Quickstart
Get up and running in GitBook and publish your first docs site in minutes
This quickstart guide explains how to get set up in GitBook and publish your first docs site in minutes.
At the end of this guide, you’ll have a live documentation site, ready to expand and customize.
Create your account
Create an account to get started with your first documentation site.
Choose how you want to start
GitBook welcomes you to your new site and asks how you'd like to begin.
Docs template
Starting from a ready-made documentation layout with placeholder sections — the fastest way to see a full site working.
Import
Bringing in existing content from online docs, Markdown, or HTML.
OpenAPI
Generating interactive API reference docs from an OpenAPI spec.
Blank
Starting from an empty section and building from scratch.
Sync with Git
Keeping your docs in sync with a GitHub or GitLab repository.
Or, you can pick from your organization's existing content if you already have some work in GitBook.
This guide follows the template path:
Click Docs template and review the preview.
Click Use Docs Template to apply it.
Explore your new site
Your site opens unpublished, so you can edit, customize, and preview everything before it goes live. The sidebar shows:
Site header
Your site name, its publish status, and the Preview and Publish buttons.
General
Overview, Change requests, Site structure, and Settings.
Tools
Styleguide, Customize, Analyze, and Extend.
Content
These are your site's sections - for the Docs template: Home, Documentation, API Reference, Changelog, and Help Center. Use the icons on the Content header to find, rename, and add sections.
Your content isn't published yet — so you can edit, customize, and preview your docs site before making it live. Click Publish to make it live immediately.
Edit your content
The Docs template starts you with placeholder sections in the Content part of the sidebar. Click any section to open it and see its placeholder content.
There are two ways to edit and update your content in GitBook — in our visual editor, or following a docs-as-code workflow. You can choose one, or use a combination of both. Whichever workflow you prefer, you'll edit your content using a branch-based editing flow. Find out more on the Concepts page.
GitBook's what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) editor lets you edit content visually, drag content blocks to reorganize them, and see how your content looks as you work. It's ideal if you don't want to work in a code editor, or you're used to tools like Notion or Google Docs.
Edit your docs in a change request
In the Content section of the sidebar, click a section — such as Documentation — to open it.
Click Edit in the top-right corner. This opens a change request where you can change the content of the section.
Click Add new… > Page in the table of contents on the left-hand side.
Give your new page a title.
Preview your changes
Along the top of the web app you'll see tabs for Editor, Changes, and Preview. These switch between different views for your content. Click Preview to see how your docs site looks with all the changes in your change request, on both desktop and mobile.
Merge your changes
Once you're happy with your changes, click the Merge button in the top-right corner. This updates the primary version of your content with all the edits from the change request. If the content is part of a live docs site, the site updates immediately.
Sync your documentation with a GitHub or GitLab repository to enable code-based editing in your existing developer environment. It's ideal for technical users who prefer to manage documentation alongside other code.
Set up Git Sync
Open the section you want to sync from the Content part of the sidebar.
Click the Git Sync indicator's Set up button in the top bar.
Follow the instructions to sync the section to your chosen Git repository. Head to the Git Sync pages to find out more.
Edit your docs from your developer environment
Once you've synced your section to your Git repository:
Open the repository.
Create a pull request.
Make the changes you want.
GitBook supports Markdown editing, so you can create and format content using common syntax.
Every standard block in GitBook can be written and formatted using Markdown.
Preview your changes
You can preview your changes on your published docs site from the pull request in GitHub or GitLab. Your pull request shows a status with a unique preview URL. Click Details on that status to open it and see how your site looks once merged.
Merge your changes
Merge your pull request and your content updates both in the GitBook app and on your docs site, if it's live. In the GitBook app, every commit and your merged pull request sync to your section as updates in the version history.
Customize your docs
Organize your site navigation
Add more content to your site — an API reference, a help center, a changelog — at any time, and organize your site's navigation bar so visitors find what they're looking for. Head to Site structure to learn about sections, groups, and variants.
Customize the look and feel
Your site looks great out of the box — and under Customize, you can set your own logo, colors, and font, adjust the layout, and update your site's visibility.
Publish your documentation
You can publish your site with a click at any time.
Open your site from your organization Home.
Click Publish in the site header.
Once your site is live, the Overview screen updates with a link to the live site.
Want to explore publishing in more detail? Check out our complete guide to creating and publishing content in GitBook.
Add a custom domain
By default, your site is published with a unique URL in this format:
https://[organization-name].gitbook.io/[site-title]While this may be suitable for some teams, many choose to change their URL to a custom domain or a custom subdirectory.
Expand Settings in your site's sidebar.
Click Domain and URL.
Choose the option you want.
Follow the instructions to configure the DNS settings with your domain provider.
It can take up to 48 hours for your DNS changes to take effect — although they typically propagate much faster.
Next steps
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