Publishing Documentation Sites

Publishing a documentation site creates a permanent, fully customized home for your API documentation—distinct from the Quick Share feature, which is designed for temporary collaboration. While Quick Share generates shareable links for rapid internal and external communication, Publish Docs Sites provides comprehensive customization options including custom domains, branded design, navigation control, and advanced features. This makes it ideal for creating professional, public-facing API documentation that represents your brand.

Prerequisites

Before publishing a documentation site, ensure you have:

An Apidog account with a project containing API documentation

Admin permissions for the project

(Optional) A custom domain if you plan to use branded URLs

Preliminary Configurations

Publishing Your Documentation Site

To publish your documentation site, navigate to the Publish Docs module and click on the default main site, then click the Publish button.

Documentation Site Visibility Settings

Version Requirement

Apidog version must be ≥ 2.7.15 to access these visibility features.

After clicking the Publish button, you can control the visibility of your published documentation site based on your security and access requirements. Click the Publish right now button to make your site live with your chosen visibility settings.

Public

Your doc sites will be accessible to all internet users. You can also choose to publish your API documentation on API Hub, a platform operated by Apidog that helps users discover and explore APIs.

Password protected

IP Allowlist

Email Allowlist

Custom Login Page

Publishing Scope

By default, the scope for publishing documentation is set to allSharedresources. You can configure this in theAPIs. For more details, please refer to visibility settings.

Advanced Configurations

Try It

You can enable the Try It feature for your documentation pages, so that users can directly make API requests on the documentation page itself.

Release Versions

You can create and publish multiple versions of your API documentation. Learn more about publishing API versions.

release settings for API Documentations.jpg

Related Resources

How Can Document Users Modify the Base URL in Shared Docs?

How to Share Headers (e.g., Token) in Apidog Online Docs?

Domain Settings

Apidog provided domain: Your document will have a default Apidog Subdomain, such as https://vhh2uhkjv7.apidog.io. You can also modify it manually. All Apidog documents use the apidog.io domain.

Custom Domain: You can bind the Apidog document to your own domain. Learn more about Custom domain.

domain settings for API documentations.jpg

Visual Customization

You can customize appearance and layouts for API documentations.

You can preview your document in real time here and save it once you're satisfied with the result.

Appearance

Layout & Navigation

Custom Landing Page

Custom CSS, JavaScript, and HTML

Under Appearance Settings, you can configure various basic options for your API documentation, including Title, Logo, and Favicon.

Under Display content, you can customize which fields to display in API documentation, including: Base URL, Maintainer, and Last Modified Time.

SEO Settings

Setting	Description
Global Metadata	Configures the default metadata for the entire site.
Robots File	The `robots.txt` file instructs search engines on which pages to crawl and display in search results.
Sitemap File	The `sitemap.xml` file provides search engines with a comprehensive list of all pages on your site for better indexing.
Docs Redirect Rules	Redirects users to the correct documentation page when a URL changes, preventing broken links.
URL & Slug Rules	Defines the URL structure and slug format for your documentation pages.

Advanced Settings

Feature	Description
Documentation Search	Integrates with Algolia to provide enhanced search capabilities for your published API documentation. The Ask AI feature unlocks conversational, AI-powered Q&A directly within your documentation search.
CORS Proxy	Specifies a CORS proxy to prevent cross-origin issues that can arise from browser security restrictions.
Google Analytics	Enables integration with Google Analytics to track and analyze traffic to your documentation site.
Publish to API Hub	Publishes your documentation to the API Hub, an open platform for sharing and discovering APIs.
Description	Sets the description that will be displayed on the API Hub if the project is published there.
Allow 'Export', 'Clone' Data	Permits users to export or clone the documentation data from the main branch.

Publish Multiple Docs Sites

To publish docs across different channels within the same project, you can create additional docs sites during publishing. For easier management, you can duplicate the main site’s configuration for each new site. Each sub-site can also have a unique custom domain name.

Only subsites let you set the visibility scope for published docs, allowing you to choose which resources are publicly accessible.

Publishing Documentation Sites

Prerequisites#

Preliminary Configurations#

Publishing Your Documentation Site#

Documentation Site Visibility Settings#

Publishing Scope#

Advanced Configurations#

Try It#

Release Versions#

Domain Settings#

Visual Customization#

SEO Settings#

Advanced Settings#

Publish Multiple Docs Sites#

Prerequisites

Preliminary Configurations

Publishing Your Documentation Site

Documentation Site Visibility Settings

Publishing Scope

Advanced Configurations

Try It

Release Versions

Domain Settings

Visual Customization

SEO Settings

Advanced Settings

Publish Multiple Docs Sites