Publish changes in the web editor

Save drafts, stage changes, and publish updates to your live documentation site from the Mintlify web editor with one-click deployment.

Publishing workflows

The editor supports two workflows for publishing documentation updates. The workflow you use depends on your repository’s branch protection rules and the branch you work on.

Create pull requests: If your repository has a branch protection rule that requires pull requests before changes can merge into your deployment branch, the editor creates a pull request when you publish changes.

When you create a pull request from the editor, the Mintlify agent generates a title and description based on your changes. You can edit the generated title and description before creating the pull request.

Publish directly: If your repository has no branch protection rules, your changes merge to the deployment branch and deploy immediately when you publish.

Branch type	Branch protection	Publishing workflow
Deployment branch	None	Commits and deploys changes
Deployment branch	Pull requests required	Creates a pull request
Feature branch	None	Merges changes to deployment branch and deploys changes
Feature branch	Pull requests required	Creates a pull request

Configure branch protection rules in your Git provider to require pull requests. See About protected branches in the GitHub docs or Protected branches in the GitLab docs.

Save changes

As you edit, the editor tracks your changes.

• New or deleted files.
• Content edits in pages.
• Navigation structure changes.
• Media uploads and organization.
• Configuration updates.

When you work on your deployment branch, changes automatically save.

When you work on a feature branch, save changes to the branch.

To discard changes, click Undo changes beside a filename in the files changed dropdown.

Publish your changes

Click Publish in the toolbar. Depending on your workflow, your changes deploy immediately or create a pull request for you to merge in your Git provider. If you are on a feature branch, save your changes before publishing.

If there are no pending changes or a pull request for the current branch is already open, the Publish button is unclickable.

Your live documentation site updates after Mintlify builds and deploys your published changes. This typically takes 30 seconds to a few minutes. Check the deployment status of your changes on your dashboard.

Commit messages

When you publish changes, the editor automatically generates a commit message that summarizes your edits. You can customize the commit message before publishing.

If your repository enforces a commit message format (for example, Conventional Commits), the editor adjusts the generated message to match the required pattern.

Concurrent publishing

Only one publish can happen at a time per branch. If another team member is publishing changes to the same branch, you see a message indicating that a publish is already in progress. Wait for the current publish to complete and try again.

Resolve conflicts

Conflicts occur when your branch and the deployment branch have incompatible changes to the same files.

What causes conflicts

Conflicts happen when you try to merge branches with incompatible changes to the same files.

• You and another team member edit the same lines in a file on different branches.
• You move, rename, or delete files on one branch and modify them differently on another branch.

Resolve conflicts

The editor displays warnings when conflicts prevent operations like publishing or switching branches. To resolve conflicts, follow the instructions in the editor to choose which changes to keep.

Commit signing

Sign commits with your GitHub account by authorizing it in your account settings. Without authorization, the Mintlify GitHub App signs commits made in the web editor.

Attributing commits to your account maintains an accurate history of who made changes to your documentation.