The Good Docs Project Templates
Free, open source documentation templates written by a volunteer community of technical writers, for pages such as READMEs, quickstarts, how-to guides, tutorials, API references, release notes and troubleshooting. Each template comes with a guide explaining what goes in each section. The project also welcomes contributors, which makes it a good place for a first docs contribution.
GitHub repo
Career Growth
The Good Docs Project
Use per document
Beginner
Free
What it is
The Good Docs Project is an open source community that writes documentation templates and guidance for open source projects and software teams. Its stated belief is that everyone deserves to read good documentation and everyone should be empowered to write it. The site describes a community of more than 75 experienced technical writers who volunteer on the project.
The templates are hosted on GitLab (gitlab.com/tgdp/templates) and published in named releases; the site listed the "Iron" release, v1.6.0, as the latest as of 2026-09. The older GitHub repository is archived, so use the GitLab one.
Templates cover common documentation types such as READMEs, quickstarts, how-to guides, tutorials, concept pages, reference pages, API reference, installation guides, release notes, troubleshooting pages, glossaries and contributing guides. Each template usually has a companion guide that explains the purpose of every section and how to fill it in.
Why it is useful
Starting from a blank page is where most beginners go wrong: they forget prerequisites, mix explanation into steps or leave out troubleshooting. A good template reminds you what readers need. The templates pair naturally with Diátaxis: decide the type of page first, then pick the matching template.
For a portfolio, the templates are a fair starting point. Reviewers care whether the content is accurate and helpful, not whether you invented the structure. Say which template you used.
Contributing
The project runs working groups and welcomes contributors, including people new to technical writing. Contributing to a documentation project about documentation is a practical way to get reviewed by experienced writers, learn a docs-as-code workflow on GitLab and earn a public contribution you can link to.
Prerequisites
None to use a template. To contribute, basic Git and merge request skills help; the project's community pages explain how to join.
Free vs paid
Free and open source.
Common questions
Can I use these at work? Check the licence in the repository before you do; the project publishes its templates for reuse.
Are templates enough? No. They help structure, not accuracy. You still need to test every step and have an engineer review technical details.
Ready to start?
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Stuck on something specific?
Writing only gets you so far. If you want an answer to your situation rather than the general case, book a session and we will work through it together. Sessions are free for approved Sefism members, and a few slots open each week.
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