Product availability details

Product availability details provide information about a feature and are displayed under the topic title.

Availability details include the tier, offering, status, and history.

The Markdown for availability details should look like the following: 

# Topic title

DETAILS:
**Tier:** Free, Premium, Ultimate
**Offering:** GitLab.com, Self-managed, GitLab Dedicated
**Status:** Experiment

> - [Introduced](https://link-to-issue) in GitLab 16.3.
> - Updated in GitLab 16.4.

Available options

Use the following text for the tier, offering, status, and version history.

Offering

For offering, use any combination of these words, in this order, separated by commas:

  • GitLab.com
  • Self-managed
  • GitLab Dedicated

For example:

  • GitLab.com
  • GitLab.com, Self-managed
  • Self-managed
  • Self-managed, GitLab Dedicated

Tier

For tier, choose one:

  • Free, Premium, Ultimate
  • Premium, Ultimate
  • Ultimate

GitLab Duo Pro or Enterprise add-on

Document add-ons by using the phrase with and the add-on. For example, with GitLab Duo Pro.

The possibilities are: 

**Tier:** Premium with GitLab Duo Pro, Ultimate with GitLab Duo Pro or Enterprise
**Tier:** Ultimate with GitLab Duo Pro or Enterprise
**Tier:** Ultimate with GitLab Duo Enterprise
note
GitLab Dedicated always includes an Ultimate subscription.

Status

For status, choose one:

  • Beta
  • Experiment
  • Limited availability

Generally available features should not have a status.

History

For version history, include these words in this order. Capitalization doesn’t matter (with the exception of GitLab).

  • introduced, added, enabled, deprecated, changed, moved, recommended, removed, or renamed
  • in or to
  • GitLab (or, for external projects, the name of the project)

The docs site uses Ruby code to render the version history based on these words.

In addition:

  • Ensure that the output generates properly.
  • Ensure the version history begins with > -.
  • If possible, include a link to the related issue. If there is no related issue, link to a merge request, or epic.
  • Do not link to confidential issues.
  • Do not link to the pricing page. Do not include the subscription tier.

Updated features

For features that have changed or been updated, add a new list item. Start the sentence with the feature name or a gerund.

For example: 

> - [Introduced](https://issue-link) in GitLab 13.1.
> - Creating an issue from an issue board [introduced](https://issue-link) in GitLab 14.1.

Or: 

> - [Introduced](https://issue-link) in GitLab 13.1.
> - Notifications for expiring tokens [introduced](https://issue-link) in GitLab 14.3.

Moved subscription tiers

For features that move to another subscription tier, use moved: 

> - [Moved](https://issue-link) from GitLab Ultimate to GitLab Premium in 11.8.
> - [Moved](https://issue-link) from GitLab Premium to GitLab Free in 12.0.

Changed feature status

For a feature status change from experiment to beta, use changed: 

> - [Introduced](https://issue-link) as an [experiment](../../policy/development_stages_support.md) in GitLab 15.7.
> - [Changed](https://issue-link) from experiment to beta in GitLab 16.0.

For a feature status change from beta to limited availability, use changed: 

> - [Changed](https://issue-link) from experiment to beta in GitLab 16.0.
> - [Changed](https://issue-link) from beta to limited availability in GitLab 16.3.

For a change to generally available, use: 

> - [Generally available](https://issue-link) in GitLab 16.10.

Features made available as part of a program

For features made available to users as part of a program, add a new list item and link to the program. 

> - [Introduced](https://issue-link) in GitLab 15.1.
> - Merged results pipelines [added](https://issue-link) to the [Registration Features Program](https://page-link) in GitLab 16.7.

Features behind feature flags

For features introduced behind feature flags, add details about the feature flag. For more information, see Document features deployed behind feature flags.

Removing versions

Remove history items and inline text that refer to unsupported versions.

GitLab supports the current major version and two previous major versions. For example, if 17.0 is the current major version, all major and minor releases of GitLab 17.0, 16.0, and 15.0 are supported.

For the list of current supported versions, see Version support.

Remove information about features behind feature flags only if all events related to the feature flag happened in unsupported versions. If the flag hasn’t been removed, readers should know when it was introduced.

Timing version removals

When a new major version is about to be released, create merge requests to remove mentions of the last unsupported version. Only merge them during the milestone of the new major release.

For example, if GitLab 17.0 is the next major upcoming release:

  • The supported versions are 16, 15, and 14.
  • When GitLab 17.0 is released, GitLab 14 is no longer supported.

Create merge requests to remove mentions of GitLab 14, but only merge them during the 17.0 milestone, after 16.11 is released.

When to add availability details

Assign availability details under:

  • Most H1 topic titles, except the pages under doc/development/* and doc/solutions/*.
  • Topic titles for features that have different availability details than the H1 title.

The H1 availability details should be the details that apply to the widest availability for the features on the page. For example:

  • If some sections apply to Premium and Ultimate, and others apply to just Ultimate, the H1 Tier: should be Premium, Ultimate.
  • If some sections apply to all instances, and others apply to only Self-managed, the Offering: should be GitLab.com, Self-managed, GitLab Dedicated.
  • If some sections are beta, and others are experiment, the H1 Status: should be Beta. If some sections are beta, and others are generally available, then there should be no Status: for the H1.

When not to add availability details

Do not assign availability details to the following pages:

  • Tutorials.
  • Pages that compare features from different tiers.
  • Pages in the /development folder. These pages are automatically assigned a Contribute badge.
  • Pages in the /solutions folder. These pages are automatically assigned a Solutions badge.

Also, do not assign them when a feature does not have one obvious subscription tier or offering. For example, if a feature applies to one tier for GitLab.com and a different availability for self-managed.

In this case, do any or all of the following:

  • Use a NOTE alert box to describe the availability details.
  • Add availability details under other topic titles where this information makes more sense.
  • Do not add availability details under the H1.

Duplicating tier, offering, or status on subheadings

If a subheading has the same tier, offering, or status as its parent topic, you don’t need to repeat the information in the subheading’s badge.

For example, if the H1 heading is: 

# My title

DETAILS:
**Offering:** GitLab.com
**Tier:** Premium, Ultimate

Any lower-level heading that applies to a different tier but same offering would be: 

## My title

DETAILS:
**Tier:** Ultimate

Inline availability details

Generally, you should not add availability details inline with other text. The single source of truth for a feature should be the topic where the functionality is described.

If you do need to mention an availability details inline, write it in plain text. For example, for an API topic: 

IDs of the users to assign the issue to. Ultimate only.

For more examples, see the REST API style guide.

Inline history text

If you’re adding content to an existing topic, add historical information inline with the existing text. If possible, include a link to the related issue, merge request, or epic. For example: 

The voting strategy [in GitLab 13.4 and later](https://issue-link) requires the primary and secondary
voters to agree.

Administrator documentation for availability details

Topics that are only for instance administrators should have the Self-managed tier. Instance administrator documentation often includes sections that mention:

  • Changing the gitlab.rb or gitlab.yml files.
  • Accessing the rails console or running Rake tasks.
  • Doing things in the Admin area.

These pages should also mention if the tasks can only be accomplished by an instance administrator.