GitBook

Docs - Community - Developer Docs - Changelog - Bug reports

Welcome to GitBook, the platform for managing technical knowledge for teams.

This repository contains the open-source code used to render GitBook's published content.

Table of Contents

• Getting Started
• Contributing
  • Types of contributions
• Licensing
• Acknowledgements
• Legacy GitBook

Getting Started

To run a local version of this project, please follow these simple steps.

Prerequisites

• Node.js (Version: >=18.x)
• Bun

Set up

1. Clone the repo into a public GitHub repository. If you plan to distribute the code, keep the source code public to comply with GNU GPLv3. To clone in a private repository, acquire a commercial license.

git clone https://github.com/gitbookIO/gitbook.git

2. Install the project’s dependencies through Bun.

bun install

3. Start your local development server.

bun dev

Then open the space in your web browser, using http://localhost:3000// (example: http://localhost:3000/docs.gitbook.com).

Other development commands

• bun format: format the code
• bun lint: lint the code

CI and testing

All pull-requests will be tested against both visual and performances testing to prevent regressions.

Contributing

GitBook’s rendering engine is fully open-source and built on top of Next.js. Head to our contributing guide to learn more about the workflow on adding your first Pull Request.

Types of contributions

We encourage you to contribute to GitBook to help us build the best tool for doucmenting techincal knowledge. If you’re looking for some quick ways to contribute, continue reading to learn more about popular contributions.

Translations

The GitBook UI is rendered using a set of translation files found in src/intl/translations. We welcome all additional translations for the UI.

Bugs

Encounter a bug or find an issue you’d like to fix? Helping us fix issues related to GitBook greatly improves the experience for everyone. Head to the issues section of this repository to learn more about the types of bugs you can already help out with.

Deployment

[!WARNING]
While it is possible to self-host this project, we do not recommend this unless you are certain this option fits your need.

Looking to add a specific feature in GitBook? Head to our contributing guide to get started.

Self-hosting this project puts the responsibility of maintaining and merging future updates on you. We cannot guarantee support, maintainance, or updates to forked and self-hosted instances of this project.

We want to make it as easy as possible for our community to collaborate and push the future of GitBook, which is why we encourage you to contribute to our product directly instead of creating your own version.

This project allows you to self-host the rendering portion of your GitBook published content. Self-hosting has pros and cons.

On the pro side, you can customize the look and feel of your content, and better embed your documentation in your application.

On the con side, you become responsible for the reliability of your published site, and keeping the renderer up-to-date with the changes made to the GitBook platform.

License

Distributed under the GNU GPLv3 License.

If you plan to distribute the code, you must the source code public to comply with GNU GPLv3. To clone in a private repository, acquire a commercial license.

See LICENSE for more information.

Acknowledgements

GitBook wouldn’t be possible without these projects:

• Next.js
• Bun
• Tailwind CSS
• Framer Motion

Legacy GitBook (Deprecated)

Our previous version of GitBook and it’s CLI tool are now deprecated. You can still view the old repository and it’s commits on this branch.