Contributing to the documentation
This guide explains how to contribute to Godot’s documentation, be it by writing or reviewing pages.
See also
If you want to translate pages or the class reference from English to other languages, read Editor and documentation localization.
Getting started
To modify or create pages in the reference manual, you need to edit .rst
files in the godot-docs GitHub repository. Modifying those pages in a pull request triggers a rebuild of the online documentation upon merging.
See also
For details on Git usage and the pull request workflow, please refer to the Pull request workflow page. Most of what it describes regarding the main godotengine/godot repository is also valid for the docs repository.
Warning
The class reference’s source files are in the Godot engine repository. We generate the Class Reference section of this documentation from them. If you want to update the description of a class, its methods, or properties, read Contributing to the class reference.
What is the Godot documentation
The Godot documentation is intended as a comprehensive reference manual for the Godot game engine. It is not meant to contain step-by-step tutorials, except for two game creation tutorials in the Getting Started section.
We strive to write factual content in an accessible and well-written language. To contribute, you should also read:
Writing guidelines. There, you will find rules and recommendations to write in a way that everyone understands.
Content guidelines. They explain the principles we follow to write the documentation and the kind of content we accept.
Contributing changes
Pull requests should use the master
branch by default. Only make pull requests against other branches (e.g. 3.6
or 4.2
) if your changes only apply to that specific version of Godot. After a pull request is merged into master
, it will usually be cherry-picked into the current stable branch by documentation maintainers.
Though less convenient to edit than a wiki, this Git repository is where we write the documentation. Having direct access to the source files in a revision control system is a plus to ensure our documentation quality.
Editing existing pages
To edit an existing page, locate its .rst
source file and open it in your favorite text editor. You can then commit the changes, push them to your fork, and make a pull request. Note that the pages in classes/
should not be edited here. They are automatically generated from Godot’s XML class reference. See Contributing to the class reference for details.
See also
To build the manual and test changes on your computer, see Building the manual with Sphinx.
Editing pages online
You can edit the documentation online by clicking the Edit on GitHub link in the top-right of every page.
Doing so takes you to the GitHub text editor. You need to have a GitHub account and to log in to use it. Once logged in, you can propose change like so:
Click the Edit on GitHub button.
On the GitHub page you’re taken to, make sure the current branch is “master”. Click the pencil icon in the top-right corner near the Raw, Blame, and Delete buttons. It has the tooltip “Fork this project and edit the file”.
Edit the text in the text editor.
Click “Commit changes…”, summarize the changes you made and make sure to replace the placeholder “Update file.rst” by a short but clear one-line description, as this is the commit title. Click the button Propose changes.
On the following screens, click the Create pull request button until you see a message like Username wants to merge 1 commit into godotengine:master from Username:patch-1.
Note
If there are more commits than your own in the pull request it is likely that your branch was created using the wrong origin, due to “master” not being the current branch in step 2. You will need to rebase your branch to “master” or create a new branch.
Another contributor will review your changes and merge them into the docs if they’re good. They may also make changes or ask you to do so before merging.
Adding new pages
Before adding a new page, please ensure that it fits in the documentation:
Look for existing issues or open a new one to see if the page is necessary.
Ensure there isn’t a page that already covers the topic.
Read our Content guidelines.
To add a new page, create a .rst
file with a meaningful name in the section you want to add a file to, e.g. tutorials/3d/light_baking.rst
.
You should then add your page to the relevant “toctree” (table of contents, e.g. tutorials/3d/index.rst
). Add your new filename to the list on a new line, using a relative path and no extension, e.g. here light_baking
.
Titles
Always begin pages with their title and a Sphinx reference name:
.. _doc_insert_your_title_here:
Insert your title here
======================
The reference _doc_insert_your_title_here
and the title should match.
The reference allows linking to this page using the :ref:
format, e.g. :ref:`doc_insert_your_title_here`
would link to the above example page (note the lack of leading underscore in the reference).
Write your titles like plain sentences, without capitalizing each word:
Good: Understanding signals in Godot
Bad: Understanding Signals In Godot
Only proper nouns, projects, people, and node class names should have their first letter capitalized.
Sphinx and reStructuredText syntax
Check Sphinx’s reST Primer and the official reference for details on the syntax.
Sphinx uses specific reST comments to do specific operations, like defining the table of contents (.. toctree::
) or cross-referencing pages. Check the official Sphinx documentation for more details. To learn how to use Sphinx directives like .. note::
or .. seealso::
, check out the Sphinx directives documentation.
Adding images and attachments
To add images, please put them in an img/
folder next to the .rst
file with a meaningful name and include them in your page with:
.. image:: img/image_name.webp
Alternatively, you can use the figure directive, which gives the image a contrasting border and allows centering it on the page.
.. figure:: img/image_name.webp
:align: center
You can also include attachments as support material for a tutorial, by placing them into a files/
folder next to the .rst
file, and using this inline markup:
:download:`file_name.zip <files/file_name.zip>`
Consider using the godot-docs-project-starters <https://github.com/godotengine/godot-docs-project-starters> repository for hosting support materials, such as project templates and asset packs. You can use a direct link to the generated archive from that repository with the regular link markup:
`file_name.zip <https://github.com/godotengine/godot-docs-project-starters/releases/download/latest-4.x/file_name.zip>`_
License
This documentation and every page it contains is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license (CC BY 3.0), with attribution to “Juan Linietsky, Ariel Manzur and the Godot community”.
By contributing to the documentation on the GitHub repository, you agree that your changes are distributed under this license.
User-contributed notes
Please read the User-contributed notes policy before submitting a comment.