Writing Documentation

Contributing to documentation is the easiest way to get started. Providing simple clear or helpful documentation for new users is critical. Anything that you as a new user found hard to understand, or difficult to work out, are excellent places to begin. Contributions to more detailed and descriptive error messages is especially appreciated. To contribute to the documentation please use the above pull request process.

Toponymy uses Sphinx with Read the Docs for documentation. Documentation is written in either reStructuredText format (.rst) or in jupyter notebooks (.ipynb)and stored in the doc/ directory. Contributor docs are on this page (you found it!)

Building Documentation Locally

   # Install documentation dependencies
   uv sync --extra doc

   # Build HTML documentation
   cd doc
   make html

   # View the documentation (open _build/index.html in a browser)

Writing Good Documentation

• Use clear, concise language
• Include examples where appropriate
• Explain the "why" not just the "how"
• Keep API references up-to-date with code changes
• Include diagrams or screenshots for complex features