CI/CD Integration

Publish documentation automatically on every git push. No config file or keyring needed — environment variables are all that’s required.

GitHub Actions

Using the Action (Recommended)

name: Publish Docs

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
    paths: ['docs/**']

jobs:
  publish:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6

      - name: Install outline-cli
        run: |
          curl -sL "https://github.com/Breee/outline-cli/releases/latest/download/outline_linux_amd64.tar.gz" | sudo tar xz -C /usr/local/bin outline

      - name: Push docs to Outline
        env:
          OUTLINE_SERVER_URL: ${{ vars.OUTLINE_URL }}
          OUTLINE_API_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.OUTLINE_API_TOKEN }}
        run: |
          outline push \
            --collection-id "Engineering" \
            --path ./docs/ \
            --create-collection

Setup

Go to your Outline instance → Settings → API → create a token
In your GitHub repo → Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions:
- Add secret: OUTLINE_API_TOKEN = your token
- Add variable: OUTLINE_URL = https://outline.example.com

GitLab CI

publish-docs:
  image: ghcr.io/breee/outline-cli:latest
  stage: deploy
  only:
    changes:
      - docs/**
    refs:
      - main
  script:
    - outline push --collection-id "$OUTLINE_COLLECTION" --path ./docs/ --create-collection
  variables:
    OUTLINE_SERVER_URL: https://outline.example.com
    # OUTLINE_API_TOKEN set in CI/CD settings

For reproducible pipelines, pin the image to a release tag such as ghcr.io/breee/outline-cli:vX.Y.Z.

Generic CI

For any CI system that can run shell commands:

#!/bin/bash
set -e

# Option 1: install the release binary
curl -sL "https://github.com/Breee/outline-cli/releases/latest/download/outline_linux_amd64.tar.gz" | tar xz -C /usr/local/bin

# Push (env vars must be set: OUTLINE_SERVER_URL, OUTLINE_API_TOKEN)
outline push --collection-id "${OUTLINE_COLLECTION}" --path ./docs/ --create-collection

Or use the published container image directly:

docker run --rm \
  -e OUTLINE_SERVER_URL \
  -e OUTLINE_API_TOKEN \
  -v "$PWD:/workspace" \
  -w /workspace \
  ghcr.io/breee/outline-cli:latest \
  push --collection-id "${OUTLINE_COLLECTION}" --path ./docs/ --create-collection

Swap latest for a release tag such as vX.Y.Z when you need a pinned CI environment.

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Description
`OUTLINE_SERVER_URL`	Yes	Outline server URL
`OUTLINE_API_TOKEN`	Yes	API token
`OUTLINE_COLLECTION`	No	Default collection (can use `--collection-id` flag instead)

Conditional Publishing

Only publish when docs actually change:

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
    paths:
      - 'docs/**'
      - '*.md'

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
`0`	All documents pushed successfully
`1`	Error (auth failure, network error, invalid config)

Use this for CI gates — a failed push breaks the build.

Metadata Headers Config File Reference