Support docs authoring guide

This guide is for maintainers updating the public help center in help/.

When to update support docs

Update the help center when a pull request changes a user-facing behavior such as:

• parent or child app flows
• onboarding, login, account, or settings behavior
• billing, subscriptions, entitlements, or plan messaging
• marketing-site user flows that affect where parents go for support
• support language or troubleshooting expectations

If a pull request touches those surfaces but does not need a help-center change, the PR must explicitly declare that by checking No support docs update is required or using the docs-not-needed label.

Local workflow

From the repo root:

npm --prefix help install
npm run help:dev

To create a production build:

npm run help:build

Writing style

• write for parents and household admins, not engineers
• describe what users should do next
• keep plan-dependent language precise
• avoid promising support channels or product capabilities that are not actually configured

Keep these sources aligned

When support copy depends on product behavior, cross-check:

• docs/FEATURE_MATRIX.md
• README.md
• relevant flows in src/
• billing logic in src/functions/_shared/billing.js

Algolia search and Ask AI

The public help landing page uses the official hybrid DocSearch example in src/components/HeroHybridSearch/HybridSearch.js.

If the Algolia application, index, API key, or Ask AI assistant changes, update that component and redeploy the help site.

The optional help/.env file is reserved for future local overrides, but the current hybrid search component does not read from it directly.

PR expectations

The repo includes a dedicated support-docs:check status check.

It passes when:

• help/ changed, or
• no watched user-facing files changed, or
• the PR explicitly declares that no support docs update is required

It fails when watched product changes land without either docs updates or an explicit declaration path.