Applies to

Starting with Elastic Stack 9.0, ECE 4.0, and ECK 3.0, documentation follows a cumulative approach: instead of creating separate pages for each product and release, we update a single page with product- and version-specific details over time.

To support this, source files use a tagging system to indicate:

• Which Elastic products and deployment models the content applies to.
• When a feature changes state relative to the base version.

This is what the applies_to metadata is for. It can be used at the page, section, or inline level to specify applicability with precision.

For detailed guidance, refer to Write cumulative documentation.

The applies_to metadata supports an exhaustive list of keys.

When you write or edit documentation, only specify the keys that apply to that content. Each key accepts values with the following syntax:

<key>: <lifecycle> [version]

Where:

• The lifecycle is mandatory
• The version is optional
• You can specify multiple states by separating them with a comma. For example: stack: preview 9.1, ga 9.4

Note that a key without any value doesn't show any badge in the output.

Versioned products require a version tag to be used with the lifecycle tag. See Syntax:

applies_to:
  stack: preview 9.1, ga 9.4
  deployment:
    ece: deprecated 9.2, removed 9.8

Unversioned products use lifecycle tags without a version:

applies_to:
  serverless:
    elasticsearch: beta
    observability: removed

applies_to accepts the following keys in this structure:

• serverless: Applies to Elastic Cloud Serverless.
  • security: Applies to Serverless security projects.
  • elasticsearch: Applies to Serverless search projects.
  • observability: Applies to Serverless observability projects.
• stack: Applies to the Elastic Stack including any Elastic Stack components.
• deployment: Applies to some deployment type(s).
  • ece: Applies to Elastic Cloud Enterprise deployments.
  • eck: Applies to Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes deployments.
  • self: Applies to self-managed deployments.
  • ess: Applies to Elastic Cloud Hosted deployments.
• product: Applies to a specific product that uses a unique versioning scheme (e.g. not stack, ece, eck).
  • apm_agent_dotnet: Applies to the Elastic APM .NET agent.
  • apm_agent_go: Applies to the Elastic APM Go agent.
  • apm_agent_java: Applies to the Elastic APM Java agent.
  • apm_agent_node: Applies to the Elastic APM Node.js agent.
  • apm_agent_php: Applies to the Elastic APM PHP agent.
  • apm_agent_python: Applies to the Elastic APM Python agent.
  • apm_agent_ruby: Applies to the Elastic APM Ruby agent.
  • apm_agent_rum: Applies to the APM RUM JavaScript agent.
  • curator: Applies to Elasticsearch Curator (Curator).
  • ecctl: Applies to Elastic cloud control (ECCTL).
  • edot_android: Applies to the Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry Android (EDOT Android).
  • edot_cf_aws: Applies to the Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry Cloud Forwarder (EDOT Cloud Forwarder).
  • edot_collector: Applies to the Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector (EDOT Collector).
  • edot_dotnet: Applies to the Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry .NET (EDOT .NET).
  • edot_ios: Applies to the Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry iOS (EDOT iOS).
  • edot_java: Applies to the Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry Java (EDOT Java).
  • edot_node: Applies to the Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry Node.js (EDOT Node.js).
  • edot_php: Applies to the Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry PHP (EDOT PHP).
  • edot_python: Applies to the Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry Python (EDOT Python).

applies_to accepts the following lifecycle states:

• preview
• beta
• ga
• deprecated
• removed
• unavailable

applies_to accepts the following version formats:

• Major.Minor
• Major.Minor.Patch

Unversioned products don't follow a fixed versioning scheme and are released a lot more often than versioned products. All users are using the same version of this product.

• When a change is released in ga, it doesn’t need any specific tagging.

• When a change is introduced as preview or beta, use preview or beta as value for the corresponding key within the applies_to:

  ---
  applies_to:
    serverless: preview
  ---
  

• When a change introduces a deprecation, use deprecated as value for the corresponding key within the applies_to:

  ---
  applies_to:
    deployment:
      ess: deprecated
  ---
  

• When a change removes a feature, remove the content.

  Exception: If the content also applies to another context (for example a feature is removed in both Kibana 9.x and Serverless), then it must be kept for any user reading the page that may be using a version of Kibana prior to the removal.

  For example:

  ---
  applies_to:
    stack: deprecated 9.1, removed 9.4
    serverless: removed
  ---
  

• When a change is released in ga, users need to know which version the feature became available in:

  ---
  applies_to:
    stack: ga 9.3
  ---
  

• When a change is introduced as preview or beta, use preview or beta as value for the corresponding key within the applies_to:

  ---
  applies_to:
    stack: beta 9.1
  ---
  

• When a change introduces a deprecation, use deprecated as value for the corresponding key within the applies_to:

  ---
  applies_to:
    deployment:
      ece: deprecated 4.2
  ---
  

• When a change removes a feature, any user reading the page that may be using a version of Kibana prior to the removal must be aware that the feature is still available to them. For that reason, we do not remove the content, and instead mark the feature as removed:

  ---
  applies_to:
    stack: deprecated 9.1, removed 9.4
  ---
  

applies_to keys accept comma-separated values to specify lifecycle states for multiple product versions. For example:

• A feature is added in 9.1 as tech preview and becomes GA in 9.4:

  applies_to:
    stack: preview 9.1, ga 9.4
  

• A feature is deprecated in ECE 4.0 and is removed in 4.8. At the same time, it has already been removed in Elastic Cloud Hosted:

  applies_to:
    deployment:
      ece: deprecated 4.0, removed 4.8
      ess: removed
  

All documentation pages must include an applies_to tag in the YAML frontmatter. Use YAML frontmatter to indicate each deployment target's availability and lifecycle status. For a complete list of supported keys and values, see the frontmatter syntax guide.

There are 3 typical scenarios to start from:

• The documentation set or page is primarily about using or interacting with Elastic Stack components or the Serverless UI:

  ---
  applies_to:
    stack: ga
    serverless: ga
  ---
  

• The documentation set or page is primarily about orchestrating, deploying or configuring an installation (only include relevant keys):

  ---
  applies_to:
    serverless: ga
    deployment:
      ess: ga
      ece: ga
      eck: ga
  ---
  

• The documentation set or page is primarily about a product following its own versioning schema:

  ---
  applies_to:
    edot_ios: ga
  ---
  

It can happen that it’s relevant to identify several or all of these dimensions for a page. Use your own judgement and check existing pages in similar contexts.

---
applies_to:
  stack: ga
  serverless: ga
  deployment:
    ess: ga
    ece: ga
    eck: ga
---

Stack 9.1.0 ECE Deprecation planned ECK Planned ECH Beta 9.1.0 Serverless Elasticsearch Beta Serverless Observability Deprecated Serverless Security Unavailable Deprecated 9.7.0 Preview 9.5.0

A header may be followed by an {applies_to} directive which will contextualize the applicability of the section further.

Note that this directive requires triple backticks since its content is literal. See also Syntax guide > Literal directives

```{applies_to}
stack: ga 9.1
```

In order to play even better with markdown editors the following is also supported:

```yaml {applies_to}
stack: ga 9.1
```

This will allow the YAML inside the {applies_to} directive to be fully highlighted.

• The whole page is generally applicable to Elastic Stack 9.0 and to Serverless, but one specific section isn’t applicable to Serverless (and there is no alternative for it):

  ---
  applies_to:
    stack: ga
    serverless: ga
  ---
  
  # Spaces
  
  [...]
  
  ## Configure a space-level landing page [space-landing-page]
  ```{applies_to}
  serverless: unavailable
  ```
  

• The whole page is generally applicable to all deployment types, but one specific paragraph only applies to Elastic Cloud Hosted and Serverless, and another paragraph only applies to Elastic Cloud Enterprise:

  ## Cloud organization level security [cloud-organization-level]
  ```{applies_to}
  deployment:
    ess: ga
  serverless: ga
  ```
  
  [...]
  
  ## Orchestrator level security [orchestrator-level]
  ```{applies_to}
  deployment:
    ece: ga
  ```
  
  [...]
  

Inline applies to can be placed anywhere using the following syntax

This can live inline {applies_to}`section: <life-cycle> [version]`

An inline version example would be Stack Beta 9.1.0 this allows you to target elements more concretely visually.

• The whole page is generally applicable to Elastic Stack 9.0 and to Serverless, but one specific section isn’t applicable to Serverless (and there is no alternative):

  **Spaces** let you organize your content and users according to your needs.
  
  - Each space has its own saved objects.
  - {applies_to}`serverless: unavailable` Each space has its own navigation, called solution view.
  

A specialized {preview} role exists to quickly mark something as a technical preview. It takes a required version number as an argument.

Property {preview}`<version>`
:   definition body

The above model is projected to the following structured YAML.

---
applies_to:
  stack:
  deployment:
    eck:
    ess:
    ece:
    self:
  serverless:
    security:
    elasticsearch:
    observability:
  product:
    ecctl:
    curator:
    apm_agent_dotnet:
    apm_agent_go:
    apm_agent_java:
    apm_agent_node:
    apm_agent_php:
    apm_agent_python:
    apm_agent_ruby:
    apm_agent_rum:
    edot_collector:
    edot_ios:
    edot_android:
    edot_dotnet:
    edot_java:
    edot_node:
    edot_php:
    edot_python:
    edot_cf_aws:
---

Stack Preview 9.1.0 Serverless Elasticsearch Preview 9.0.0 Serverless Observability Deprecated 9.0.0 Serverless Security Removed 9.0.0 APM Agent .NET 1.0.0 APM Agent Java Beta 1.0.0 EDOT .NET Preview 1.0.0 EDOT Node.js 1.0.0 EDOT Python

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas ut libero diam. Mauris sed eleifend erat, sit amet auctor odio. Donec ac placerat nunc. Stack Preview Aenean scelerisque viverra lectus nec dignissim. Vestibulum ut felis nec massa auctor placerat. Maecenas vel dictum.

• Serverless Elasticsearch Preview Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas ut libero diam. Mauris sed eleifend erat, sit amet auctor odio. Donec ac placerat nunc.
• Serverless Observability Preview Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas ut libero diam.
• Serverless Security Preview Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas ut libero diam. Mauris sed eleifend erat, sit amet auctor odio. Donec ac placerat nunc. Aenean scelerisque viverra lectus nec dignissim.