This folder contains the code for the Dagster documentation site at https://docs.dagster.io

To install the dependencies required to run the docs, run the following in the /docs directory:

make docs_dev_install

Then, run the developer server in the same /docs directory:

make dev

Open https://localhost:3001 with your browser to see the result.

All content is in the /content folder.

Try it out

Open https://localhost:3001/concepts/solids-pipelines/solids in your browser, and the file /content/concepts/solid-pipelines/solids.mdx in your editor. Try editing the file and see your changes be reflected live in the browser.

• Editing API Docs: we use Sphinx to generate API Docs.
• Writing MDX: we use MDX to write our main content. This section will explain how to include code snippets and use various custom components.
• Navigation: this explains how to update the sidebar.

The API documentation is authored separately in the dagster/docs/sphinx folder using Sphinx, a Python document generator. We use Sphinx because it has built-in functionality to document Python methods and classes by parsing the docstrings.

If you update the API documentation in the dagster/docs/sphinx folder, you need to rebuild the output from Sphinx in order to see your changes reflected in the documentation site.

First, you'll need a separate virtual environment from the one you usually use to develop Dagster.

pyenv virtualenv 3.8.1 dagster-docs
pyenv activate dagster-docs

Then, with the virtual environment activated, run the following from the dagster/ root directory:

pip install -r docs-requirements.txt

Finally, in the dagster/docs directory, run:

make build

If you don't build the API documentation and include the changes in your diff, you will see a build error reminding you to do so.

We use MDX, which is a content format that lets us use JSX in our markdown documents. This lets us import components and embed them in our documentation.

We want the code snippets in our documentation to be high quality. We maintain quality by authoring snippets in the /examples/docs_snippets folder and testing them to make sure they work and we don't break them in the future.

Example: To include snippets from the code base, you can provide additional properties to the markdown code fence block:

Using markers:

```python file=/concepts/solids_pipelines/solid_definition.py startafter=start_solid_definition_marker_0 endbefore=end_solid_definition_marker_0
```

Render:

Run make snapshot to actually get the snipets to render. . This will replace the body of the code block with the code you referenced.

Important: to change the value of a literal include, you must change the referenced code, not the code inside the code block. Run make snapshot once you update the underlying code to see the changes in the doc site. This behavior is different from previous versions of the site.

Properties:

• file: The path to file relative to the /examples/docs_snippets/docs_snippets folder. You can use a relative path from this folder to access snippets from other parts of the codebase, but this is highly discouraged. Instead, you should copy the bit of code you need into doc_snippets and test it appropriately.

• startafter and endbefore: Use this property to specify a code snippet in between to makers. You will need to include the markers in the source file as comments.

• lines: (This is highly discouraged) Use this property to specify a range of lines to include in the code snippet. You can also pass multiple ranges separated by commas.

  For example:

    ```python file=/concepts/solids_pipelines/solid_definition.py lines=1-10,12
    ```
  

• trim=true: Sometimes, our Python formatter black gets in the way and adds some spacing before the end of your snippet and the endbefore marker comment. Use trim to get rid of any extra newlines.

Here are the available components we built to use in MDX:

• PyObject
• Link
• Check
• Cross
• LinkGrid
• LinkGridItem
• Warning
• Experimental
• CodeReferenceLink

See more details in the /components/MDXComponents file.

PyObject Component

The most important component is the <PyObject /> component. It is used to link to references in the API documentation from MDX files.

Example usage:

Here is an example of using PyObject: <PyObject module="dagster" object="SolidDefinition" />
By default, we just display the object name. To override, use the `displayText` prop: <PyObject module="dagster" object="solid" displayText="@solid"/ >

If you are adding a new page or want to update the navigation in the sidebar, update the docs/content/_navigation.json file.