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Documentation Deployment Guide

This guide explains how to deploy and maintain the GeneForgeLang documentation website.

🌐 Live Documentation

The documentation is automatically deployed to GitHub Pages at: https://fundacion-de-neurociencias.github.io/GeneForgeLang/

🏗️ Architecture

Our documentation system uses: - MkDocs Material: Modern documentation framework with beautiful themes - GitHub Actions: Automatic deployment on every commit - GitHub Pages: Free hosting for the documentation website

📁 Documentation Structure

docs/
├── index.md                          # Homepage
├── installation.md                   # Installation guide
├── tutorial.md                       # Step-by-step tutorial
├── cli.md                           # CLI documentation
├── API_REFERENCE.md                 # API documentation
├── WEB_API_IMPLEMENTATION_SUMMARY.md # Web platform guide
├── ENHANCED_INFERENCE_SUMMARY.md    # AI/ML features
├── PHASE_4_PLANNING.md              # Roadmap
├── SECURITY_ADVISORY.md             # Security information
├── DOCUMENTATION_EXPORT_GUIDE.md    # This guide
├── stylesheets/
│   └── extra.css                    # Custom styling
└── images/                          # Documentation images

🚀 Automatic Deployment

The documentation is automatically built and deployed when: 1. Changes are pushed to the main or master branch 2. Files in the docs/ directory are modified 3. The mkdocs.yml configuration is updated 4. Any markdown files in the root are changed

GitHub Actions Workflow

The deployment is handled by .github/workflows/docs.yml: - Build: Installs dependencies, builds documentation with MkDocs - Deploy: Publishes to GitHub Pages (only on main/master branch)

🛠️ Local Development

Prerequisites

pip install mkdocs-material

Serve Locally

# Serve with hot reload
mkdocs serve

# Serve on specific address
mkdocs serve --dev-addr=127.0.0.1:8000

Build Locally

# Build static site
mkdocs build

# Build with strict mode (fail on warnings)
mkdocs build --strict

📝 Adding New Documentation

1. Create the markdown file

# Add to docs/ directory
docs/new-guide.md

2. Update navigation

Edit mkdocs.yml: 

nav:
  - Home: index.md
  - New Guide: new-guide.md  # Add here
  - ...

3. Test locally

mkdocs serve

4. Commit and push

git add docs/new-guide.md mkdocs.yml
git commit -m "docs: add new guide"
git push origin main

🎨 Customization

Theme Configuration

Edit mkdocs.yml to customize: - Colors and fonts - Navigation structure - Features and extensions - Social links

Custom CSS

Add styles to docs/stylesheets/extra.css: 

/* Custom documentation styles */
.custom-class {
    color: #your-color;
}

🔧 Configuration Files

mkdocs.yml

Main configuration file containing: - Site metadata - Theme settings - Navigation structure - Plugin configuration - Extensions

.github/workflows/docs.yml

GitHub Actions workflow for: - Building documentation - Deploying to GitHub Pages - Caching dependencies

📊 GitHub Pages Setup

To enable GitHub Pages: 1. Go to repository Settings → Pages 2. Select GitHub Actions as source 3. The workflow will handle the rest automatically

🔍 Troubleshooting

Documentation not updating?

  1. Check GitHub Actions tab for build errors
  2. Verify branch is main or master
  3. Ensure GitHub Pages is enabled

Local build failing?

  1. Update MkDocs Material: pip install --upgrade mkdocs-material
  2. Check for syntax errors in markdown files
  3. Validate mkdocs.yml syntax

Missing pages warnings?

Update navigation in mkdocs.yml or create the missing files.

📚 Best Practices

Writing Documentation

  • Use clear, concise language
  • Include code examples
  • Add navigation links between related pages
  • Test all code snippets

File Organization

  • Keep related content in subdirectories
  • Use descriptive filenames
  • Maintain consistent formatting

Version Control

  • Commit documentation changes with descriptive messages
  • Review documentation in pull requests
  • Keep documentation up-to-date with code changes

🆘 Getting Help

📈 Analytics

The documentation includes Google Analytics integration (configured via environment variable GOOGLE_ANALYTICS_KEY in the deployment environment).

For questions about the documentation system, please open an issue in the repository.