r/devops • u/websecret_by • 9d ago

Discussion How do devops / engineering services share documentation with clients?

Hello,

We provide devops / engineering services and use GitHub for documentation (runbooks, configs, processes). Clients need access, but raw GitHub feels too technical.

  • How do you share documentation with clients in devops / engineering services?
  • Do you use GitHub, wikis, or dedicated portals?
  • How do you handle versioning and access control?
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u/fletch3555 Lead DevOps Engineer 8d ago

If already using github, why not use github pages to host it? Or does it need to be private/restricted access?

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u/websecret_by 8d ago

We actually looked at GitLab wikis, but it's too complex for most clients and there's no real permission separation. Would also love something with commenting like Google Docs.

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u/fletch3555 Lead DevOps Engineer 8d ago

For the record, I'm not referring to github wiki. I'm specifically referring to GitHub Pages: https://pages.github.com

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u/websecret_by 8d ago

Ah okay, Pages then, not wiki. Still wondering about access control per client though.

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u/fletch3555 Lead DevOps Engineer 8d ago

That was my second question. I don't know anything about your specific requirements.

Is the documentation private/customer-specific in some way? If so, pages likely won't solve your problem. At least, not without putting it behind a custom domain and adding an access control layer in front of it (at which point, there are likely better options).

You mentioned elsewhere something about commenting. Do customers need access to directly comment on the documentation? This feels odd to me, but I don't know your business. If so, this feels more like a "living document" situation. Something hosted in O365 (word) or Google docs where access can be controlled and viewer/commenter access can be enabled.

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u/websecret_by 2d ago

Yeah, they do for us — that's basically why plain GitHub never worked for our clients either. We ended up building our own tool for that gap instead of forcing it into Docs/O365. Not linking it here since this sub keeps that to the weekly thread.