A documentation migration checklist needs to cover routes, source ownership, custom components, generated content, redirects, search, accessibility, analytics, deployment, and the editor workflow that remains after launch.
Inventory the site before choosing a conversion path
The starting crawl records every indexable route, title, canonical URL, status, inbound link, navigation location, content source, owner, page type, and last meaningful update. Repository inspection adds custom components, generated reference inputs, build plugins, search configuration, analytics, and deployment steps that a public crawl cannot see.
Each page then receives a proposed action: port, merge, redirect, retire, or hold for an owner. The action remains a proposal until the buyer approves it. GitBook warns that imported content can vary when source and target formats differ, so representative component and formatting gaps need proof before a bulk conversion begins.
Make routes and components first-class migration records
A page can retain its words and still fail after migration because code tabs, callouts, API explorers, reusable includes, version selectors, diagrams, or generated fields changed behavior. The component map records the source form, target equivalent, fallback, content count, and review method for every nonstandard element.
The route map pairs each old URL with its target and action. A permanent move receives a server-side redirect, a merged page identifies its new canonical destination, and a retired page gets an approved response rather than falling into an accidental 404. Query parameters, anchors, trailing slashes, and locale prefixes need explicit treatment.
Accept the new site through builds and reader paths
The final checklist combines a clean production build with content-parity samples, redirect tests, internal and external link checks, metadata and sitemap checks, search queries, keyboard and screen-reader checks, analytics events, and representative reader tasks. The buyer also verifies that an editor can change, preview, review, and publish a page using the handed-off workflow.
Where the service stops
Reality Contact, LLC migrates and validates the agreed documentation corpus, but does not decide product policy, invent missing API behavior, approve legal or security content, publish private documentation publicly, or switch the production domain without buyer authorization. The buyer approves keep, merge, retire, route, component, and access decisions, supplies content owners, and switches or authorizes the production domain after build, redirect, accessibility, and parity checks pass. The work is documentation implementation and document preparation, and it does not replace legal, security, accessibility, compliance, or product advice. The buyer owns every content, access, route, retirement, component, claim, and production-domain decision.
Sources: ReadMe migration process; GitBook import guidance.