Quickstart Guide

If your help content already lives on another platform, move it across before you write anything new. Our migration tools cover the common services, and importing saves you rebuilding hundreds of articles by hand.

Every article in HelpDocs lives inside a category, so create one of those first. You can nest them as deep as you like using subcategories.

1. Head to the Content page (or click here)
2. Click Create category
3. Fill in your category meta information
4. Hit Save Changes

Now you've got somewhere to put it, write something.

1. Click your new category and select Add your first article to [category], or click Create article in the top right
2. Write your content, saving as you go with Ctrl or Cmd + S
3. Click Preview to see how it will look to readers
4. Set the Article Status to Published and hit Save Changes

Not sure what to write first? Check out our learn resources.

Your Knowledge Base starts on a helpdocs.io subdomain. Moving it to something like help.yourcompany.com keeps readers on your brand the whole way through.

Start this one early. DNS providers aren't always as fast as we'd like, so the change can take a few hours to show up.

Here's how to set up a custom domain.

Two features are worth switching on once you have a handful of articles live:

• Ask AI gives readers a short written answer at the top of their search results, built from your own articles
• Improve with AI reads an article and suggests specific fixes, so you can tidy up imported content quickly

Both run on credits, and each action costs a different amount. Have a look at how AI credits work before you turn everything on, then head to Configuring HelpDocs AI to choose what's enabled.

Different people on your team know different parts of your product, so let them write about what they know. Roles control who can create articles, publish them, and change your account settings.

Here's how to invite users and set their roles.

Your Missed Searches report is the most useful page in your account. It shows what people searched for and didn't find, which tells you exactly what to write next. It beats guessing, because it's about your customers rather than customers in general.

From there, Permissioning is worth a look if you need different content for different groups of readers.

You've started your self-serve journey. Keep those articles updated and see the support queue get clearer. For more resources, be sure to check out our blog and the learn page.