Stellar Documentation and API Reference 🌌

Welcome to the official home repository for Documentation for the Stellar network.

Table of Contents

• Contributing
• Quick Start
  • Prerequisites
  • Development
• Repository Structure
• Using Markdown
  • Markdown Basics
  • Custom Markdown
    • Alert
    • Code Example

Contributing

Contributions are more than welcome! Thank you! 🎉

Before diving in, please read our Stellar Contribution Guide for details on contributing to Stellar's various repositories. Please take special note of the code of conduct.

Our documentation site is built using Docusaurus. The content is written in MDX, which adds a lot of cool possibilities. Even if you're unfamiliar with plain markdown, do not fear! You can still contribute in a helpful and meaningful way. Markdown is super easy to learn, and will come quite naturally after only a bit of practice. You can always help fix typos, spelling, and broken links, too.

You can contribute to the docs in several ways:

• See something that needs to be fixed in the docs, like an error in the code or a typo? File a pull request (PR) proposing to correct the error;
• Think there is helpful content missing from the docs, like a specific how-to guide or piece of explanatory content? File an issue explaining what you’d like to see (be sure to search existing issues to avoid duplication);
• Have an idea that could make the docs better, like a structural change or a new section idea? File an issue explaining what you’d like to see (these will be added to the Ideas section on the Dev Docs board for discussion);
• Want to complete an existing issue? Search through the issues to find something to work on! Issues without an assignee and labeled as a “Good First Issue” or with “Help Wanted” are great places to start! Once you’ve selected an issue to work on, file a PR with your proposed fix.

No matter what you contribute, whether a PR or an issue, you can expect to receive a response from docs maintainers within one week.

• PRs need to be reviewed and approved before merging. Look for either an approval or a follow-up question.
• Issues will be prioritized, labeled, and assigned (if possible). You can check the status of your issue on the Dev Docs board. The status of issues according to the column is:
  • Ideas: these issues are being actively discussed. Ideas will either be discarded or repurposed into an actionable issue and added to the queue within three weeks.
  • Backlog: these issues are not prioritized or actively being worked on.
  • To Do: these issues are prioritized and will be worked on soon.
  • In Progress: these issues are currently being worked on.
  • Blocked: these issues are being worked on but are blocked for some reason and need attention.
  • Done: these issues have been completed and can be closed.

If you have questions, feel free to ask in the Stellar Developer Discord.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

To begin development on the documentation, you will first need to install the following:

• Node.js (v19, not higher): see https://nodejs.org/en/download/package-manager for details for your system
• npm: e.g. sudo apt install npm on Ubuntu
• yarn: npm install yarn

Development

Once all the prerequisites have been installed, you can run the following commands:

git clone https://github.com/stellar/stellar-docs
cd stellar-docs
yarn install
npx docusaurus start

This will begin the development server, and open a browser window/tab pointing to http://localhost:3000/docs/. This development server will auto-reload when it detects changes to the repository.

After you've made your changes, use the following commands to ensure the consistent MDX file formatting and style across the repository:

npm run check:mdx # this will search for problems in the MDX files
npm run format:mdx # this will fix any problems that were found

Repository Structure

• /docs/ Contains all the documentation content. If you're contributing to the actual documentation, rather than site functionality, this is likely where you will want to be.
  • /docs/<subdirectory>/ Each subdirectory inside the docs directory contains content documents relating to a common idea (asset issuance, or running a validator node, for example). There can also be subdirectories nested even further, which will follow the same rules. The location of a document within this directory structure will have a direct impact on the URL given to the document on the site (unless there is metadata or front matter that overrides these defaults.)
  • /docs/<subdirectory>/_category_.json This file contains information that determines the directory's location and position within the site's sidebar.
  • /docs/<subdirectory>/<filename>.mdx The actual documents live in these files (written in Markdown), and also contains "front matter" which can specify configuration parameter for the document's display, URL, etc. All filenames must use dashes for spaces instead of spaces or underscores
• /src/ Contains non-documentation files like custom React components and styling.
• /static/ Contains static assets. Anything in this directory will be copied to the root of the final build directory.
• /nginx/ Contains configuration used to deploy and host the docs site. Unless you're part of Stellar's IT Ops team, you probably don't need to do anything with this. Exception:
  • /nginx/includes/redirects.conf Contains redirect rules to avoid broken links. If you find a broken link somewhere out in the wilds of the internet, and there's no way for it to be changed, a redirect could be a useful tool. (Note our aim isn't to completely avoid 404 pages for a user. That would be impossible and impractical. These redirects are evaluated on a case-by-case basis, and it may be determined that a redirect isn't the right approach in some instances.)

Using Markdown

Markdown Basics

If you're unfamiliar with Markdown, there are loads of good tutorials and cheat sheets out there. Check out some of these resources to get a handle on the basics:

• CommonMark cheat sheet and tutorial
• Interactive markdown tutorial
• The markdown guide

Custom Markdown

Our repository uses some custom React components that can be used inside the MDX documents. Use them as follows:

Make sure that there is an empty line within the wrapper. For example,

<Alert>
<!-- EMPTY LINE AFTER THE COMPONENT'S OPENING TAG IS REQUIRED -->

Note: the testnet is reset every three months, so when building on it, make sure you have a plan to recreate necessary accounts and other data. For more info, check out the [best practices for using the testnet](../../learn/fundamentals/networks.mdx).

<!-- EMPTY LINE BEFORE THE COMPONENT'S CLOSING TAG IS REQUIRED -->
</Alert>

Alert

<Alert /> is used to convey hints, warnings, etc. For example, Build a SEP-31 Anchor on Testnet

import { Alert } from "@site/src/components/Alert";

<Alert>

Note: the testnet is reset every three months, so when building on it, make sure you have a plan to recreate necessary accounts and other data. For more info, check out the [best practices for using the testnet](../../fundamentals-and-concepts/testnet-and-pubnet).

</Alert>

Code Example

<CodeExample /> is a code snippet component. You can include snippets for more than one language. See an example including a snippet for JavaScript and Python below. It is using Prism React Renderer for syntax highlighting.

import { CodeExample } from "@site/src/components/CodeExample";

<CodeExample>

```js
// create a completely new and unique pair of keys
// see more about KeyPair objects: https://stellar.github.io/js-stellar-sdk/Keypair.html
const pair = StellarSdk.Keypair.random();

pair.secret();
// SAV76USXIJOBMEQXPANUOQM6F5LIOTLPDIDVRJBFFE2MDJXG24TAPUU7
pair.publicKey();
// GCFXHS4GXL6BVUCXBWXGTITROWLVYXQKQLF4YH5O5JT3YZXCYPAFBJZB
```

```python
# stellar-sdk >= 2.0.0 required
# create a completely new and unique pair of keys
# see more about KeyPair objects: https://stellar-sdk.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api.html#keypair
from stellar_sdk import Keypair

pair = Keypair.random()
print(f"Secret: {pair.secret}")
# Secret: SCMDRX7A7OVRPAGXLUVRNIYTWBLCS54OV7UH2TF5URSG4B4JQMUADCYU
print(f"Public Key: {pair.public_key}")
# Public Key: GAG7SXULMNWCW6LX42JKZOZRA2JJXQT23LYY32OXA6XECUQG7RZTQJHO
```

</CodeExample>

Languages that are currently being used in Documentation and API Reference are below:

// https://github.com/stellar/stellar-docs/blob/main/src/components/CodeExample.js

const CODE_LANGS = {
  bash: 'bash',
  cpp: 'C++',
  curl: 'cURL',
  go: 'Go',
  html: 'html',
  java: 'Java',
  javascript: 'JavaScript',
  js: 'JavaScript',
  json: 'JSON',
  json5: 'JSON5',
  python: 'Python',
  scss: 'SCSS',
  toml: 'TOML',
  ts: 'TypeScript',
  tsx: 'TSX',
  typescript: 'TypeScript',
  yaml: 'YAML',
};

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