rdme
Version:
ReadMe's official CLI and GitHub Action.
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text/mdx
---
title: Syncing Docs via CLI / GitHub (Legacy)
content:
excerpt: Update your docs automatically with `rdme`, ReadMe's official CLI and GitHub Action!
slug: rdme-legacy
---
[](https://readme.com)
<p align="center">
<a href="https://readme.com">ReadMe</a>'s official command-line interface (CLI) and{' '}
<a href="#github-actions-usage">GitHub Action</a> 🌊
</p>
<p align="center">
<a href="https://npm.im/rdme">
<img src="https://img.shields.io/npm/v/rdme?style=for-the-badge" alt="NPM Version" />
</a>
<a href="https://npm.im/rdme">
<img src="https://img.shields.io/node/v/rdme?style=for-the-badge" alt="Node Version" />
</a>
<a href="https://npm.im/rdme">
<img src="https://img.shields.io/npm/l/rdme?style=for-the-badge" alt="MIT License" />
</a>
<a href="https://github.com/readmeio/rdme">
<img
src="https://img.shields.io/github/actions/workflow/status/readmeio/rdme/ci.yml?branch=main&style=for-the-badge"
alt="Build status"
/>
</a>
</p>
<p align="center">
<a href="https://readme.com">
<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/readmeio/.github/main/oss-badge.svg" />
</a>
</p>
If you're anything like us, your documentation process may be a part of a broader CI/CD process. For example, you may want to automatically update your Guides or API reference on ReadMe every time you ship new code. Enter `rdme`: ReadMe's official command-line interface (CLI) and GitHub Action!
With `rdme`, you can create workflows for a variety of use cases, including:
- Syncing [OpenAPI/Swagger](https://docs.readme.com/docs/openapi) definitions (with support for bundling external references) 📦
- Pre-upload validation (including OpenAPI 3.1) ✅
- Syncing directories of Markdown files 📖
## General Setup and Usage
To see detailed CLI setup instructions and all available commands, check out [the `rdme` GitHub repository](https://github.com/readmeio/rdme#readme).
### Markdown File Setup
> 🚧 Deprecated Guidance
>
> This guidance is only applicable for projects that are still on our legacy project architecture and have not yet migrated to [ReadMe Refactored](https://docs.readme.com/main/docs/migration). The legacy project architecture requires `rdme@9`. You can find more info in [our `rdme` migration guide](https://github.com/readmeio/rdme/blob/v10/documentation/migration-guide.md) or by reaching out to us at [support@readme.io](mailto:support@readme.io).
>
> Please check out [this page](https://docs.readme.com/main/docs/rdme) for the updated guidance.
> 📘 Guides, Changelog, Custom Pages... you name it!
>
> The following guidance on Markdown file setup is nearly identical for Guides (i.e. the `docs` command), Changelog (i.e. the `changelogs` command), and Custom Pages (i.e. the `custompages` command). There are a couple of small differences:
>
> - Guides are tied to project versions and therefore require a `--version` parameter. Changelog and Custom Pages are the same across project versions and therefore do not have a `--version` parameter.
> - There are slight variations in the YAML frontmatter attributes for each respective section of your documentation. For example, Changelog has a `type` attribute which you can set to `added`. See [Specifying Other Attributes](#specifying-other-attributes) for more information.
> - In addition to Markdown, Custom Pages also supports HTML files. If you pass an HTML file into the `custompages` commands, the page will have the `htmlmode` flag set to `true` and it will conversely be set to `false` for Markdown files. You can override this in the YAML frontmatter.
In order to sync Markdown files to your Guides, your Changelog, or your Custom Pages, you'll need to add certain attributes to the top of each page via a [YAML frontmatter block](https://jekyllrb.com/docs/front-matter/). See below for an example (using the page you're currently reading!):
```markdown
---
title: Syncing Docs via CLI / GitHub
excerpt: Update your docs automatically with `rdme`, ReadMe's official CLI and GitHub Action!
category: 62056dee230e07007218be06
---
If you're anything like us...
```
#### Required Attributes
See below for a table detailing the required YAML frontmatter attributes:
| Attribute | Required for `changelogs`? | Required for `custompages`? | Required for `docs`? |
| :--------- | :------------------------- | :-------------------------- | :------------------- |
| `title` | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| `category` | No | No | Yes |
To determine what your `category` value should be, you can use [the `Get all categories` endpoint](https://docs.readme.com/reference/getcategories) and grab the `id` value from the response.
> 📘
>
> Any Markdown/HTML files that lack YAML frontmatter attributes will be skipped.
#### Specifying Page Slugs
By default, we automatically derive the page's slug via the file name (e.g. the file name `rdme.md` would become `/docs/rdme` in your ReadMe project). Note that our API uses [`slugify`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/slugify) to automatically handle certain characters (e.g. spaces), which may lead to unexpected syncing behavior if your file names don't match your page slugs. If you prefer to keep your page slugs different from your file names, you can manually set the `slug` value in the YAML frontmatter:
```markdown
---
title: Syncing Docs via CLI / GitHub
excerpt: Update your docs automatically with `rdme`, ReadMe's official CLI and GitHub Action!
category: 62056dee230e07007218be06
slug: an-alternative-page-slug-example
---
```
#### Specifying Other Attributes
You can also specify several other page attributes in your YAML frontmatter, such as `hidden` (a boolean which denotes whether your page is published or unpublished). Any attributes you omit will remain unchanged on `rdme` runs. To view the full list of attributes, check out the `POST` endpoints for respective section of your documentation that you're syncing:
- [`Create doc`](https://docs.readme.com/reference/createdoc)
- [`Create changelog`](https://docs.readme.com/reference/createchangelog)
- [`Create custom page`](https://docs.readme.com/reference/createcustompage)
#### Dry Run Mode
If you're setting up new pages or if you're generally unsure if you've set up your page attributes correctly, each command has a dry run mode. This will allow you preview the changes without actually creating/updating any docs in ReadMe, which can be extremely useful for initial setup (oh, and we have [comprehensive debugging options](#troubleshooting) available as well!). To enable dry run mode, use the `--dryRun` flag:
```sh
rdme docs [path] --version={project-version} --dryRun
rdme changelogs [path] --dryRun
rdme custompages [path] --dryRun
```
The command output will indicate whether each page is being created or updated alongside all processed page attributes.
## GitHub Actions Usage
With [GitHub Actions](https://docs.github.com/actions), you can automatically execute workflows when certain events take place in your GitHub repository (e.g. code is pushed to the default branch, a new pull request is opened, etc.).
While there are [dozens of event options available](https://docs.github.com/actions/using-workflows/events-that-trigger-workflows), you'll typically want to sync your OpenAPI definition and Markdown docs to ReadMe when one of the following events takes place:
- [Code is pushed to the default branch](https://docs.github.com/actions/using-workflows/events-that-trigger-workflows#push) 🌴
- [A build is deployed](https://docs.github.com/actions/using-workflows/events-that-trigger-workflows#deployment) 🚀
- [A release is created](https://docs.github.com/actions/using-workflows/events-that-trigger-workflows#release) 🆕
> 📘 Keeping `rdme` up-to-date
>
> Note that `` is the latest version of `rdme`, which only supports projects on ReadMe Refactored. The examples on this page use ``, which is only applicable for legacy projects. We recommend [configuring Dependabot to keep your actions up-to-date](https://docs.github.com/code-security/dependabot/working-with-dependabot/keeping-your-actions-up-to-date-with-dependabot).
### Quick Start
> 🚧 Deprecated Guidance
>
> This guidance is only applicable for projects that are still on our legacy project architecture and have not yet migrated to [ReadMe Refactored](https://docs.readme.com/main/docs/migration). The legacy project architecture requires `rdme@9`. You can find more info in [our `rdme` migration guide](https://github.com/readmeio/rdme/blob/v10/documentation/migration-guide.md) or by reaching out to us at [support@readme.io](mailto:support@readme.io).
>
> Please check out [this page](https://docs.readme.com/main/docs/rdme) for the updated guidance.
The fastest way to create a GitHub Actions workflow file is by doing the following:
1. Download `rdme` to your local machine (see [our setup instructions](https://github.com/readmeio/rdme#setup))
2. Open your command line at the root of your GitHub repository
3. Run the command you wish to automate on your local machine with the `--github` flag tacked on at the end. For example:
```sh
rdme openapi validate --github
```
This will run through the `openapi` command, ask you a few quick questions, and then automatically create a fully functional GitHub Actions workflow file for you. 🪄
### Securely Using Your API Key
> 🚧 Secretly store your ReadMe API Key!
>
> GitHub Actions has [secrets](https://docs.github.com/actions/security-guides/encrypted-secrets) to securely store sensitive information so it isn't publicly visible. We **strongly** recommend using these for storing your ReadMe API Key and any other secret keys—whether your repository is public or private. You can read more about setting these up [in their documentation](https://docs.github.com/actions/security-guides/encrypted-secrets).
To use sensitive information (like your ReadMe API key) in your `rdme` GitHub Action, first [create a new repository secret](https://docs.github.com/actions/security-guides/encrypted-secrets#creating-encrypted-secrets-for-a-repository). Let's say you create a new secret key called `README_API_KEY`. The usage in the `rdme` step will look something like this:
```yml
- uses: readmeio/rdme
with:
rdme: openapi validate [url-or-local-path-to-file] --key=${{ secrets.README_API_KEY }} --id=API_DEFINITION_ID
```
### Manually Configuring a GitHub Actions Workflow
We recommend using the [quick start](#quick-start) to get started with GitHub Actions. But if you are familiar with the [workflow syntax](https://docs.github.com/actions/using-workflows/workflow-syntax-for-github-actions) and wish to manually configure a workflow, follow these steps:
1. Create a new [GitHub Actions workflow file](https://docs.github.com/actions/using-workflows/workflow-syntax-for-github-actions) in the `.github/workflows` directory of your repository (or use an existing workflow file)
1. Configure the [`on`](https://docs.github.com/actions/using-workflows/workflow-syntax-for-github-actions#on) property, which determines what triggers the execution of the workflow.
1. Add the following two [steps](https://docs.github.com/actions/using-workflows/workflow-syntax-for-github-actions#jobsjob_idsteps) to your workflow:
```yml
# Required in order for the GitHub Action to access your repo's contents
- uses: actions/checkout
# Runs the `rdme` command on your repo's contents
- uses: readmeio/rdme
with:
rdme: [your command here]
```
The command syntax in GitHub Actions is functionally equivalent to the CLI. For example, take the following CLI command:
```sh
rdme openapi validate [url-or-local-path-to-file]
```
To execute this command via GitHub Actions, the step would look like this:
```yml
- uses: readmeio/rdme
with:
rdme: openapi validate [url-or-local-path-to-file]
```
The following section has links to full GitHub Actions workflow file examples.
### GitHub Actions Examples
> 🚧 Deprecated Guidance
>
> This guidance is only applicable for projects that are still on our legacy project architecture and have not yet migrated to [ReadMe Refactored](https://docs.readme.com/main/docs/migration). The legacy project architecture requires `rdme@9`. You can find more info in [our `rdme` migration guide](https://github.com/readmeio/rdme/blob/v10/documentation/migration-guide.md) or by reaching out to us at [support@readme.io](mailto:support@readme.io).
>
> Please check out [this page](https://docs.readme.com/main/docs/rdme) for the updated guidance.
Want to start syncing? We have several example workflow files available:
- [Syncing an OpenAPI definition](https://docs.readme.com/docs/github-actions-openapi-example)
- [Syncing a directory of Markdown files](https://docs.readme.com/docs/github-actions-docs-example)
## Usage in Other CI Environments
Since `rdme` is a command-line tool at its core, you can use `rdme` to sync your documentation from virtually any CI/CD environment that runs shell commands—[Bitbucket Pipelines](https://support.atlassian.com/bitbucket-cloud/docs/get-started-with-bitbucket-pipelines/), [GitLab CI/CD](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/), you name it! You can do this by invoking `rdme` with `npx rdme` in a Node.js environment. See below for several examples.
{/* prettier-ignore */}
{/* <!--
The two code blocks below must be joined (i.e. no newline in between) in order to render as tabbed code blocks in ReadMe.
Unfortunately we need to ignore both code blocks entirely so Prettier doesn't separate them.
--> \*/}
{/* prettier-ignore-start */}
```yml Bitbucket Pipelines (bitbucket-pipelines.yml)
# Official framework image. Look for the different tagged releases at:
# https://hub.docker.com/r/library/node/tags/
image: node:NODE_VERSION
pipelines:
default:
- step:
script:
- npx rdme openapi validate [url-or-local-path-to-file] --key=$README_API_KEY --id=API_DEFINITION_ID
```
```yml CircleCI (.circleci/config.yml)
version: 2.1
jobs:
sync-via-rdme:
docker:
# Official framework image. Look for the different tagged releases at:
# https://hub.docker.com/r/library/node/tags/
- image: node:NODE_VERSION
steps:
- run:
command: npx rdme openapi validate [url-or-local-path-to-file] --key=$README_API_KEY --id=API_DEFINITION_ID
```
```yml GitLab CI (rdme-sync.gitlab-ci.yml)
# Official framework image. Look for the different tagged releases at:
# https://hub.docker.com/r/library/node/tags/
image: node:NODE_VERSION
sync-via-rdme:
script:
- npx rdme openapi validate [url-or-local-path-to-file] --key=$README_API_KEY --id=API_DEFINITION_ID
```
```yml Travis CI (.travis.yml)
# https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/languages/javascript-with-nodejs/#specifying-nodejs-versions
language: node_js
node_js:
- NODE_VERSION
script: npx rdme openapi validate [url-or-local-path-to-file] --key=$README_API_KEY --id=API_DEFINITION_ID
```
{/* prettier-ignore-end */}
If you notice any issues with any of these examples, please open up an issue on [the `rdme` repository on GitHub](https://github.com/readmeio/rdme).
> 🚧 Secretly store your ReadMe API Key!
>
> Nearly every CI service has a way to securely add secrets so that they're not exposed in your scripts and build logs. We strongly recommend using such a feature for storing your ReadMe API key. The examples above use `$README_API_KEY`, which is how you typically load such variables in your scripts. We've included some links below on how to configure these for the respective examples:
>
> - [Bitbucket Pipelines](https://support.atlassian.com/bitbucket-cloud/docs/variables-and-secrets/#Secured-variables)
> - [CircleCI](https://circleci.com/docs/env-vars/)
> - [GitLab CI](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/variables/#add-a-cicd-variable-to-a-project)
> - [Travis CI](https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/environment-variables)
## Troubleshooting
If you're running into unexpected behavior with `rdme` and need to troubleshoot the issue, you have several debug logging options available. We may ask for these logs (as well as a copy of your OpenAPI definition) when you contact our support team.
If you're working with the `docs` command specifically, we recommend using [dry run mode](#dry-run-mode) first so your docs don't get overwritten. If you're still seeing unexpected results (or are running into issues with any other command), check out the debugging options described below.
### Troubleshooting CLI
If you're troubleshooting issues with the CLI (or in some non-GitHub Actions environment), you can use the `DEBUG` environment variable to print helpful debugging info to the console:
```sh
DEBUG=rdme* rdme openapi validate [url-or-local-path-to-file]
```
Note that this should only be used for development/debugging purposes and should not be enabled in production environments.
### Troubleshooting GitHub Actions
If you're troubleshooting issues in a GitHub Actions environment, you can enable [step debug logs](https://docs.github.com/actions/monitoring-and-troubleshooting-workflows/enabling-debug-logging#enabling-step-debug-logging) in your GitHub Actions workflow by [setting the repository secret](https://docs.github.com/actions/security-guides/encrypted-secrets#creating-encrypted-secrets-for-a-repository) `ACTIONS_STEP_DEBUG` to `true`. For more information on accessing, downloading, and deleting logs, check out [GitHub's documentation](https://docs.github.com/actions/monitoring-and-troubleshooting-workflows/using-workflow-run-logs).
> 🚧 Debug Logs May Contain Sensitive Information
>
> Enabling step debug logs will produce comprehensive logging for **all** of your GitHub Actions workflow steps. While GitHub automatically masks any sensitive information you load in with [secrets](#securely-using-your-api-key), there might be other sensitive information that's exposed. Anybody with read access to the repository will be able to see these logs.
>
> We **strongly recommend** that you only enable step debug logs in private repositories. If working in a public repository, we suggest recreating your GitHub workflow setup (e.g. with your GitHub workflow files, OpenAPI definitions, and anything else you need for syncing to ReadMe) in a separate private repository for testing purposes before enabling this setting.
>
> If you do enable step debug logs in your repository and your logs produce sensitive information, here are [GitHub's docs on deleting logs](https://docs.github.com/actions/monitoring-and-troubleshooting-workflows/using-workflow-run-logs#deleting-logs).