Imported Docs

The Imported Docs plugin enables federated documentation — external repositories can contribute documentation to your main docs site while keeping their docs at source. This plugin supports both push-based (external repos push to you) and pull-based (you pull from external repos) approaches.

It implements IImportHook.OnImportAsync, which runs after content discovery and before navigation filtering. That gives imported pages the same downstream processing as native docs: navigation, preprocessing, rendering, and templates all see the imported pages as if they lived in the site tree from the start.

Quick Start

Minimal Configuration

Enable the plugin in your appsettings.json:

{
  "plugins": [
    { "name": "imported-docs" }
  ],
  "siteConfig": {
    "importedDocs": {
      "pushedDocsDir": "imported"
    }
  }
}

This enables push-based imports. External repos can push documentation to the /imported directory.

Import hook behavior

imported-docs is the built-in plugin that implements IImportHook.OnImportAsync.

• It runs after source docs are discovered.
• It can add pages directly into site.Pages.
• Imported pages then flow through the normal build pipeline.
• Use it for push-based staging, Git pull imports, or S3 pull imports.

Configuration Reference

Top-Level Settings

{
  "siteConfig": {
    "importedDocs": {
      "pushedDocsDir": "imported",
      "pullSources": [
        // ... pull source definitions
      ]
    }
  }
}

Pull Source Configuration

Each pull source is a repository to pull documentation from:

{
  "repository": "https://github.com/owner/repo.git",
  "reference": "main",
  "sourcePath": "docs",
  "destinationPath": "external/my-project",
  "authTokenEnvVar": "GITHUB_TOKEN",
  "includeSourceMarker": true,
  "exclude": ["draft/**", "*.tmp"],
  "frontMatterDefaults": {
    "nav_title": "My Project Docs",
    "hide": false
  }
}

S3 Source Configuration

Pull documentation directly from S3 buckets (no git clone overhead):

{
  "bucket": "my-docs-bucket",
  "prefix": "docs/",
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "destinationPath": "products/external",
  "credentialsEnvVar": "AWS_CREDENTIALS",
  "includeSourceMarker": true,
  "exclude": ["*.draft.md", "private/**"],
  "frontMatterDefaults": {
    "nav_title": "External Docs"
  }
}

Use Cases

Push-Based: External Repo Workflow

Scenario: Your organization has multiple repositories. Each repo maintains its own documentation, and you want it to appear on your main docs site.

Flow:

1. External repo has docs in ./docs/ directory
2. External repo GitHub Action triggers on docs changes
3. Action clones main docs repo, copies files to /imported/{project-name}/, commits and pushes
4. Next build of main docs site picks up the changes

External Repo Workflow Example (.github/workflows/push-docs.yml):

name: Push docs to main site

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
    paths:
      - 'docs/**'

env:
  GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

jobs:
  push-docs:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout this repo
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Checkout docs repo
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          repository: myorg/main-docs
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          path: ./docs-site

      - name: Copy docs
        run: |
          mkdir -p ./docs-site/imported/my-project
          cp -r ./docs/* ./docs-site/imported/my-project/

      - name: Push to docs repo
        working-directory: ./docs-site
        run: |
          git config user.name "github-actions[bot]"
          git config user.email "github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"
          git add imported/
          git commit -m "docs: push docs from my-project"
          git push

Pull-Based: Scheduled Sync

Scenario: You want to automatically pull documentation from multiple external repositories on a schedule, without requiring changes to those repos.

Flow:

1. Configure pullSources in main docs appsettings.json
2. Main docs repo has scheduled GitHub Action
3. Action runs build, which pulls from configured external repos
4. Imported docs integrated into main site

Main Docs Repo Workflow (.github/workflows/scheduled-build.yml):

name: Scheduled build with external docs

on:
  schedule:
    # Daily build at 2 AM UTC
    - cron: '0 2 * * *'
  workflow_dispatch:  # Manual trigger

env:
  GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Setup .NET
        uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v3
        with:
          dotnet-version: '9.0.x'

      - name: Build with imported docs
        run: |
          dotnet build -c Release
          dotnet run --project src/Netdocs.Cli -- build

      - name: Deploy
        run: |
          # Your deployment logic here
          echo "Deploying built site..."

Main Docs Config (appsettings.json):

{
  "plugins": [
    { "name": "imported-docs" }
  ],
  "siteConfig": {
    "importedDocs": {
      "pushedDocsDir": "imported",
      "pullSources": [
        {
          "repository": "https://github.com/myorg/api-repo.git",
          "sourcePath": "docs",
          "destinationPath": "products/api",
          "exclude": ["README.md", "CONTRIBUTING.md"]
        },
        {
          "repository": "https://github.com/myorg/cli-repo.git",
          "sourcePath": "docs",
          "destinationPath": "products/cli",
          "reference": "v2.x"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

S3-Based: Direct S3 Bucket Import

Scenario: You want to pull documentation directly from S3 buckets without requiring git operations. Faster and simpler for large documentation sets.

Flow:

1. External repos upload markdown to a shared S3 bucket (via CI/CD or manually)
2. Configure S3 bucket paths in main docs appsettings.json
3. Main docs build downloads files directly from S3
4. Imported docs integrated into main site

Main Docs Config (appsettings.json):

{
  "plugins": [
    { "name": "imported-docs" }
  ],
  "siteConfig": {
    "importedDocs": {
      "s3Sources": [
        {
          "bucket": "shared-docs",
          "prefix": "api-docs/",
          "region": "us-east-1",
          "destinationPath": "products/api",
          "exclude": ["draft/**", "*.internal.md"]
        },
        {
          "bucket": "shared-docs",
          "prefix": "sdk-docs/",
          "region": "us-east-1",
          "destinationPath": "products/sdk"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Example External Repo Workflow (to upload to S3):

name: Upload docs to S3

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
    paths:
      - 'docs/**'

env:
  AWS_REGION: us-east-1
  S3_BUCKET: shared-docs
  S3_PREFIX: api-docs/

jobs:
  upload:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      id-token: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Configure AWS credentials
        uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v4
        with:
          role-to-assume: arn:aws:iam::ACCOUNT_ID:role/GithubActionsRole
          aws-region: ${{ env.AWS_REGION }}

      - name: Upload to S3
        run: |
          aws s3 sync ./docs s3://${{ env.S3_BUCKET }}/${{ env.S3_PREFIX }} \
            --delete \
            --exclude ".git/*" \
            --exclude "node_modules/*"

Authentication

Public Repositories

No authentication needed. Simply omit authTokenEnvVar:

{
  "repository": "https://github.com/public/repo.git",
  "sourcePath": "docs",
  "destinationPath": "products/repo"
}

Private Repositories

Use GitHub tokens (or other git credentials) via environment variables.

GitHub Token (Recommended)

In your GitHub Actions workflow, use the default GITHUB_TOKEN:

env:
  GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

In config:

{
  "repository": "https://github.com/private/repo.git",
  "authTokenEnvVar": "GITHUB_TOKEN",
  "sourcePath": "docs",
  "destinationPath": "products/repo"
}

The plugin uses the token as OAuth2 credentials (username="oauth2", password=token).

Personal Access Token

Create a Personal Access Token (PAT) with repo scope in GitHub Settings → Developer settings → Personal access tokens.

Store as repository secret (e.g., DOCS_PAT):

env:
  GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
  DOCS_PAT: ${{ secrets.DOCS_PAT }}

Config:

{
  "repository": "https://github.com/private/repo.git",
  "authTokenEnvVar": "DOCS_PAT",
  "sourcePath": "docs",
  "destinationPath": "products/repo"
}

SSH Keys

For SSH-based authentication, ensure your CI/CD environment has the SSH private key configured (e.g., via GitHub Secrets + ssh-agent):

- name: Setup SSH
  uses: webfactory/ssh-agent@v0.5.4
  with:
    ssh-private-key: ${{ secrets.DOCS_SSH_KEY }}

Use SSH repository URL:

{
  "repository": "git@github.com:private/repo.git",
  "sourcePath": "docs",
  "destinationPath": "products/repo"
}

No authTokenEnvVar needed — git will use SSH agent.

S3 Bucket Authentication

For S3-based imports, credentials can come from multiple sources (in order of precedence):

1. Environment variable (format: ACCESS_KEY:SECRET_KEY)
2. IAM role (automatic on AWS EC2, Lambda, or GitHub Actions OIDC)
3. ~/.aws/credentials file
4. Environment variables (AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY)

Using Environment Variables (Simple)

Store credentials as a GitHub secret and pass via environment:

env:
  AWS_CREDENTIALS: ${{ secrets.AWS_CREDENTIALS }}

In config:

{
  "bucket": "shared-docs",
  "prefix": "docs/",
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "credentialsEnvVar": "AWS_CREDENTIALS",
  "destinationPath": "products/docs"
}

Using IAM Role (Recommended)

For AWS-hosted or OIDC-enabled workflows, use IAM roles instead of credentials:

permissions:
  id-token: write

steps:
  - name: Configure AWS credentials
    uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v4
    with:
      role-to-assume: arn:aws:iam::ACCOUNT_ID:role/GithubActionsRole
      aws-region: us-east-1

Then omit credentialsEnvVar in config and the plugin uses the assumed role automatically.

Front-Matter Overrides

The plugin supports merging front-matter from two sources:

1. Extracted from imported markdown files (highest priority)
2. Config frontMatterDefaults (fallback)

This allows your main docs site to set default values for imported documentation without overriding values the external repo explicitly set.

Example

External repo's docs/guide.md:

---
title: Getting Started
nav_sort: 10
---

# Getting Started

...

Main docs config:

{
  "repository": "https://github.com/external/repo.git",
  "sourcePath": "docs",
  "destinationPath": "products/external",
  "frontMatterDefaults": {
    "nav_title": "External Product",
    "hide": false,
    "nav_sort": 999
  }
}

Result: The imported page will have:

• title: "Getting Started" ← from external markdown
• nav_title: "External Product" ← from config default (external didn't specify)
• hide: false ← from config default
• nav_sort: 10 ← from external markdown (not overridden)

File Exclusion

Use glob patterns to exclude files from import. Patterns match relative to the source docs path.

Pattern Syntax:

• * matches any characters within a path segment (doesn't cross /)
• ** matches any characters across multiple segments
• ? matches a single character
• {a,b} matches either a or b

Examples:

{
  "exclude": [
    "draft/**",           // Exclude entire draft/ directory
    "*.tmp",              // Exclude .tmp files
    "INTERNAL-*.md",      // Exclude files starting with INTERNAL-
    "**/todo.md",         // Exclude todo.md in any directory
    "{private,secret}/**" // Exclude private/ and secret/ directories
  ]
}

Files matching any pattern are skipped during import.

Source Markers

If includeSourceMarker is true, the plugin adds metadata to each imported page:

---
import_source: "https://github.com/external/repo/blob/main/docs/guide.md"
import_url: "/products/external/guide/"
---

This metadata is available in your templates for displaying "View on GitHub" or similar links:

{% if page.frontmatter.import_source %}
<a href="{{ page.frontmatter.import_source }}">View source</a>
{% endif %}

URL Mapping

Imported files are mapped to URLs following Netdocs conventions:

• File: docs/guide.md with destinationPath: "products/api"
• URL: /products/api/guide/

Behavior:

• .md extension is removed
• Trailing slash always added
• Destination is applied at directory level

Build Pipeline Integration

The Imported Docs plugin runs at Stage 2 of the build pipeline — after initial content discovery but before navigation filters and rendering. This ensures:

• Imported docs are discovered early
• All existing plugins can process imported pages
• Navigation generation includes imported docs
• No special handling needed elsewhere

See Build lifecycle for the full pipeline diagram.

Troubleshooting

Pull source fails to clone

Error: Failed to clone repository

Causes:

• Repository URL is incorrect
• Repository is private and authTokenEnvVar is missing or invalid
• Git credentials not configured (SSH key not loaded)
• Network connectivity issue

Solution:

• Verify repository URL
• For private repos, set authTokenEnvVar and ensure env var is populated
• For SSH, verify SSH key is available in CI/CD environment
• Check build logs for details

Files not appearing

Causes:

• sourcePath doesn't exist in the repository
• All files match exclude patterns
• Reference (branch/tag) doesn't exist

Solution:

• Verify sourcePath exists in the repository
• Check exclude patterns with glob tester
• Verify reference exists on remote

Build succeeds but no docs appear

Check:

1. Is the plugin enabled in plugins array?
2. Does importedDocs section exist in config?
3. Check build logs for import activity (look for "Imported X pages" messages)
4. Verify destinationPath is correct and doesn't conflict with existing content

Performance

• Push-based: No performance impact. Only processes files pushed to staging directory.
• Pull-based (Git): Clones repositories to temp directory on each build. For large repos or frequent builds, consider:
  • Using scheduled workflows (fewer builds)
  • Shallow clones with specific branches/tags
  • Filtering large repos with exclude patterns
• Pull-based (S3): Direct download from S3 bucket without git operations. Generally faster than git clones, especially for large doc sets:
  • Parallel object listing for efficient bucket scanning
  • Configurable credentials via IAM role or environment variables
  • No temporary directory cleanup overhead (streaming downloads)
  • Suitable for frequently-updated doc sources

See Also

• Build lifecycle — where the import hook runs
• Events & callbacks — full hook reference
• External plugins — building custom import plugins