

ReadMe (YC W15) Creates Crisp Documentation for Developers Using Your APIs - gkoberger
http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/13/readme-creates-crisp-documentation-for-developers-using-your-apis/

======
EpicDavi
This is somewhat hidden on the page:

> ReadMe was built almost entirely on Open Source projects, so we want to give
> back. If you're an open source project, shoot us an email and we'll upgrade
> you to the Developer Hub tier for free. It's the least we can do to give
> back.

Very cool.

~~~
gkoberger
We need to make that more apparent :) But yeah, email support@readme.io and
we'll upgrade you for free!

~~~
Sir_Cmpwn
Tried to email you and google bounced it. Turns out they have really obtuse
policies for blacklists, and I can't figure out how to get my emails through.
Any side channels to go through?

~~~
codezero
I've had this happen to me a lot lately, and my assumption is that it has to
do with my VPN – are you using a VPN?

------
nodesocket
We ([https://commando.io](https://commando.io)) use ReadMe for our API
documentation. Beautiful docs, created easily. Can't wait for automatic client
lib generation and what the future holds for ReadMe. Here are our docs
[http://docs.commando.io](http://docs.commando.io) to view what is possible.

~~~
TheAceOfHearts
Do they host the docs for you?

Honestly, it's disappointingly slow. Each page takes over a second to load.
Your docs is one of those things that you can very easily cache heavily.

~~~
gkoberger
Yeah, that's our fault. We have a new super-quick template coming out soon.

------
Ixiaus
For those that want a lower-tech but scalable solution that can integrate
easily with your build tool:

AWS S3, NGINX + AWS Signing Plugin + Basic Auth, reStructuredText, and
CircleCI.

Very cheap, super easy to scale, and basic authentication for private. Use
your own domain, have full control over the domains and which S3 buckets your
route to, and use ReadTheDocs templates which are great for documentation.

------
octref
[https://dash.readme.io/login](https://dash.readme.io/login)

Really love the animation here. Attention to detail matters.

~~~
mavsman
@gkoberger I'm curious to know how long you estimate this took you to
implement and how many people comment on it. I'd estimate < 15 minutes and
hundreds of people. Am I close?

~~~
gkoberger
You're almost exactly correct! About 15 minutes, and we got almost 200k hits
because of it. It was on Smashing Magazine, Little Big Details, and just about
every designer I like tweeted about it. Totally worth the time it took :)

~~~
mavsman
Those are incredible results. You'll never implement a feature with a better
ROI :)

------
rickette
How does this compare to Swagger, Mashery, Apigee, etc?

~~~
gkoberger
We have Swagger support is (super early) beta; basically you can use your
Swagger Spec right in ReadMe.

The focus is on more than just reference docs, though. ReadMe also has space
for tutorials, topical guides, support, etc. And soon, we'll have things like
onboarding flows and other things that customize the experience for each
individual user.

As for Mashery and Apigee, features aside, last I checked, both start at about
$10k/mo. They are more focused on API management; a "developer hub" is just a
side effect for them.

~~~
redbeard0x0a
Apigee just uses Drupal for their developer hub with some loose integrations
into their api management (users, authentication keys, etc).

------
xasos
There's nothing I like more than some great API documentation. Seriously,
whenever I see that the author of an API/library writes good documentation
(and examples!), it improves the quality of open source software a lot.

This is a super cool startup and I love that you are giving back to the
community.

------
resu_nimda
Noticed a bug: If you click on "Custom CSS" in the Examples section, the
description starts out awkwardly with just "to stand out?" In the markup that
paragraph is enclosed in an element called <Looking>. Maybe a misplaced
character in a template?

~~~
gkoberger
Fixed, thanks!

------
pseudobry
Few apps have impressed me as much as Readme.io. The attention to detail and
beautiful yet functional UI are superb! It was a delight to create the docs
for [http://www.js-data.io](http://www.js-data.io) with Readme.io.

~~~
gkoberger
Thanks so much for the kind words :)

------
philip1209
We're using Swagger incorporated with Flask-Restful, which has been quite
straightforward to setup and maintain. I like ReadMe, but I feel like it needs
stronger integrations to be compelling - e.g. autogenerating code examples for
various languages.

~~~
gkoberger
Both Swagger support and code generation are coming in the next release :)

------
chaostheory
Documentation is one of those very unsexy things that's so important but so
many people and companies just tend to overlook. It's good to know there are
companies aiming to fix this.

------
grumblestumble
I'm a bit confused by the "use your own domain" option. I'm actively looking
for a product with functionality like this, but it needs to be 100% self-
hosted. "Use your own domain" suggests that ReadMe still handles data storage.
Are there any fully self-hosted products that are similar to this?

~~~
ryanSrich
Feel free to use this template ->
[https://github.com/catalyzeio/HIPAA](https://github.com/catalyzeio/HIPAA) I
made for our HIPAA docs. It uses middleman, slate, erb and sass. To password
protect it you could use something like this ->
[https://github.com/agoragames/nginx-google-
oauth](https://github.com/agoragames/nginx-google-oauth)

~~~
bobfunk
This approach to documentation works really well with netlify
([https://www.netlify.com](https://www.netlify.com)).

We let you link your middleman repository to a netlify site and instantly
setup automated builds with continuous deployment to our CDN.

It's great for developer docs since you can let people submit pull requests
for fixes or improvements, and we'll auto deploy when you merge them in.

------
sinzone
@Mashape we're fan of Greg and Gabriel since long time now.

They have done an amazing work with very limited resources. If all you need is
a Documentation w/ Support they are the faster/cheaper solution for you. And
the GUI is details oriented, unlike other complex/heavy Enterprise solutions.

~~~
gkoberger
Thanks Augusto :)

------
auganov
I'd like to see it develop into a more generalized thing. Rather than offering
nice looking docs, make it The Way to view docs for anything. Man/info pages
2.0 if you will. This should be to documentation what Github is to opensource.

~~~
logn
Will you feel the same when when say, GitHub buys ReadMe and Oracle buys
GitHub?

~~~
auganov
I actually wanted to say Github should buy and integrate it (if it went the
direction I Imagine). But on a second thought you want to incentivize
proprietary stuff to be on there too, so it would have to remain somewhat
separate from core Github. And Oracle, haha. Oracle buying anything you like
is scary :-D

------
Jemaclus
I've got an internal API that isn't available for public consumption, but
would enjoy having beautiful documentation. Does ReadMe have an option for
that?

~~~
gkoberger
Of course! Many of our users use it internally. All plans have an option to
make documentation internal: either by inviting collaborators, or a site-wide
password.

~~~
Jemaclus
Where's that option? I created a project, and the closest thing I could find
was in Versions. I clicked on the "(?) Public" thing, and it said that I
couldn't change it or something. I don't want it to be public, but it never
changed to a yes or no option, just stayed the same orange with a question
mark.

~~~
gkoberger
In the sidebar, called "Internal Documentation"

[http://cl.ly/image/0L3P0S312u3X](http://cl.ly/image/0L3P0S312u3X)

------
ing33k
using swagger and quite satisfied with it .

will be good if the OP points out some unique features that I am missing by
not using ReadMe ?

Use case : Private / Internal API with less than 10 Devs .

~~~
gkoberger
They aren't necessarily incompatible. ReadMe will very soon support Swagger,
and adds things like commenting, topical guides, code snippet generation, etc.

------
voltagex_
Any chance of being able to login with GitHub/BitBucket?

------
colinmegill
gkoberger is there a roadmap for this?

~~~
gdillon
Hey Colin! I'm @gkoberger's cofounder. We don't have a published roadmap, but
we're hard at work. First priority is to release a rewritten template that
will accommodate larger, more sophisticated documentation projects (another
level of subcategorization, multiple documentation sections within one
project, better search). Then, we'll start tackling more automatic ways of
consuming code and creating documentation. We're ambitious, stay tuned.

------
dang
Url changed from [http://blog.ycombinator.com/readme-yc-w15-creates-crisp-
docu...](http://blog.ycombinator.com/readme-yc-w15-creates-crisp-
documentation-for-developers-using-your-apis), which points to this.

