is in GitHub. You can find Kubernetes documentation at /content/en/docs/. Some of the reference documentation is automatically generated from scripts in the update-imported-docs/ directory.
Page content types describe the presentation of documentation content in Hugo.
In addition to the standard Hugo shortcodes, we use a number of custom Hugo shortcodes in our documentation to control the presentation of content.
Documentation source is available in multiple languages in /content/. Each language has its own folder with a two-letter code determined by the ISO 639-1 standard. For example, English documentation source is stored in /content/en/docs/.
For more information about contributing to documentation in multiple languages or starting a new translation, see localization.

Before you begin

Sign the CNCF CLA

All Kubernetes contributors must read the Contributor guide and sign the Contributor License Agreement (CLA).

Pull requests from contributors who haven’t signed the CLA fail the automated tests. The name and email you provide must match those found in your git config, and your git name and email must match those used for the CNCF CLA.

Choose which Git branch to use

When opening a pull request, you need to know in advance which branch to base your work on.

Scenario	Branch
Existing or new English language content for the current release	`master`
Content for a feature change release	The branch which corresponds to the major and minor version the feature change is in, using the pattern `dev-<version>`. For example, if a feature changes in the `v1.21` release, then add documentation changes to the `dev-1.21` branch.
Content in other languages (localizations)	Use the localization’s convention. See the Localization branching strategy for more information.

If you’re still not sure which branch to choose, ask in #sig-docs on Slack.

Note: If you already submitted your pull request and you know that the base branch was wrong, you (and only you, the submitter) can change it.

Languages per PR

Limit pull requests to one language per PR. If you need to make an identical change to the same code sample in multiple languages, open a separate PR for each language.

Tools for contributors

The doc contributors tools directory in the kubernetes/website repository contains tools to help your contribution journey go more smoothly.