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Manage redirects across doc sets

When you move or delete pages, other documentation sets might still link to them. This can lead to a chicken-and-egg problem: you can't publish your changes without breaking links elsewhere.

Redirects let you map old links to new targets across documentation sets, so you can publish changes while updating other doc sets.

Redirects only work within Elastic Docs V3 content sets. You cannot use this method to redirect to external destinations like API docs.

For API redirects, consult with the documentation engineering team on Slack (#elastic-docs-v3).

For elastic.co/guide redirects, open a web team request.

To successfully implement a redirect:

  1. Locate and open the redirects.yml file to edit.

    • Each docs repository powered by Docs V3 can have its own redirects.yml file. You must only edit the one in the repository that you're moving or removing files from.
    • It is at the same location as the docset.yml file. Depending on the repository, this is generally at the root or within the /docs folder of the repository.
    Note

    Some repositories might not yet have a redirects.yml file. In this case, create one next to the repo's docset.yml file. Refer to Manage redirects across doc sets > File location.

  2. Edit the file. Refer to Manage redirects across doc sets > Syntax to get details on the expected syntax.

    • All paths must be relative to the redirects.yml file.
    • You may need to adjust the syntax based on how you'd like to treat anchors within redirected files. Find examples in Manage redirects across doc sets > Syntax.

  3. Fix all existing links to the moved or removed file within the repository where you're adding the redirect, by updating them to the new correct target, or by removing them if necessary. This is a best practice to keep our content healthy, and mandatory for your PR to pass CI checks.

  4. Create a PR with all of the changes made through the previous steps.

CI checks run to validate the newly added redirect and the docs build. If you get validation errors about the redirect, double check that your changes follow all the steps in this procedure. If the errors persist after a writer reviewed the PR, ask @elastic/docs-engineering for assistance.

Running docs-builder diff validate will give you feedback on whether all necessary redirect rules are in place after your changes. It will also run on pull requests.

Redirects are configured at the content set-level. The configuration file should be located next to your docset.yml file:

  • redirects.yml if you use docset.yml
  • _redirects.yml if you use _docset.yml

Example syntax:

redirects:
  'testing/redirects/4th-page.md': 'testing/redirects/5th-page.md'
  'testing/redirects/9th-page.md': '!testing/redirects/5th-page.md'
  'testing/redirects/6th-page.md':
  'testing/redirects/7th-page.md':
    to: 'testing/redirects/5th-page.md'
    anchors: '!'
  'testing/redirects/first-page-old.md':
    to: 'testing/redirects/second-page.md'
    anchors:
      'old-anchor': 'active-anchor'
      'removed-anchor':
  'testing/redirects/second-page-old.md':
    many:
      - to: "testing/redirects/second-page.md"
        anchors:
          "aa": "zz"
          "removed-anchor":
      - to: "testing/redirects/third-page.md"
        anchors:
          "bb": "yy"
  'testing/redirects/third-page.md':
    anchors:
      'removed-anchor':
  'testing/redirects/cross-repo-page.md': 'other-repo://reference/section/new-cross-repo-page.md'
  'testing/redirects/8th-page.md':
    to: 'other-repo://reference/section/new-cross-repo-page.md'
    anchors: '!'
    many:
      - to: 'testing/redirects/second-page.md'
        anchors:
          'item-a': 'yy'
      - to: 'testing/redirects/third-page.md'
        anchors:
          'item-b':

This example redirects 4th-page.md#anchor to 5th-page.md#anchor:

redirects:
  'testing/redirects/4th-page.md': 'testing/redirects/5th-page.md'

This example strips all anchors from the source page. Any remaining links resolving to anchors on 7th-page.md will fail link validation.

redirects:
  'testing/redirects/7th-page.md':
    to: 'testing/redirects/5th-page.md'
    anchors: '!'

Alternate syntax:

redirects:
  'testing/redirects/7th-page.md': '!testing/redirects/5th-page.md'

To handle removed anchors on a page that still exists, omit the to: field:

'testing/redirects/third-page.md':
  anchors:
    'removed-anchor':

This example redirects:

  • first-page-old.md#old-anchor → second-page.md#active-anchor
  • first-page-old.md#removed-anchor → second-page.md
  • Any other anchor is passed through and validated normally.
redirects:
  'testing/redirects/first-page-old.md':
    to: 'testing/redirects/second-page.md'
    anchors:
      'old-anchor': 'active-anchor'
      'removed-anchor':

Use the repo://path/to/page.md syntax to redirect across repositories.

redirects:
  'testing/redirects/cross-repo-page.md': 'other-repo://reference/section/new-cross-repo-page.md'
  • to, anchor and many can be used together to support more complex scenarios.
  • Setting to at the top level determines the default case, which can be used for partial redirects.
  • Cross-repository links are supported, with the same syntax as in the previous example.
  • The existing rules for anchors also apply here. To define a catch-all redirect, use {}.
redirects:
  # In this first scenario, the default redirection target remains the same page, with anchors being preserved.
  # Omitting the ``anchors`` tag or explicitly setting it as empty are both supported.
  'testing/redirects/8th-page.md':
    to: 'testing/redirects/8th-page.md'
    many:
      - to: 'testing/redirects/second-page.md'
        anchors:
          'item-a': 'yy'
      - to: 'testing/redirects/third-page.md'
        anchors:
          'item-b':

  # In this scenario, the default redirection target is a different page, and anchors are dropped.
  'testing/redirects/deleted-page.md':
    to: 'testing/redirects/5th-page.md'
    anchors: '!'
    many:
      - to: "testing/redirects/second-page.md"
        anchors:
          "aa": "zz"
          "removed-anchor":
      - to: "other-repo://reference/section/partial-content.md"
        anchors:
          "bb": "yy"