ReadMe docs monitoring

ReadMe is a hosted developer hub that combines guides, API references generated from OpenAPI, changelogs and discussion. URLs are built from categories, slugs and versions, and a good part of the interface is rendered in the browser.

How ReadMe sites typically break

Version forks copy problems forward. Creating a new version forks the existing pages. Links inside them keep pointing at the version they were written for, so the current version quietly links back into an older one.

Category and slug changes move pages. Renaming a page slug or moving it between categories changes the URL; check ReadMe's docs on whether a redirect from the old slug is created automatically. Links from the changelog, from emails and from your app keep the old path.

API reference pages depend on the spec. Endpoint pages are generated from the OpenAPI document; renaming an operation or changing its id can move the page other docs link to.

Client-rendered content hides problems from naive checkers. A plain HTTP link checker sees the hub shell without the content, reports nothing, and misses broken anchors that only exist after scripts run.

External links rot and are not re-checked after publishing.

What ReadMe checks for you, and what it misses

• Editor warnings for links to pages that do not exist in the current version; check ReadMe's docs for the current behaviour.
• OpenAPI validation on upload.
• It misses: external links, links between versions, anchors targeted from other sites, sitemap drift, orphan pages that were removed from categories but still published, soft 404s, and anything from a platform you migrated away from.

Setting up redirects on ReadMe

ReadMe lets admins define a redirect for any URL that has no page, under Admin Settings > Error Pages. Enter each old path and its new destination; check ReadMe's docs for whether path patterns are supported. If your hub is served behind your own reverse proxy, host-level rules from the redirect rules cheat sheet can cover paths ReadMe cannot.

The migration redirect checker turns an old sitemap into the list of old paths that now 404, with suggested targets and a CSV you can paste into ReadMe's settings.

How PathIntact monitors a ReadMe site

• Detection: ReadMe asset hosts and rm- class names; the hub is marked as needing JavaScript.
• Render mode: ReadMe is marked as needing JavaScript, so auto renders pages in Chromium on paid plans; on the Free plan the static HTML is used and client-rendered content is skipped.
• Versions: version segments such as /v2.0/ are detected as a versioning pattern for the old-version-link and cross-version canonical checks.
• Sitemap: ReadMe typically publishes a sitemap for hubs; PathIntact reports non-200 entries, noindex entries and drift.
• Anchors and API pages: fragment links are checked against ids in the rendered DOM, including generated endpoint pages.

Check my docs