kubernetes-sigs / kubernetes-sigs/reference-docs

[Umbrella] Release tooling consolidation: Makefile cleanup, deprecate gen-kubectldocs, add copy targets, switch website to apimd

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#448 5 comments 0 reactions 1 assignee View on GitHub

@Caesarsage is already working on this.

Since Jul 4, 2026.

priority/important-longterm triage/accepted
Dominant language
HTML
Stars
130
Forks
135
Avg merge
16h 27m
Merged PRs (30d)
3

Description

Goal

Tidy up the release-team experience after the gen-apidocs markdown backend
landed. The Makefile has accumulated drift, gen-kubectldocs is functionally
replaced by gen-compdocs but still present, and several copy targets are
missing. Each of these is small in isolation but coordinated together they
make the per-release workflow significantly cleaner.

Sub-tasks

  1. Makefile cleanup PR (https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/reference-docs/pull/449)

    • Move K8S_ROOT / K8S_RELEASE / K8S_WEBROOT checks into the recipes
      that need them (currently fail every make invocation)
    • Drop the duplicate K8S_ROOT check
    • Drop the unused CURDIR=$(shell pwd) line in updateapispec
    • Add copyapimd target (symmetric with copyapi) for the markdown
      output → content/en/docs/reference/kubernetes-api/
    • Refresh the all target's printed list of supported targets
  2. Deprecate gen-kubectldocs (https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/reference-docs/pull/450)

    • Same pattern as the gen-resourcesdocs deprecation in
      #445:
      add a deprecation banner to gen-kubectldocs/README.md
    • Add a WARNING: echo to cli, copycli, cleancli targets pointing
      users to gen-compdocs
  3. Add copycomp family of targets (https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/reference-docs/pull/452)

    • copycomp-core: kube-apiserver, kube-controller-manager, kube-scheduler,
      kube-proxy → content/en/docs/reference/command-line-tools-reference/
    • copycomp-kubeadm: kubeadm tree → content/en/docs/reference/setup-tools/kubeadm/generated/
    • copycomp-kubectl: kubectl tree → content/en/docs/reference/kubectl/generated/
    • Mirrors @tengqm's 3-PR component handoff flow.
  4. Fix cross-group ByKind collision PR (https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/reference-docs/pull/447)

    • Tracked at #446 with concrete v1.36 evidence (cross-group "Other API
      versions" leaks in HTML output)
    • Independent of other items; can ship in this same release cycle
  5. Switch k/website API reference to apimd output (https://github.com/kubernetes/website/pull/55758)

    • Replace content/en/docs/reference/kubernetes-api/ (currently
      gen-resourcesdocs output, semantic-category folders) with apimd output
      (API-group folders)
    • Update ~79 hand-curated docs that link to old kubernetes-api/<old-cat>/...
      URLs to use new kubernetes-api/<api-group>/... URLs
    • Depends on item 1 landing first (make copyapimd)
  6. Hugo shortcode-based output (#440)

    • Goal: emit shortcode-wrapped fields instead of HTML tables so k/website
      templates control rendering (mobile layout, different render modes, etc.)
    • Tracked separately at #440; blocked on @lmktfy's markdown sketch
    • Sequenced after items 1, 3, 5 land

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