Glossary

This page includes a number of terms that we use in our documentation, so that you have a reference for how we’re using them.

dashboard

The “admin” site where Read the Docs projects are managed and configured. This varies for our two properties:

Read the Docs for Business: https://readthedocs.com/dashboard/.

Read the Docs Community: https://readthedocs.org/dashboard/.

default version

Projects have a default version, usually the latest stable version of a project. The default version is the URL that is redirected to when a users loads the / URL for your project.

discoverability

A documentation page is said to be discoverable when a user that needs it can find it through various methods: Navigation, search, and links from other pages are the most typical ways of making content discoverable.

Docs as Code

A term used to describe the workflow of keeping documentation in a Git repository, along with source code. Popular in the open source software movement, and used by many technology companies.

flyout menu

Menu displayed on the documentation, readily accessible for readers, containing the list active versions, links to static downloads, and other useful links. Read more in our Flyout menu page.

GitOps

Denotes the use of code maintained in Git to automate building, testing, and deployment of infrastructure. In terms of documentation, GitOps is applicable for Read the Docs, as the configuration for building documentation is stored in .readthedocs.yaml, and rules for publication of documentation can be automated. Similar to Docs as Code.

pre-defined build jobs

Commands executed by Read the Docs when performing the build process. They cannot be overwritten by the user.

profile page

Page where you can see the projects of a certain user.

project home

Page where you can access all the features of Read the Docs, from having an overview to browsing the latest builds or administering your project.

project page

Another name for project home.

slug

A unique identifier for a project or version. This value comes from the project or version name, which is reduced to lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens. You can retrieve your project or version slugs from our API.

subproject

Project A can be configured such that when requesting a URL /projects/<subproject-slug>, the root of project B is returned. In this case, project B is the subproject. Read more in Subprojects: host multiple projects on a single domain.

root URL

Home URL of your documentation without the /<lang> and /<version> segments. For projects without custom domains, the one ending in .readthedocs.io/ (for example, https://docs.readthedocs.io as opposed to https://docs.readthedocs.io/en/latest).

user-defined build jobs

Commands defined by the user that Read the Docs will execute when performing the build process.