readme.com Sync Tool

This is a CLI tool that synchronizes markdown files from a local directory (typically in a git repo) to https://readme.com.

Usage

npx readme-sync --apiKey <key> --version <version> --docs <dir>

or, to just validate the files:

npx readme-sync --apiKey <key> --version <version> --docs <dir> --validateOnly

Expected Directory Structure

Top level folders are mapped to categories. Second and third level .md files are synced as docs. Readme only supports two levels of nesting (Category > Parent Doc > Child Doc). If you want a doc with children, create a folder with the doc name, and create an index.md file inside it.

The folder and file names are turned into the slugs.

Example:

docs
├── Welcome
│   ├── 00-introduction.md
│   └── 10-license.md
└── Integration
    ├── 00-installation.md
    ├── 10-setup.md
    └── 20-configuration
        ├── index.md
        ├── 00-database.md
        └── 10-proxy.md

Becomes

File Contents

Markdown, with front matter:

---
title: "Installation"
excerpt: "How to Install Arch Linux" # optional
hidden: true # optional
---

# Installation

...

Limitations

• Categories cannot yet be created automatically. They must be manually created in Readme. You can fetch the existing category slugs with

curl 'https://dash.readme.io/api/v1/categories?perPage=100' -u '<your_readme_api_key>': -H 'x-readme-version: <your_docs_version>'

Note that category slugs may differ from the category titles you see on dash.readme.io, so this API call is a good way to troubleshoot the error message "can't create categories."

Syncing Behavior

• If you have a category on readme.com that you don't have locally, the category and its contents will remain untouched on readme.com.
• If you have a doc on readme.com that you don't have locally (but you have the category), it will be deleted from readme.com.
• If you have a doc locally that is not on readme.com, it will be uploaded to readme.com
• If you try to create two docs with the same name, you'll get an error about document slugs not being unique, even if the files are in separate categories.
• The publishing order is alphanumeric. You can force ordering by prefixing your files with 01-, 02-, etc. Then, these ordered pages go first in the table of contents (stripped of their 01-, 02- ordering prefixes).

Development

1. git clone https://github.com/flowcommerce/readme-sync
2. nvm install
3. npm install
4. npx ts-node sync/index.ts --apiKey <key> --version <version> --docs <dir>

Releasing a new version

$ npm version patch
$ npm publish