::: Our docs are changing! You will see more SaaS and Self-Managed content side-by-side, starting with our Guides section. :::

docs.camunda.io is home to the Camunda 8 docs, including all of the components.

Whether you are reading the docs to understand how Camunda 8 works, or helping write the docs, this meta page will give you all the information you need to be successful.

Structure​

Camunda 8 docs are structured in such a way that the documentation is SaaS-first, meaning you will be introduced to the following based on how they are used in Camunda 8 SaaS:

• Guides: Step-by-step material to get started with Camunda 8.
• Components: Product manual and conceptual content for each component in Camunda 8. Here, you'll also find The Best Practices section. This section is our condensed experience of using BPMN and DMN on the Camunda toolstack, and is collected by consulting engagements with our customers and feedback from the community.
• APIs & tools: A section dedicated to a variety of offered APIs and tools for integration.
• Reference: General reference material for Camunda 8, including a glossary, supported environments, and dependencies.

Self-Managed section​

Keen eyes may notice the Self-Managed section in the top navigation or the icon on the main page looks a little different than the rest of the sections. This is intentional to help distinguish this area in the docs from SaaS-focused content.

In the Self-Managed section, documentation includes guidance specifically for Self-Managed users that may not apply to SaaS users, including deployment guides for current components of Camunda 8.

In addition, you can find Optimize documentation for Camunda 7 in this section.

Why do I see documentation on Camunda 7?​

Some components live exclusively in docs.camunda.io but span both Camunda 7 and 8. Desktop Modeler, Optimize, and Best Practices have sections or pages marked with badges as mentioned in below.

Badges​

As the product matures, the documentation will grow. We are experimenting with added visuals near the top of the docs to help you understand the expectations for a given piece of content. For example, how long will it take to read and complete the tasks in the doc? Is this particular document targeted toward beginners versus advanced users? Is this document exclusive to Camunda 7 or Camunda 8 users?

Disagree with how we've badged our content? Feel free to submit a PR!

Difficulty badges​

Our getting started guides are for beginners and always will be. However, not all of our guides will be getting started guides! Look for these labels to help you understand what's the best guide for your level.

<span class="badge badge--beginner">Beginner</span>

<span class="badge badge--intermediate">Intermediate</span>

<span class="badge badge--advanced">Advanced</span>

Time estimate badges​

We use a mix of word count and reading estimates mixed with hands-on experience to determine our estimations.

<span class="badge badge--short">Time estimate: 5 minutes</span>

<span class="badge badge--medium">Time estimate: 20 minutes</span>

<span class="badge badge--long">Time estimate: 1 hour</span>

Product or component specific badges​

Shipping incrementally means we may not always be at feature parity between Camunda 8 and Camunda 7 or Desktop Modeler and Web Modeler.

In those instances, big or small, we want to make sure you can see what works with each product or component.

<span class="badge badge--platform">Camunda 7 only</span>

<span class="badge badge--cloud">Camunda 8 only</span>

Front-matter values​

Readers won't see these values, but they do feel the impacts of using front matter to add metadata to pages.

Your front-matter should mirror the following structure when creating documentation:

---
id: orchestrate-microservices
title: Getting started with microservice orchestration
sidebar_label: Getting started with microservice orchestration
description: "Orchestrate Microservices along a business process for visibility and resilience."
keywords: [microservices, orchestration, getting-started]
---

Take a look at Docusaurs' guidance on headers and Markdown features for more details.

• id: The id is what connects a specific unique file id to the Docusaurus sidebar, not just the filename. To avoid confusion between the file and the sidebar id, we recommend making both of these the same. For example, a filename may be learn-about-camunda.md and therefore we may name the id learn-about-camunda.
• title: The title is what will be shown as the header of the page once clicked on. Note that all titles are to be in sentence-case structure, according to the Camunda style guide. Note that search engines typically display 50-60 characters of a title, so ensure your title does not exceed this.
• sidebar_label: (optional) The sidebar_label represents what the file is shown as in the sidebar of the documentation. We recommend the sidebar_label to be the same (or similar, but shortened) as the title and/or id to avoid confusion.
• description: The description of your document which will become the <meta name="description" content="..."/> and <meta property="og:description" content="..."/> in <head>, used by search engines. Outline a description for your document if you wish for your content to do well alongside search engine optimization (SEO).According to several resources, including the Search Engine Journal, Moz, and Google, descriptions should be between 150-160 characters.
• keywords: (optional) Take a look at Docusaurus' guidance on SEO and keywords.