readthedocsorg

Read the Docs is a free documentation hosting service. It allows developers to host documentation for their open-source projects automatically. When a project is hosted on platforms like GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket, Read the Docs can be configured to detect changes to the project's documentation files, automatically build the documentation, and host it online. This provides a centralized and accessible location for users to find information about a project.

The service supports various documentation generators, most notably Sphinx and MkDocs. Projects can specify their preferred generator and any necessary configuration files within their repository. Read the Docs then processes these files to create HTML, PDF, and ePub versions of the documentation, making it available through a unique URL for each project. This automation significantly simplifies the documentation process for developers, allowing them to focus more on coding and less on manual documentation management.

Read the Docs also offers features such as version control for documentation, allowing users to access documentation for specific releases or branches of a project. It provides search functionality within the hosted documentation and supports internationalization for multilingual projects. The platform is widely used by the open-source community and is a popular choice for projects seeking a robust and convenient way to present their documentation to the public.