Introduction to documentation

Grafana Labs keeps technical documentation alongside the project code it documents.

Some open source projects and their repositories are:

Grafana: https://github.com/grafana/grafana
Grafana Agent: https://github.com/grafana/agent
Grafana k6: https://github.com/grafana/k6-docs
Grafana Loki: https://github.com/grafana/loki
Grafana Mimir: https://github.com/grafana/mimir
Grafana Tempo: https://github.com/grafana/tempo

Each repository contains a docs/sources directory containing documentation source files.

Topic-based authoring

The technical writing team at Grafana Labs uses topic-based authoring. Topic-based authoring is a modular approach to content creation where content is structured around topics that can be mixed and reused in different contexts.

For more information on topic types, refer to Topic types.

Why is topic-based authoring important?

Writing that isn’t topic-based is difficult to reuse. If everyone frequently copies information to multiple locations and makes small modifications, the result is rework and increases in errors, which multiplies the costs associated with maintenance and translation.
Writing that isn’t topic-based is difficult for readers to understand. Content, structure, terminology, and writing style differs and can confuse and frustrate readers.
Writing that is topic-based is more consistent and user-friendly. Users can find the information they are looking for quickly and easily. It has a more consistent format and voice, clearly defining the Grafana brand.