YARD is a documentation generation tool for Ruby applications and libraries. It produces structured API references while offering a flexible annotation system for describing the behaviour of Ruby classes, methods and other program elements.
Ruby’s dynamic features can make automatically identifying interfaces difficult. YARD addresses this through a combination of source-code analysis, documentation comments and extension mechanisms. Developers can describe generated methods, custom class-level constructs and domain-specific language features that may not be apparent from ordinary Ruby declarations.
The software can be used to document individual applications or extensive collections of Ruby libraries. Its structured representation of documented objects also makes it suitable for tools that need to analyse API information programmatically. YARD provides a local documentation server, allowing developers to inspect documentation while working on a project.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Generates HTML API documentation for Ruby classes, modules, constants, attributes and methods.
- Structured documentation tags describe parameters, return types, exceptions, examples and deprecation notices.
- Supports Ruby Signature (.rbs) files, including documentation comments.
- Built-in hybrid renderer handles RDoc and Markdown formatting.
- Extensible handlers recognise custom Ruby constructs and domain-specific language declarations.
- Customisable templates control the layout and presentation of generated documentation.
- Local documentation server provides searchable documentation for projects and installed gems.
- Live reloading helps developers preview changes to documentation.
- Organises methods into groups and preserves metadata associated with documented objects.
- Supports documentation coverage analysis and related quality checks through extensions.
- Provides serialised documentation data for reuse by other tools.
Website: github.com/lsegal/yard
Support:
Developer: Loren Segal and contributors
License: MIT License
YARD is written in Ruby. Learn Ruby with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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