Choose the docs branching strategy for a repository

With Docs V3 (elastic.co/docs), a single branch is published per repository. This branch is set to main by default. This is known as the continuous deployment branching strategy. However, it is possible to instead publish a different branch, also known as the tagged branching strategy.

On this page, you'll learn how to choose the right branching strategy for your repository, and how to change the branching strategy. You'll also learn about the workflows for working with each branching strategy.

The main reasons for this choice are:

• With Docs V3, there is no longer a different version of each page for each minor release. Instead, the same page covers all versions, and any changes are indicated throughout the content.
• More and more products are released from main branches, making these branches the most up to date at any given time. This is especially true for Elastic Cloud Serverless and Elastic Cloud.

Publishing from the main branch isn’t the best option for all repositories.

• main can contain code and docs for unreleased versions that we don’t want to publish yet.
• The versioning scheme and release cadence of the product associated with a repository can vary, and it can be inconsistent to have the docs associated with a certain version live in a different branch than the code.

If you choose this publication model for your repository AND that repository includes Serverless or Elastic Cloud documentation, you will need to make sure that Serverless- and Elastic Cloud-related changes are also backported to the branch that is publishing to the public docs site.

You don't need to change your branching strategy to enable writing docs about future versions. Review the continuous deployment workflow and Write cumulative documentation to learn more.

Note that regardless of the publication branch that is set, the documentation must still flag all changes introduced so far since the last major release. This is NOT an alternative to writing docs cumulatively.

Choosing to switch between publishing docs from main and publishing docs from a version branch is a long-term decision. This decision impacts all docs for an entire repository. Reach out to the docs team to discuss the change.

For more information, refer to Content sources.

After it has been established that a repository should publish from a version branch rather than main:

1. Add new triggers to the docs-build CI integration. Merge these changes to main or master and the intended version branches.
2. Open a PR to trigger the CI integration and confirm that the docs build.
3. Open a PR updating the docs assembler file:
   • Specify which is the current branch for the repository. This branch is the branch from which docs are deployed to production at elastic.co/docs.
   • Specify which is the next branch for the repository. The branch defined as next publishes docs internally to staging-website.elastic.co/docs
     • Setting this branch to the next version branch in line is a good practice to preview docs change for an upcoming version.
     • Otherwise, keeping it set to main is also an option since this is where the content is initially developed and merged. This is the default.
4. In the assembler PR, add the ci label. After CI runs, confirm that the intended version branches are publishing to the link service. When links are being published as intended, they can be found at the following URL, where repo is your repo name and branch is your newly configured branch:

elastic-docs-link-index.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/elastic/<repo>/<branch>/links.json

5. Rerun the validate-assembler check on the PR.
6. After checks pass and the docs engineering team approves, you can merge the PR.

After these steps are completed, the docs engineering team needs to release a new version of our build tool to complete the process. This process will be decoupled in a future release. After a new version is released, the switch is complete and the production documentation reflects the specified current branch.

When you publish from specific version branches, you need to bump the version branch as part of the release process.

Add an action as part of that repo’s release process for the release manager to update this same assembler file and bump the current branch with each release, as appropriate. The next branch also needs to be bumped if it is not set to main.

When these releases happen, create a PR against the assembler file that defines the new current branch, to merge on release day.

Learn how to make updates in the continuous deployment branching strategy, where the repo is publishing docs from main.

Initiate the changes by opening a PR against the main branch of the repo.

In elastic.co/docs (Docs V3), we write docs cumulatively regardless of the branching strategy selected.

When a repo publishes docs from its main branch, any merged changes are published within 30 minutes. It is then very important to consider the timing of the merge depending on the documented product:

When a repo is publishing docs from its main branch, no backporting is needed.

Learn how to make updates in the continuous deployment branching strategy, where the repo is publishing docs from a specific version branch.

Initiate the changes by opening a PR against the main branch of the repo, and backport the changes to the relevant version branches as detailed below.

In elastic.co/docs (Docs V3), we write docs cumulatively regardless of the branching strategy selected.

When a repo publishes docs from a version branch, there is no timing constraint to merge the initial PR against the main branch. If main is set as your next branch, then the docs changes become visible on the internal staging docs site at staging-website.elastic.co/docs. Otherwise, the docs changes become visible on the internal staging docs site when you backport to your next branch.

The changes must then be backported to their relevant version branches, and no further back than the branch set as current for the documentation publication system:

For example, in a situation where 9.0, 9.1, and 9.2 are already released, and the 9.3 branch has already been cut:

• The branch set as current in the docs assembler is 9.2.
• The branch set as next (where the content development first happens), is main.
• 9.4 changes are only done on the main branch.
• 9.3 changes are done on the main branch and backported to the 9.3 branch.
• 9.1 changes are done on the main branch and backported to the 9.3 and 9.2 branches. Since 9.2 is the current docs branch, no need to go further.
• Serverless changes are done on the main branch. They are backported to the current docs branch and any intermediate branches. In this case: 9.3 and 9.2.
• Changes not specific to a version are done on the main branch and backported to all branches down to the current docs branch. In this case: 9.3 and 9.2.