Editor README

README files are a staple of any programming project. It’s the first thing you look at when working with a new codebase and is the de-facto place to share important project details with collaborators. We’ve recently brought this pattern to Retool. If you're on the Team plan or greater, all of your Retool apps now come equipped with a built-in README file, accessed by clicking on Edit in the app’s description & documentation area in the navbar:

Inside of the Editor README tab, you’ll find a textarea that accepts GitHub-flavored Markdown.

Content in the README is only visible to users with Edit or Own permissions on the app. When an editor clicks on Edit in the app’s description & documentation area in the navbar, they’ll see the rendered Markdown, last updated timestamp and author, and have the option to edit the README themselves.

User Documentation

Of course, developers aren’t the only ones who benefit from documentation. If you’re on a plan that supports end-user-only permissions (Business and Enterprise), we’ve also added User Documentation support. Here you can provide information that will be visible to your app’s users, like how to operate the app and who to contact when there’s an issue.

For editors, the User Docs are accessed just like the README, by clicking on the app’s description & documentation area in the navbar. Inside of the User Documentation tab, you’ll find a textarea that accepts GitHub-flavored Markdown. You can toggle back-and-forth between preview and edit mode by clicking the link in the upper left:

You can also toggle the “Open automatically for new users” checkbox to have a documentation modal open automatically the first time an end-user opens an app.

When using a Retool app, end-users are able to open the User Documentation modal at anytime by clicking the documentation icon in the lower left of the screen: