We use Mintlify to host and build the Prefect documentation. The main branch of the prefecthq/prefect GitHub repository is used to build the Prefect 3.0 docs at docs.prefect.io. The 2.x docs are hosted at docs-2.prefect.io and built from the 2.x branch of the repository.

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Fork the repository

All contributions to Prefect need to start on a fork of the repository. Once you have successfully forked the Prefect repo, clone a local version to your machine: 
git clone https://github.com/GITHUB-USERNAME/prefect.git
cd prefect
Create a branch with an informative name: 
git checkout -b fix-for-issue-NUM
After committing your changes to this branch, you can then open a pull request from your fork that we will review with you.

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Set up your local environment

We provide a justfile with common commands to simplify development. We recommend using just to run these commands.
Installing justTo install just:
  • macOS: brew install just or cargo install just
  • Linux: cargo install just or check your package manager
  • Windows: scoop install just or cargo install just
For more installation options, see the just documentation.
  1. Clone this repository.
  2. Run just docs to start the documentation server.
Your docs should now be available at http://localhost:3000.

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Manual setup

If you prefer not to use just, you can set up manually:
  1. Clone this repository.
  2. Make sure you have a recent version of Node.js installed. We recommend using nvm to manage Node.js versions.
  3. Run cd docs to navigate to the docs directory.
  4. Run nvm use node to use the correct Node.js version.
  5. Run npm i -g mintlify to install Mintlify.
  6. Run mintlify dev to start the development server.
Your docs should now be available at http://localhost:3000. See the Mintlify documentation for more information on how to install Mintlify, build previews, and use Mintlify’s features while writing docs.
All documentation is written in .mdx files, which are Markdown files that can contain JavaScript and React components.

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Contributing examples

Examples are Python files that demonstrate Prefect concepts and patterns and how they work together with other tools to solve real-world problems. They live in the examples/ directory and are used to automatically generate documentation pages.

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Example structure

Each example should be a standalone Python file with:
  1. YAML frontmatter (in Python comments) at the top with metadata: 
    # ---
# title: Your Example Title
# description: Brief description of what this example demonstrates
# icon: play  # Choose from available icons (play, database, globe, etc.)
# dependencies: ["prefect", "pandas", "requests"]  # Required packages
# cmd: ["python", "path/to/your_example.py"]  # How to run it
# keywords: ["getting_started", "etl", "api"]  # Keywords to help with search and filtering
# draft: false  # Set to true to hide from docs
# ---
  2. Explanatory comments throughout the code which will be used to generate the body of the documentation page.
  3. Runnable code that works out of the box with the specified dependencies.
See the hello world example as a guide.

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Adding an example

To add an example, follow these steps:
  1. Create your Python file in the examples/ directory
  2. Follow the structure above with frontmatter and comments
  3. Test that your example runs successfully
  4. Run just generate-examples to update the documentation pages
  5. Review the generated documentation to ensure it renders correctly
Once it all looks good, commit your changes and open a pull request.

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Considerations

Keep in mind the following when writing documentation.

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External references

Prefect resources can be managed in several ways, including through the CLI, UI, Terraform, Helm, and API. When documenting a resource, consider including external references that describe how to manage the resource in other ways. Snippets are available to provide these references in a consistent format. For example, the Deployment documentation includes a snippet for the Terraform provider: 
import { TF } from "/snippets/resource-management/terraform.mdx"
import { deployments } from "/snippets/resource-management/vars.mdx"

<TF name="deployments" href={deployments.tf} />
For more information on how to use snippets, see the Mintlify documentation.