Concept topic type

A concept introduces a single feature or concept.

A concept should answer the questions:

  • What is this?
  • Why would you use it?

Think of everything someone might want to know if they’ve never heard of this concept before.

Don’t tell them how to do this thing. Tell them what it is.

If you start describing another concept, start a new concept and link to it.

Format

Concepts should be in this format: 

# Title (a noun, like "Widgets")

A paragraph or two that explains what this thing is and why you would use it.

If you start to describe another concept, stop yourself.
Each concept should be about **one concept only**.

If you start to describe **how to use the thing**, stop yourself.
Task topics explain how to use something, not concept topics.

Do not include links to related tasks. The navigation provides links to tasks.

Concept topic titles

For the title text, use a noun. For example:

  • Widgets
  • GDK dependency management

If you need more descriptive words, use the ion version of the word, rather than ing. For example:

  • Object migration instead of Migrating objects or Migrate objects

Words that end in ing are hard to translate and take up more space, and active verbs are used for task topics. For details, see the Google style guide.

Titles to avoid

Avoid these topic titles:

  • Overview or Introduction. Instead, use a more specific noun or phrase that someone would search for.
  • Use cases. Instead, incorporate the information as part of the concept.
  • How it works. Instead, use a noun followed by workflow. For example, Merge request workflow.