nginx / nginx/documentation

[Story]: Replace examples of sensitive values with explicit placeholders

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#1,363 5 comments 0 reactions 1 assignee View on GitHub

@FaithKovi is already working on this.

Since Feb 3, 2026.

content-strategy enhancement good first issue P4 - Low (TTR: 90 days)
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Description

Overview

As a user,
I want clear placeholders for examples,
So that I can update my code accordingly.

As a security expert,
I want placeholders for examples,
So that my scanning tools do not give false positives.

Which product or products does this request relate to?

Other

Description

Across the NGINX documentation sets, there are many instances of example values being given to represent user-specific information such as credentials or desired configuration options. Some of the example values look like plausibly sensitive information, either by accident or because they were generated in a test environment.

A generic pattern should be adopted and enforced across all documentation to make it abundantly clear what fields are placeholders, ensuring that the users know exactly what to replace, and to reduce the risk of the wrong information being used or perceived.

Acceptance criteria
  • The user should be able to clearly tell when an example has placeholder values
  • The user should be able to tell what the placeholder value is meant to represent
  • The user should not think the placeholder could represent any sensitive production information

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Assessment

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