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Getting Started

This guide walks you through onboarding your first repository and publishing a site on Stele.

Prerequisites

  • An @axelerant.com Google account
  • A GitHub repository within an Axelerant org that has the Stele GitHub App installed

Onboarding a repository

  1. Sign in at stele.axelerant.tech using your Axelerant Google account.
  2. Click "Add repository" and select a repo from the list. Only repositories visible to the Stele GitHub App appear here.
  3. Confirm the slug. Stele derives a default slug from the org and repo name (see slug rules below). You can override it if you prefer something different.
  4. Optionally choose a branch. The default is your repo's default branch (usually main). If your content lives on a different branch, select it here.
  5. Create the site. Stele performs an initial sync — it fetches your repo, indexes content, and builds the site. When the sync completes, your site is live.

Your site is now available at:

https://<slug>.stele.axelerant.tech

What gets published

Without any configuration, Stele indexes every .md, .html, .tsx, and .jsx file in your repository, along with sibling assets (images, CSS, fonts, etc.). It respects your .gitignore and skips hidden directories.

If your repo has a README.md at the root, it becomes your site's home page automatically.

Updating your site

There is no publish button. Every time you push to your tracked branch, Stele picks up the changes via a GitHub webhook and re-syncs. Your site updates within 60 seconds of a push.

git add .
git commit -m "Update docs"
git push

That's it. If the webhook misses a push for any reason, you can trigger a manual resync from the portal.

Retiring a site

A site you no longer need is archived, not deleted. Open the site in the portal and use Archive this site at the foot of its Overview tab.

An archived site:

  • keeps rendering, exactly as it was at its last sync, so its link keeps working for anyone who could see it before. The access setting, the share token and the viewer list still work. To close a site to people outside Axelerant, archive its repository on GitHub instead (see Revoking access);
  • stops syncing. Pushes are ignored and there is no resync, so deleting the repository on GitHub does not change the site;
  • has Ask switched off, and it cannot be switched on again while the site is archived;
  • is hidden from the site list. Use the Archived filter to find it.

Unarchive brings it back: Stele syncs it again straight away. Ask stays off until someone turns it on. If the repository has been deleted, or the Stele GitHub App no longer has access to it, the site stays archived.

Deleting a site for good is possible only once it has been archived for 90 days. That is how long Stele keeps Ask conversations, so by then its Ask history has expired. The site page then shows Delete permanently, which removes the site, its sync history, its Ask history and every file it stored. Nothing is deleted automatically: an archive kept for the record stays until someone deletes it. The Ready for cleanup filter on the site list shows the archived sites that can now be deleted.

Archiving, unarchiving and deleting need the same permission. Staff can do them on sites they created; privileged and admin on any site.

How slugs are derived

When you don't set a custom slug, Stele derives one from your GitHub org and repo name:

Repository Default slug
axelerant/stele stele
axelerant-team/handbook team-handbook
axelerant-team/design-system team-design-system

Rules:

  • If the org is exactly axelerant, the slug is the repo name.
  • If the org starts with axelerant-, the prefix is stripped and combined with the repo name.
  • Only lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens are allowed. Other characters become hyphens.

You can always override the slug at onboarding time or in your .stele.yml configuration.

Optional configuration

Stele works with zero configuration, but you can customise behaviour by adding a .stele.yml file to the root of your repository. See the Configuration Reference for the full schema.

Next steps