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Git records changes to files. GitHub gives teams a place to share those changes, review them, and decide when to publish them. That may sound like extra machinery if you’re used to Google Docs, Notion, or Confluence. Those tools already support collaboration and revision history. Git becomes especially useful when documentation lives beside software, engineers contribute directly, or publishing needs a deliberate review step.

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See what changed

Each commit records a set of changes with an author, time, and message. If a guide becomes inaccurate, you can inspect its history to see how it changed and often recover an earlier version. That history is useful only when the team commits its work and writes meaningful messages. Git tracks committed changes; it isn’t an automatic record of every keystroke. For a Mintlify site connected to GitHub, the repository is the source that Mintlify builds from. The deployed site reflects the files on the configured deployment branch, which is often main.

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Work on changes without publishing them

A branch gives you a place to edit files without changing the deployed version. Other contributors can work on their own branches at the same time. When branches change different parts of the repository, Git can usually combine them. When two branches change the same lines, Git stops and asks a person to decide what the final version should say. The conflict is visible instead of being silently resolved in favor of one writer.

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Review the published result before it is live

A pull request shows the difference between a branch and the deployment branch. Reviewers can comment on specific lines, suggest edits, and check the rendered preview before merging. This is the main benefit of the workflow: writing, review, and publishing are separate decisions. A team can keep lightweight rules for small fixes and require more review for a new API guide or a navigation redesign. Git isn’t valuable because documentation should imitate software development. It’s valuable when its history, branches, and review workflow solve a collaboration problem your team actually has. Next up: Core Git concepts — the terms you’ll see while making and reviewing documentation changes.