What Ellie Docs is and how it works

Ellie Docs is a tool that writes and maintains the help centre for your product: it reads your code on GitHub, your existing docs and website, and a running copy of your app for screenshots, drafts the articles, and keeps them current as your code changes, while you review and publish everything. You work in a project, which is one product with its connected repositories.

How the workflow fits together

1. Create a project for your product and connect the repositories you want Ellie to use. If you are setting up a new project, start with Set up your first help centre.
2. Tell Ellie about any existing docs and your website, and choose how it should take screenshots of your app. See Tell Ellie about your existing docs and website and Choose how Ellie accesses your app for screenshots.
3. Review what Ellie drafts. Ellie can propose new content and updates as suggestions, but you stay in control of what is accepted and what is published.
4. Organize the help centre content into collections, sections, and articles so readers can find the right information.
5. Publish your help centre when the content is ready. Ellie can keep proposing updates over time, but publication still happens only when you choose it.

Main areas you will use

• Overview gives you the starting point for a project and its current documentation status.
• Content is where you manage articles, appearance, and help-centre publishing settings.
• Features helps you manage documentation around your code-derived feature map. See Decide what your docs should cover.
• API Reference is where you work with API documentation derived from your code. See Publish an API reference.
• Analytics helps you monitor how your help centre content is performing.
• Settings is where you manage project configuration, including connected repositories and other project-level setup.
• Ask Ellie (the purple button at the bottom right of a project screen, which opens the Chat with Ellie panel) is where you can start a drafting conversation or create a work order for background writing tasks.

What stays under your control

Nothing is published automatically. Ellie drafts and suggests changes, but you decide what to review, keep, and publish to your help centre.

Good to know

• Who can set this up? Usually the person creating the project or managing repositories handles the initial setup, while docs, product, support, or operations teammates can help review and organize content after that.
• How does Ellie keep the docs current after launch?

Every push to your tracked branch is checked, and Ellie proposes updates to the affected articles. See How Ellie keeps your docs up to date.

• Does my code leave my account?

Ellie reads your repositories through a read-only GitHub App, and drafting uses Azure OpenAI models. See What code Ellie reads and what it never reads.