---
title: Contributing to the docs
description: The Beats documentation is written in Markdown and is built using elastic/docs-builder. Starting with Elastic Stack version 9.0.0 we no longer publish...
url: https://www.elastic.co/docs/extend/beats/contributing-docs
products:
  - Beats
applies_to:
  - Elastic Stack: Generally available since 9.0
---

# Contributing to the docs
The Beats documentation is written in Markdown and is built using [elastic/docs-builder](https://github.com/elastic/docs-builder).

## Cumulative docs

Starting with Elastic Stack version 9.0.0 we no longer publish a new documentation set for every minor release.
This means that a single page should stay valid over time and use version-related tags to illustrate how the product has evolved.
For information on labeling manually maintained content with product lifecycle and versioning information, refer to [Write cumulative documentation](https://elastic.github.io/docs-builder/contribute/cumulative-docs/).
For generated content, read more in [Update `fields.yml`](#update-fields).

## Generated docs

Many Markdown files in the Beats repo should be edited directly, but some are generated including:
- Exported fields (for example, [AWS fields](https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/beats/metricbeat/exported-fields-aws))
- Module docs (for example, [AWS module](https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/beats/metricbeat/metricbeat-module-aws))
- Metricset and dataset docs (for example, [AWS billing metricset](https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/beats/metricbeat/metricbeat-metricset-aws-billing))

<tip>
  Every Markdown file that is generated includes a code comment at the top of the content that states `% This file is generated!`.
</tip>


### Update `fields.yml`

The `fields.yml` files in `_meta` directories across individual beats contain descriptions of fields available in the module, dataset, fileset, or metricset. Here are some tips for optimizing `fields.yml` for generating docs:
- The `title` is used as a page title in the docs, so it’s best to capitalize it.
- The `description` at all levels should be written in full sentences and include punctuation.
- The `version` at all levels is used to label docs with product lifecycle and version-related
  information that illustrates how the product has evolved over time, which is important to
  [writing docs cumulatively](#cumulative-docs). Some tips for using `version`:
  - Supported product lifecycles include `preview`, `beta`, `ga`, and `deprecated`.
- Multiple product lifecycles can exist for the same module or field to illustrate how it changed over time.
- The version number can be in major, minor, or patch format, but the resulting rendered label will always resolve to the patch level.
- Here's an example of `version` for a field that went through all product lifecycles:
  ```yaml
  version:
    preview: 9.0.0
    beta: 9.1.0
    ga: 9.2.0
    deprecated: 9.3.0
  ```


### Update `docs.md`

The `docs.md` files in `_meta` directories are used for generated module documentation.

### Generate the docs

After updating `fields.yml` and `docs.md` files in `_meta` directories,
you must run the doc collector scripts to regenerate the docs:
1. Make sure you [set up your Beats development environment](/docs/extend/beats#setting-up-dev-environment)
   and use the correct Go version.
   - The Go version is listed in the `version.asciidoc` file for the branch you want to update.
2. Change to the beats repo directory.
3. Run `make update` to run the docs collector scripts.
   <warning>
   The `make update` command overwrites files in the `docs` directories **without warning**. If you accidentally update a generated file and run `make update`, your changes will be overwritten.
   </warning>
   The `make` command calls the following scripts to generate the docs:
   - [**`auditbeat/scripts/mage/docs.go`**](https://github.com/elastic/beats/blob/main/auditbeat/scripts/mage/docs.go) generates:
  - `docs/reference/auditbeat/auditbeat-modules.md`
- `docs/reference/auditbeat/auditbeat-module-*.md`
- [**`filebeat/scripts/mage/docs.go`**](https://github.com/elastic/beats/blob/main/filebeat/scripts/mage/docs.go) generates:
  - `docs/reference/filebeat/filebeat-modules.md`
- `docs/reference/filebeat/filebeat-module-*.md`
- [**`metricbeat/scripts/mage/docs_collector.go`**](https://github.com/elastic/beats/blob/main/metricbeat/scripts/mage/docs_collector.go) generates:
  - `docs/reference/metricbeat/metricbeat-modules.md`
- `docs/reference/metricbeat/metricbeat-module-*.md`
- [**`dev-tools/mage/generate_fields_docs.go`**](https://github.com/elastic/beats/blob/main/dev-tools/mage/generate_fields_docs.go) generates:
  - `docs/reference/auditbeat/exported-fields.md`
- `docs/reference/filebeat/exported-fields.md`
- `docs/reference/heartbeat/exported-fields.md`
- `docs/reference/metricbeat/exported-fields.md`
- `docs/reference/packetbeat/exported-fields.md`
- `docs/reference/winlogbeat/exported-fields.md`
4. (Optional) To format your files, you might also need to run this command:
   ```sh
   make fmt
   ```