Template for minimum API docs in Jekyll

I worked with API consultant James Higginbotham to create a fill-in-the-blanks template for minimum API documentation.

We wanted to offer a solution for developers who need API docs but don’t have a technical writer available to handle it.

• Minimum viable API documentation template demo hosted on GitHub Pages
• GitHub repo for the template

Developers can clone the template repo and update the placeholder text with information about their API. Our idea was that after they’ve replaced all the placeholder text in the template, they’ll have the essentials documented well enough to help people use their API!

We also wrote a README for the project with details about how to clone, which files to update, and specs for images, among other things:

• README.md for API documentation template project

Most of the template is written in Markdown, although the landing page is written in HTML. The template itself is an MIT-licensed Jekyll documentation theme developed by Can Güney Aksakalli.

One of the highlights of my career was when an API officer messaged me on LinkedIn and said that he used this template to bootstrap a developer portal. It made my day!

Tools

I used these tools in the course of my work on the API docs template:

• Git • GitHub • GitHub Pages
• Markdown
• Jekyll