Access Control

Password Authentication

Protect your documentation with a shared password.

Password authentication is available on Standard plans or higher.

Password authentication provides simple access control using a shared password. It does not support user-level personalization or individual user tracking.

Protection scope

Password authentication supports two modes:

All pages (full): Every page in your documentation requires the password.
Some pages (partial): A mix of public and protected pages. You configure which pages are public using the public property in your navigation.

Set up

Choose Private mode

In your dashboard, go to Settings > Access Control and select Private.

Select Password method

In Authentication Method, choose Password.

Choose protection scope

Select All pages to protect the entire site, or Some pages to make some pages public and protect the rest.

Set a password

Set a strong password.

If you already have a password configured, leaving the password field blank keeps the current password.
Use Clear password only if you intend to remove password protection.

Add optional helper text

Optionally add Helper text shown below the password prompt on your protected site. Use it to explain who should have access or where to request it.

Helper text supports simple markdown links in the form [label](https://example.com), which render as clickable links under the password field.

Save and re-publish

After saving your access control settings, re-publish your documentation so the deployed site uses the updated configuration.

Distribute access

Securely share the docs URL and password with authorized users.

Partial access control

When using the Some pages protection scope, Documentation.AI determines whether a page is public or protected using the public flag on navigation nodes.

Inheritance rules

Default: If no public flag is set anywhere, pages are treated as Protected in partial mode.
Closest wins: The closest (nearest) explicit public flag in the navigation tree determines the effective visibility for that node and its subtree.
Explicit override: A child node can override its parent by setting its own public flag.

Visibility values

Inherit: Do not set public on the node (the effective value comes from the nearest parent that has public).
Public: public: true
Protected: public: false

Configure public pages

You can make specific pages or groups public in two ways:

Use the Web Editor to visually configure which pages are public or protected.

Open the Web Editor

Navigate to your project dashboard and click on Editor to open the visual editor.

Navigate to the page or group

In the navigation panel, find the page or group you want to make public or protected.

Configure visibility

Click the visibility icon and change to Public, Protected, or Inherit.

Publish changes

After configuring visibility for your pages, publish your documentation to apply the changes.

Changes made in the Web Editor are automatically synced to your documentation.json file.

Configure the public property directly in your documentation.json file.

{
  "navigation": {
    "groups": [
      {
        "group": "Guides",
        "public": true,
        "pages": [
          {
            "title": "Overview",
            "path": "guides/overview"
          },
          {
            "title": "Internal Runbook",
            "path": "guides/internal-runbook",
            "public": false
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

public: true: Marks the node as public and makes its descendants public unless overridden.
public: false: Marks the node as protected and makes its descendants protected unless overridden.
No public field: The node inherits from its nearest parent. If no parent has it, the default is protected.

Open documentation.json

Open the documentation.json file in your code editor.

Add the public property

Add the public property to the navigation nodes you want to configure.

Commit and push

Commit your changes and push to your repository. The changes will be applied on your next deployment.

Example

You host documentation at docs.example.com and want basic access control without managing individual user accounts. Use Password authentication and share the password with authorized teammates.

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