Topic Documentation
You can embed your topic’s documentation into the Redpanda Console user interface by providing access to a public or private Git repository that hosts your documentation files in Markdown format.

Redpanda Console clones the provided Git repository and stores all Markdown files it finds in memory. The Documentation tab in the frontend displays the content of the Markdown file that matches the name of the Kafka topic.
Path/Filename | Topic Name | Matches |
---|---|---|
ordersv2.md |
orders-v2 |
✗ |
Orders-v2.md |
orders-v2 |
✗ |
orders-v2.md |
orders-v2 |
✓ |
/orders/orders-v2.md |
orders-v2 |
✓ |
Configuration
In addition to the repository URL and branch, you can configure authentication credentials for private repositories. Redpanda Console supports SSH as well as basic auth. If neither is specified you could still pull publicly accessible repositories.
Repository information
Start by specifying the Git repository that contains your Markdown documentation. You need to provide the repository’s URL, the branch you want to use, and the base directory where your documentation is located.
console:
topicDocumentation:
git:
enabled: true
repository:
url: https://github.com/<organization>/<repository>
branch: main
baseDirectory: <path-to-documentation-files>
-
url
: The complete URL of your Git repository. -
branch
: The branch of the repository that has the documentation files. -
baseDirectory
: The path within your repository from where the documentation search should begin. Redpanda Console recursively iterates through five levels of directories.
Refresh interval
Define how often Redpanda Console should refresh the documentation from the repository. This ensures your documentation is always up to date.
console:
topicDocumentation:
git:
enabled: true
refreshInterval: 10m
-
refreshInterval
: A value such as10m
means the documentation will be refreshed every 10 minutes. Adjust this based on how frequently your documentation is updated, or set to0
to disable automatic refresh.
Authentication configuration
To use private repositories, you must configure authentication. Redpanda Console supports both SSH and basic authentication.
Basic authentication
To use a personal access token:
console:
topicDocumentation:
git:
enabled: true
basicAuth:
enabled: true
username: token # Use "token" for GitHub personal access tokens
password: "your_github_token"
-
Enable
basicAuth
and input your GitHub personal access token as thepassword
. If using a personal access token, theusername
should betoken
.
SSH authentication
To use SSH-based access:
console:
topicDocumentation:
git:
enabled: true
ssh:
enabled: true
username: git
privateKey: "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\n...\n-----END PRIVATE KEY-----"
# OR specify a file path
privateKeyFilepath: "/path/to/private/key"
passphrase: "optional_passphrase"
-
Enable SSH and provide your private key either directly in the configuration or in the
privateKeyFilepath
field. Include the passphrase if your key has one.
Example configuration
Below is an example for a setup where documentation needs frequent updates and is stored in a private repository accessed through SSH:
console:
topicDocumentation:
enabled: true
git:
enabled: true
repository:
url: https://github.com/example/redpanda-docs
branch: main
baseDirectory: path/to/documentation
refreshInterval: 10m
ssh:
enabled: true
username: git
privateKeyFilepath: "/home/user/.ssh/redpanda_docs_key"
passphrase: "your_passphrase"
This configuration is designed for a secure and automated integration of topic documentation into the Redpanda Console, using SSH for secure repository access and a refresh interval that keeps the documentation consistently updated without manual intervention.