fleet/handbook/community.md

Community

As an open-core company, Fleet endeavors to build a community of engaged users, customers, and contributors.

Communities

Fleet's users and broader audience are spread across many online platforms. Here are the most active communities where Fleet's developer relations and social media team members participate at least once every weekday:

• Osquery Slack (#fleet channel)
• MacAdmins Slack (#fleet channel)
• osquery discussions on LinkedIn
• osquery discussions on Twitter
• reddit.com/r/sysadmins
• reddit.com/r/SysAdminBlogs
• r/sysadmin Discord

Fleet docs

Markdown

Fleet's documentation and handbook are written in Markdown. Using Markdown lets us keep our documentation consistently formatted and viewable directly from the Fleet GitHub repo. The Markdown files in the /docs and /handbook folders are converted to HTML for the Fleet website.

When making changes to the Fleet docs or handbook, there are a few differences in how the Markdown will render on GitHub and the Fleet website.

Linebreaks and newlines

Any time you need to add a line break in Markdown, you should add a new line. It is vital to make sure paragraphs are separated by new lines otherwise they will render as the same HTML element.

For example, if you were adding this section to the docs:

line one
line two

The Markdown would render on the Fleet Website as:

line one line two

To ensure formatting is consistent across GitHub and the Fleet website, you'll need to add a new line anywhere you want a line break. For example, if we separate the lines with a new line:

line one

line two

The Markdown will render correctly as:

line one

line two

Ordered lists

Content nested within an ordered list needs to be indented. If the list is not formatted correctly, the number will reset on each list item.

For example, this list:

1. Item one

Paragraph about item one

2. Item two

On the Fleet website, this ordered list would be rendered as:

1. Item one

Paragraph about item one

2. Item two

To ensure that ordered lists increment on the Fleet website, you can indent the content nested within the list. For example, the same ordered list with indentation:

1. Item one

   Paragraph about item one

2. Item two

This ordered list will render correctly as:

1. Item one

   Paragraph about item one

2. Item two

Docs style guide

Headings

Headings help readers quickly scan content to find what they need. Organize page content using clear headings specific to the topic they describe.

Keep headings brief, organized, and in a logical order:

• H1: Page title
• H2: Main headings
• H3: Subheadings
• H4: Sub-subheadings (headings nested under subheadings)

Try to stay within 3 or 4 heading levels. Complicated documents may use more, but pages with a simpler structure are easier to read.

Adding a link to the Fleet docs

You can link documentation pages to each other using relative paths. For example, in docs/Using-Fleet/Fleet-UI.md, you can link to docs/Using-Fleet/Permissions.md by writing [permissions](./Permissions.md). This will automatically transformed into the appropriate URL for fleetdm.com/docs.

However, the fleetdm.com/docs compilation process does not account for relative links to directories outside of /docs. This is why it’s essential to follow the file path exactly when adding a link to Fleet docs.

In the Fleet documentation, when directly linking to a specific section, always format the spaces within a section name to use a hyphen "-" instead of an underscore "_". For example, when linking to the osquery_result_log_plugin section of the configuration reference docs, use a relative link like the following: ./Configuration.md#osquery-result-log-plugin.

Linking to a location on GitHub

When adding a link to a location on GitHub outside of /docs, be sure to use the canonical form of the URL.

To do this, navigate to the file's location on GitHub, and press "y" to transform the URL into its canonical form.

How to fix a broken link

For instances in which a broken link is discovered on fleetdm.com, always check if the link is a relative link to a directory outside of /docs.

An example of a link that lives outside of /docs is:

../../tools/app/prometheus

If the link lives outside /docs, head to the file's location on GitHub (in this case, https://github.com/fleetdm/fleet/blob/main/tools/app/prometheus.yml)), and press "y" to transform the URL into its canonical form (https://github.com/fleetdm/fleet/blob/194ad5963b0d55bdf976aa93f3de6cabd590c97a/tools/app/prometheus.yml). Replace the relative link with this link in the markdown file.

Note that the instructions above also apply to adding links in the Fleet handbook.

Ordering a page in the Fleet docs

The order we display documentation pages on fleetdm.com is determined by pageOrderInSection meta tags. These pages are sorted in their respective section by the pageOrderInSection value in ascending order. Every markdown file (except readme and faq pages) in the docs/ folder must have a meta tag with a positive 'pageOrderInSection' value.

We leave large gaps between values to make future changes easier. For example, the first page in the "Using Fleet" section of the docs has a pageOrderInSection value of 100, and the next page has a value of 200. The significant difference between values allows us to add, remove and reorder pages without the need for changing the value of multiple pages at a time.

When adding or reordering a page, try to leave as much room between values as possible. If you were adding a new page that would go between the two pages from the example above, you would add <meta name="pageOrderInSection" value="150"> to the page.

Adding an image to the Fleet docs

Try to keep images in the docs at a minimum. Images can be a quick way to help users understand a concept or direct them towards a specific user interface(UI) element. Still, too many can make the documentation feel cluttered and more difficult to maintain.

When adding images to the Fleet documentation, follow these guidelines:

• Keep the images as simple as possible to maintain. Screenshots can get out of date quickly as UIs change.
• Exclude unnecessary images. An image should be used to help emphasize information in the docs, not replace it.
• Minimize images per doc page. More than one or two per page can get overwhelming, for doc maintainers and users.
• The goal is for the docs to look good on every form factor, from 320px window width all the way up to infinity. Full window screenshots and images with too much padding on the sides will be less than the width of the user's screen. When adding a large image, make sure it is easily readable at all widths.

Images can be added to the docs using the Markdown image link format, e.g. ![Schedule Query Sidebar](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fleetdm/fleet/main/docs/images/schedule-query-modal.png) The images used in the docs live in docs/images/. Note that you must provide the URL of the image in the Fleet Github repo for it to display properly on both Github and the Fleet website.

Note that the instructions above also apply to adding images in the Fleet handbook.

Adding a mermaid diagram to the Fleet Docs

The Fleet Docs support diagrams that are written in mermaid.js syntax. Take a look at the Mermaid docs to learn about the syntax language and what types of diagrams you can display.

To add a mermaid diagram to the docs, you need to add a code block and specify that it is written in the mermaid language by adding mermaid to the opening backticks (i.e., ```mermaid).

For example, the following code block is a mermaid diagram that has not been specified as a mermaid code block:

graph TD;
    A-->D
    B-->D
    C-->D
    D-->E

Once we specify the mermaid as the language in the code block, it will render as a mermaid diagram on fleetdm.com and GitHub.

graph TD;
    A-->D
    B-->D
    C-->D
    D-->E

If the mermaid syntax is incorrect, the diagram will be replaced with an image displaying an error, as shown in the following example where the code block was written with intentional syntax errors:

graph TD;
    A--D

Community contributions (pull requests)

The top priority when community members contribute PRs is to help the person feel engaged with Fleet. This means acknowledging the contribution quickly (within 1 business day) and driving to a resolution (close/merge) as soon as possible (may take longer than 1 business day).

Process

1. Decide whether the change is acceptable (see below). If this will take time, acknowledge the contribution and let the user know that the team will respond. For changes that are not acceptable, thank the contributor for their interest and encourage them to open an issue or discuss proposed changes in the #fleet channel of osquery Slack before working on any more code.
2. Help the contributor make the content appropriate for merging. Ensure that the appropriate manual and automated testing has been performed, changes to files and documentation are updated, etc. Usually, this is best done by code review and coaching the user. Sometimes (typically for customers), a Fleet team member may take a PR to completion by adding the appropriate testing and code review improvements.
3. After reviewing a PR and addressing all necessary changes, any Fleet team member may merge a community. Before merging, double-check that the CI is passing, documentation is updated, and changes file is created. Please use your best judgment.
4. Once a PR has been approved and merged, thank and congratulate the contributor, then share with the team in the #help-promote channel of Fleet Slack to be publicized on social media. Those who contribute to Fleet and are recognized for their contributions often become great champions for the project.

Please refer to our PRs from the community guide for more detailed information.

What is acceptable?

Generally, any minor documentation update or bug fix is acceptable and can be merged by any member of the Fleet team. Additions or fixes to the Standard Query Library(SQL) are acceptable as long as the SQL works properly and they are attributed correctly. Please use your best judgment.

More extensive changes and new features should be approved by the appropriate Product DRI. Ask in the #g-product channel in Fleet Slack.

Fleet swag

We want to recognize and congratulate community members for their contributions to Fleet. Nominating a contributor for Fleet swag is a great way to show our appreciation.

How to order swag

1. Reach out to the contributor to thank them for their contribution and ask if they would like any swag.

2. Fill out our swag request sheet.

3. Once approved, place the order through our Printful account (credentials in 1Password).

4. If available through the ordering process, add a thank you note for their contribution and "Feel free to tag us on Twitter."

Slack channels

These are the Slack channels the growth team maintains. If the channel has a directly responsible individual (DRI), they will be specified. These people are responsible for keeping up with all new messages, even if they aren't mentioned.

• #g-community
• #g-digital-experience

Who should have these channels unmuted? Members of this group, everyone else is encouraged to mute them.