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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://learn.mintlify.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Mintlify has a rich set of components including callouts, cards, tabs, steps, code blocks, and more. Used well, these components help users find what they need and follow complex instructions without getting lost. Used less well, they make documentation harder to read. This course is about developing familiarity with these components and understanding when and how to use them. Each lesson pairs a component (or a group of related components) with concrete guidance on how to use it to support your users.

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What you’ll learn

  • How to choose between components that look similar but signal different things to readers
  • When standard prose or a plain list is better than a rich component
  • How to handle procedures that branch by platform, role, or user choice
  • How to use code blocks, code groups, and inline explanations to match your audience’s needs

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Who this is for

Anyone who contributes to documentation on Mintlify and wants to make better decisions about how to use components to support their users. Especially helpful for people who are newer to technical writing or writing for the web in general.

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Lessons in this course

  1. Choose the right callout — The different callout types and what signal each one sends to readers.
  2. When callouts stop working — How overusing callouts causes readers to skip them, and how to fix it.
  3. Steps or numbered lists — Both render as numbered sequences, but <Steps> support more complex procedures.
  4. When a procedure outgrows a page — How to recognize when a long procedure should be split into multiple pages.
  5. Describe branching procedures — How to handle procedures that fork by platform, role, or configuration without losing readers at the branch point.
  6. Code block essentials — The small choices in how you write code blocks that determine whether users can follow along.
  7. When to explain code and when to just show it — How much prose to put around a code block, and how that changes by content type and audience.
  8. Code groups for multi-language examples — How to show the same example in multiple languages without repeating yourself.
  9. Tables for structured comparisons — When to use a table, and when the content isn’t actually tabular enough to justify one.
  10. Columns and cards for visual comparisons — When comparison items need more room than a table cell can offer.
  11. Cards as navigation — How cards function as navigation elements and when a plain list would do the same job.
  12. Inline links or cards — when to use each one — How each option signals a different level of importance to the reader.
  13. Tabs for platform and audience variation — When tabs keep content concise versus when they hide information readers need to compare.
  14. Conditional content — How to use the <View> component to show or hide content based on user selections.
  15. Site-wide, page-level, and inline signals — How banners, tags, and badges handle information that exists outside the main content of pages.
  16. End-of-page navigation patterns — How to use the bottom of a page to help readers decide where to go next.