# Terraform Documentation

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 files in this directory are intended to be used in conjunction with
[the `terraform-website` repository](https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform-website), which brings all of the
different documentation sources together and contains the scripts for testing and building the site as
a whole.

## Modifying Sidebar Navigation

Updates to the sidebar navigation of Terraform docs need to be made in the [`terraform-website`](https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform-website/) repository (preferrably in a PR also updating the submodule commit). You can read more about how to make modifications to the navigation in the [README for `terraform-website`](https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform-website#editing-navigation-sidebars).

## Previewing Changes

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.

**Set Up Local Environment**

1. [Install Docker](https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/).
1. Restart your terminal or command line session.

**Launch Site Locally**

1. Navigate into your local `terraform` top-level directory and run `make website`.
1. Open `http://localhost:3000` in your web browser. While the preview is running, you can edit pages and Next.js will automatically rebuild them.
1. When you're done with the preview, press `ctrl-C` in your terminal to stop the server.

## Deploying Changes

Merge the PR to main. The changes will appear in the next major Terraform release.

If you need your changes to be deployed sooner, cherry-pick them to:

- the current release branch (e.g. `v1.1`) and push. They will be deployed in the next minor version release (once every two weeks).
- the `stable-website` branch and push. They will be included in the next site deploy (see below). Note that the release process resets `stable-website` to match the release tag, removing any additional commits. So, we recommend always cherry-picking to the version branch first and then to `stable-website` when needed.

Once your PR to `stable-website` is merged, open a PR bumping the submodule commit in [`terraform-website`](https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform-website).

### Deployment

New commits in `hashicorp/terraform` and `hashicorp/terraform-cdk` don't automatically deploy the site. To use the latest upstream content, you'll need to open a PR bumping the submodule commit. If your changes aren't being deployed, it's very likely that you need to open a PR to update the submodule commit.