This directory contains the portions of [the Terraform website](https://www.terraform.io/) that pertain to the core functionality, excluding providers and the overall configuration.
The website uses the files in this directory in conjunction with
[the `terraform-website` repository](https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform-website). The `terraform-website` repository brings all of the documentation together and contains the scripts for testing and building the entire site.
You can [submit an issue](https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/issues/new/choose) with documentation requests or submit a pull request with suggested changes.
Click **Edit this page** at the bottom of any Terraform website page to go directly to the associated markdown file in GitHub.
You must update the the sidebar navigation when you add or delete documentation .mdx files. If you do not update the navigation, the website deploy preview fails.
To update the sidebar navigation, you must edit the appropriate `nav-data.json` file. This repository contains the sidebar navigation files for the following documentation sets:
- Introduction to Terraform: [`intro-nav-data.json`](https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/blob/update-readme/website/data/intro-nav-data.json)
For more details about how to update the sidebar navigation, refer to [Editing Navigation Sidebars](https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform-website#editing-navigation-sidebars) in the `terraform-website` repository.
You must add a redirect when you move, rename, or delete documentation pages. Refer to https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform-website#redirects for details.
You should preview all of your changes locally before creating a pull request. The build includes content from this repository and the [`terraform-website`](https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform-website/) repository, allowing you to preview the entire Terraform documentation site.
The website generates versioned documentation by pointing to the HEAD of the release branch for that version. For example, the `v1.2.x` documentation on the website points to the HEAD of the `v1.2` release branch in the `terraform` repository. To update existing documentation versions, you must also backport your changes to that release branch. Backported changes become live on the site within one hour.
**Important:** Editing old versions (not latest) should be rare. We backport to old versions when there is an egregious error. Egregious errors include inaccuracies that could cause security vulnerabilities or extreme inconvenience for users.
Backporting involves cherry-picking commits to one or more release branches within a docs repository. You can backport (cherry-pick) commits to a version branch by adding the associated backport label to your pull request. For example, if you need to add a security warning to the v1.1 documentation, you must add the `1.1-backport` label. When you merge a pull request with one or more backport labels, GitHub Actions opens a backport PR to cherry-pick your changes to the associated release branches. You must manually merge the backport PR to finish backporting the changes.
You can review and merge your own backport pull request without waiting for another review if the changes in the backport pull request are effectively equivalent to the original. You can make minor adjustments to resolve merge conflicts, but you should not merge a backport PR that contains major content or functionality changes from the original, approved pull request. If you are not sure whether it is okay to merge a backport pull request, post a comment on the original pull request to discuss with the team.