api_welcome.mdx

id	slug	title	summary	date	tags
kibDevDocsApiWelcome	/kibana-dev-docs/api-meta/welcome	Welcome	How to use our automatically generated API documentation	2021-02-25	kibana dev contributor api docs

Welcome to our automatically generated typescript API documentation for every plugin that exposes a !

This documentation is being automatically generated using an [_experimental_ system](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/blob/main/rfcs/text/0014_api_documentation.md). That means it may be removed or modified at any time. If you have any questions, feedback or concerns, please create an issue using the label `APIDocs`, or reach out to the Kibana Tech Leads who are temporarily owning and maintaining this system.

What is included

Every plugin that will have API documentation automatically generated (note this system does not handle REST APIs).

API items that have an @internal in the comment are not included in the documentation system.

How it works

If you change or delete a public plugin API, or add a new one, you will have to run the command node scripts/build_api_docs in order to update the docs in your PR, or CI will fail. When this happens, consider:

1. If this affects an existing API item, have you emailed the kibana-contributors list with a heads up? It's important to give advance notice, since there may be corner cases you aren't aware of, even if your PR passes CI.
2. If the change you are making aren't relevant to contributors, consider a) making the API private, or b) adding the @internal flag to it.

Q & A

Why do I not see my plugin's public API?

There is one extra step required to have your API docs show up in the navigation of the docs system. Follow the instructions to learn how to configure the navigation menu. The nav file you need to edit is: https://github.com/elastic/elastic-docs/blob/master/config/nav-kibana-dev.ts

Your API docs will exist in the top level api_docs folder and will use a doc id of the pattern kib${PluginName}PluginApi.

Why is a referenced API item not showing up as clickable?

There are a few reasons his could happen. First, check if you are exporting the API item. For example, if you have the following in your my_plugin/public/index.ts file:

type Bar = { id: string };
export type Foo = Bar | string;

Bar, in the signature of Foo, will not be clickable because it would result in a broken link. Bar is not publicly exported!

If that isn't the case, please file an issue, it could be a bug with the system.

Why are the docs so slow?

We are aware of some performance issues with deeply nested, or large APIs.

In the short term, the best thing you can do is avoid deeply nested API items. Use interfaces rather than inlined objects. Also consider adding serviceFolders in your kibana.json. This will automatically split your docs up based on which APIs are defined within the service folders. They will get built into a doc with an id of kib${PluginName}${ServiceName}PluginApi. The data plugin does this, so you can check that out as an example.

If that isn't the case and you are still experiencing performance issues, please file an issue!

Where do I ask questions or give feedback?

If you have any questions or issues, please reach out to the Kibana Tech Leads or create an issue here and use the label APIDocs.