📍 NOTE
RubyGems (the GitHub org, not the website) suffered a hostile takeover in September 2025.
Ultimately 4 maintainers were hard removed and a reason has been given for only 1 of those, while 2 others resigned in protest.
It is a complicated story which is difficult to parse quickly.
I'm adding notes like this to gems because I don't condone theft of repositories or gems from their rightful owners.
If a similar theft happened with my repos/gems, I'd hope some would stand up for me.
Disenfranchised former-maintainers have started gem.coop.
Once available I will publish there exclusively; unless RubyCentral makes amends with the community.
The "Technology for Humans: Joel Draper" podcast episode by reinteractive is the most cogent summary I'm aware of.
See here, here and here for more info on what comes next.
What I'm doing: A (WIP) proposal for bundler/gem scopes, and a (WIP) proposal for a federated gem server.

🥨 Yard::Yaml

if ci_badges.map(&:color).detect { it != "green"} ☝️ let me know, as I may have missed the discord notification.

---

if ci_badges.map(&:color).all? { it == "green"} 👇️ send money so I can do more of this. FLOSS maintenance is now my full-time job.

🌻 Synopsis

To enable the yard-yaml plugin add it to your Gemfile, and then add the following line to your .yardopts file:

--plugin yaml

This will activate the plugin during the yard doc generation process, converting YAML (including CFF) files to HTML.

💡 Info you can shake a stick at

Tokens to Remember
Works with JRuby
Works with Truffle Ruby
Works with MRI Ruby 3
Support & Community
Source
Documentation
Compliance
Style
Maintainer 🎖️
... 💖	🧊 🐙 🛖 🧪

Compatibility

Compatible with MRI Ruby 3.2.0+, and concordant releases of JRuby, and TruffleRuby.

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👟 Check it out!	✨ github.com/appraisal-rb/appraisal2 ✨

Federated DVCS

Find this repo on federated forges (Coming soon!)

Federated DVCS Repository	Status	Issues	PRs	Wiki	CI	Discussions
🧪 galtzo-floss/yard-yaml on GitLab	The Truth	💚	💚	💚	🐭 Tiny Matrix	➖
🧊 galtzo-floss/yard-yaml on CodeBerg	An Ethical Mirror (Donate)	💚	💚	➖	⭕️ No Matrix	➖
🐙 galtzo-floss/yard-yaml on GitHub	Another Mirror	💚	💚	💚	💯 Full Matrix	💚
🎮️ Discord Server		Let's	talk	about	this	library!

Enterprise Support

Available as part of the Tidelift Subscription.

Need enterprise-level guarantees?

The maintainers of this and thousands of other packages are working with Tidelift to deliver commercial support and maintenance for the open source packages you use to build your applications. Save time, reduce risk, and improve code health, while paying the maintainers of the exact packages you use.

• 💡Subscribe for support guarantees covering all your FLOSS dependencies
• 💡Tidelift is part of Sonar
• 💡Tidelift pays maintainers to maintain the software you depend on!
  📊@Pointy Haired Boss: An enterprise support subscription is "never gonna let you down", and supports open source maintainers

Alternatively:

• 
• 
• 

✨ Installation

Install the gem and add to the application's Gemfile by executing:

bundle add yard-yaml

If bundler is not being used to manage dependencies, install the gem by executing:

gem install yard-yaml

🔒 Secure Installation

For Medium or High Security Installations

This gem is cryptographically signed, and has verifiable SHA-256 and SHA-512 checksums by stone_checksums. Be sure the gem you install hasn’t been tampered with by following the instructions below.

Add my public key (if you haven’t already, expires 2045-04-29) as a trusted certificate:

gem cert --add <(curl -Ls https://raw.github.com/galtzo-floss/certs/main/pboling.pem)

You only need to do that once. Then proceed to install with:

gem install yard-yaml -P HighSecurity

The HighSecurity trust profile will verify signed gems, and not allow the installation of unsigned dependencies.

If you want to up your security game full-time:

bundle config set --global trust-policy MediumSecurity

MediumSecurity instead of HighSecurity is necessary if not all the gems you use are signed.

NOTE: Be prepared to track down certs for signed gems and add them the same way you added mine.

⚙️ Configuration

The yard-yaml plugin supports the following configuration options:

• include: Array of file patterns to include (default: ["docs/**/*.y{a,}ml", "*.y{a,}ml", "docs/**/*.cff", "*.cff"]).
• exclude: Array of file patterns to exclude (default: ["**/_*.y{a,}ml", "**/_*.cff"]).
• out_dir: Output directory for YAML files (default: "yaml").
• index: Whether to generate an index page (default: true).
• toc: Table of contents generation mode (default: "auto").
• converter_options: Options passed to the YAML converter (default: {}).
• front_matter: Whether to parse front matter (default: true).
• strict: Raise errors on conversion failures (default: false).
• allow_erb: Allow ERB processing in YAML files (default: false).

Note: Citation File Format (.cff) files are valid YAML and are discovered by default without needing explicit globs.

Example .yardopts Configuration

--plugin yaml
--yard_yaml-include "examples//*.yml"
--yard_yaml-exclude "/drafts/*.yml"
--yard_yaml-out_dir "custom_output"
--yard_yaml-strict

🔧 Basic Usage

Inline Tags

The yard-yaml plugin introduces two new tags for use in docstrings:

1. @yaml: Embeds converted YAML content as HTML.
2. @yaml_file: Links to or embeds a converted YAML file.

Examples

@yaml Tag

# @yaml
# ---
# title: Example YAML
# description: This is an example YAML block.
# ---

@yaml_file Tag

# @yaml_file path/to/example.yml

Include .yml/.yaml files as pages

• Generate docs (plugin loads; discovery config comes from flags you pass):

  bundle exec yard

• Then emit converted pages into your YARD output dir (replace globs/output to match your project):

  ruby -r yard/yaml -e 'Yard::Yaml::Plugin.activate(%w[--yard_yaml-include docs/**/*.y{a,}ml --yard_yaml-exclude **/_*.y{a,}ml]); Yard::Yaml::Emitter.emit!(pages: Yard::Yaml.pages, output_dir: "docs", config: Yard::Yaml.config)'

  Result: docs/yaml/<slug>.html and docs/yaml/index.html (when index enabled). Front matter supports title, description, nav_order, optional slug.

Inline YAML in Markdown (GFM) fences

• In code object docstrings, prefer the tags above; they convert and render after the docstring via this plugin’s theme hook.
• In standalone Markdown pages, fenced ```yaml blocks render as code by Markdown; this plugin doesn’t auto‑convert them yet. Use either:
  • Link to an emitted page (after emission), e.g. [See config](./yaml/config.html).
  • Pre‑convert and paste HTML (Kramdown allows raw HTML):

    ruby -r yard/yaml -e 'print Yard::Yaml::Converter.from_string(File.read(ARGV[0]))[:html]' path/to/file.yml > tmp.html

    Then paste the HTML (optionally wrapped in <div class="yyaml-inline">…</div>).

Quickstart — YARD YAML Plugin

Add the plugin and run YARD to integrate YAML into your documentation workflow.

1. Install dependencies

bundle install

2. Configure .yardopts

Minimal example (adjust globs/output for your project):

--plugin yaml
--markup markdown
--markup-provider kramdown
--output docs
--yard_yaml-include docs/**/*.y{a,}ml
--yard_yaml-exclude **/_*.y{a,}ml
--yard_yaml-out_dir yaml
--yard_yaml-index

NOTE: This gem uses --plugin fence -e yard/fence/hoist.rb for its own documentation. yaml-fence hoists fenced blocks inside code object docstrings, so that they are transformed to UNICODE fences before YARD sees them, to avoid the InvalidLink warnings, but does not convert YAML fences.

3. Generate API docs & collect YAML (discovery only)

Running yard loads the plugin but does not auto-emit standalone YAML pages. Discovery + conversion occur only when you explicitly activate and emit.

bundle exec yard

4. Emit standalone YAML pages (manual step)

Invoke activation + emission in a separate Ruby process (pass the same flags you used in .yardopts so discovery matches):

ruby -r yard/yaml -e 'Yard::Yaml::Plugin.activate(%w[--yard_yaml-include docs/**/*.y{a,}ml --yard_yaml-exclude **/_*.y{a,}ml --yard_yaml-out_dir yaml --yard_yaml-index]); Yard::Yaml::Emitter.emit!(pages: Yard::Yaml.pages, output_dir: "docs", config: Yard::Yaml.config)'

Result:

• Pages written to docs/yaml/<slug>.html
• Index (if enabled) at docs/yaml/index.html
• Sidebar entries (via theme hooks) link to these pages

5. Inline YAML in code object docstrings

Preferred: use tags.

# @yaml
# ---
# title: Inline Example
# description: Demonstrates inline conversion.
# ---
# a: 1
# b: 2

# @yaml_file docs/config/app.yml

Theme hooks insert converted HTML right after the main docstring. Strict mode governs failure behavior.

6. YAML in Markdown (GFM) fenced blocks

Standalone Markdown pages (e.g. README sections) treat:

```yaml
key: value
```

as a code block. This plugin does NOT yet auto-convert fenced YAML in arbitrary Markdown pages.

Workarounds:

• Link to emitted page: [Full Config](./yaml/config.html)
• Pre-convert & paste HTML:

  ruby -r yard/yaml -e 'print Yard::Yaml::Converter.from_string(File.read(ARGV[0]))[:html]' docs/config/app.yml > tmp.html

  Paste the resulting HTML (Kramdown allows raw HTML). Optionally wrap:

  <div class="yyaml-inline">(converted YAML html here)</div>

Front Matter Support

Example docs/config/app.yml:

---
# Front matter fields consumed by yaml-converter
title: Application Configuration
nav_order: 10
description: Core settings
slug: app-config
---
app:
  name: demo
  enabled: true

Parsed fields:

• title, description for page heading & sidebar
• nav_order for ordering
• slug overrides derived slug

Strict Mode & Safety

• --yard_yaml-strict=true: raise Yard::Yaml::Error on missing file, conversion, or write errors.
• Default (non-strict): warn and skip.
• ERB disabled by default (allow_erb=false); enable only if you trust sources: --yard_yaml-allow_erb=true.

Converter Options

Customize yaml-converter behavior (example):

--yard_yaml-converter_options pretty:true,wrap:80

Boolean/number coercion is handled automatically.

Why not yaml-markdown?

Unnecessary here. YARD already processes Markdown via --markup markdown --markup-provider kramdown. This plugin focuses on YAML discovery, conversion, tagging, and emission, leveraging the yaml-converter dependency.

Limitations & Roadmap

Current limitations:

• No automatic emission during yard run (manual step required)
• No automatic conversion of fenced YAML in standalone Markdown pages
• Minimal default HTML for emitted pages (simple inline styles)

Planned improvements (subject to change):

• Automatic emission hook in the generation pipeline
• Optional fenced YAML auto-conversion in Markdown
• Enhanced theming & TOC modes beyond auto
• Search integration across YAML content

Troubleshooting Quick Reference

Symptom	Fix
Sidebar links 404	Run emission step (Step 4)
Missing expected YAML page	Verify include/exclude globs & rerun emission
Inline tag shows empty	Ensure YAML content is valid; check strict mode warnings
Fenced YAML not converted	Use tags or pre-convert & paste HTML
ERB ignored	Enable --yard_yaml-allow_erb=true (security trade-off)
Build fails in strict mode	Rerun without strict to inspect warnings

🦷 FLOSS Funding

While galtzo-floss tools are free software and will always be, the project would benefit immensely from some funding. Raising a monthly budget of... "dollars" would make the project more sustainable.

We welcome both individual and corporate sponsors! We also offer a wide array of funding channels to account for your preferences (although currently Open Collective is our preferred funding platform).

If you're working in a company that's making significant use of galtzo-floss tools we'd appreciate it if you suggest to your company to become a galtzo-floss sponsor.

You can support the development of galtzo-floss tools via GitHub Sponsors, Liberapay, PayPal, Open Collective and Tidelift.

📍 NOTE
If doing a sponsorship in the form of donation is problematic for your company from an accounting standpoint, we'd recommend the use of Tidelift, where you can get a support-like subscription instead.

Open Collective for Individuals

Support us with a monthly donation and help us continue our activities. [Become a backer]

NOTE: kettle-readme-backers updates this list every day, automatically.

No backers yet. Be the first!

Open Collective for Organizations

Become a sponsor and get your logo on our README on GitHub with a link to your site. [Become a sponsor]

NOTE: kettle-readme-backers updates this list every day, automatically.

No sponsors yet. Be the first!

Another way to support open-source

I’m driven by a passion to foster a thriving open-source community – a space where people can tackle complex problems, no matter how small. Revitalizing libraries that have fallen into disrepair, and building new libraries focused on solving real-world challenges, are my passions. I was recently affected by layoffs, and the tech jobs market is unwelcoming. I’m reaching out here because your support would significantly aid my efforts to provide for my family, and my farm (11 🐔 chickens, 2 🐶 dogs, 3 🐰 rabbits, 8 🐈‍ cats).

If you work at a company that uses my work, please encourage them to support me as a corporate sponsor. My work on gems you use might show up in bundle fund.

I’m developing a new library, floss_funding, designed to empower open-source developers like myself to get paid for the work we do, in a sustainable way. Please give it a look.

Floss-Funding.dev: 👉️ No network calls. 👉️ No tracking. 👉️ No oversight. 👉️ Minimal crypto hashing. 💡 Easily disabled nags

🔐 Security

See SECURITY.md.

🤝 Contributing

If you need some ideas of where to help, you could work on adding more code coverage, or if it is already 💯 (see below) check reek, issues, or PRs, or use the gem and think about how it could be better.

We so if you make changes, remember to update it.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for more detailed instructions.

🚀 Release Instructions

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Code Coverage

🪇 Code of Conduct

Everyone interacting with this project's codebases, issue trackers, chat rooms and mailing lists agrees to follow the .

🌈 Contributors

Made with contributors-img.

Also see GitLab Contributors: https://gitlab.com/galtzo-floss/yard-yaml/-/graphs/main

⭐️ Star History

📌 Versioning

This Library adheres to . Violations of this scheme should be reported as bugs. Specifically, if a minor or patch version is released that breaks backward compatibility, a new version should be immediately released that restores compatibility. Breaking changes to the public API will only be introduced with new major versions.

dropping support for a platform is both obviously and objectively a breaking change
—Jordan Harband (@ljharb, maintainer of SemVer) in SemVer issue 716

I understand that policy doesn't work universally ("exceptions to every rule!"), but it is the policy here. As such, in many cases it is good to specify a dependency on this library using the Pessimistic Version Constraint with two digits of precision.

For example:

spec.add_dependency("yard-yaml", "~> 1.0")

📌 Is "Platform Support" part of the public API? More details inside.

SemVer should, IMO, but doesn't explicitly, say that dropping support for specific Platforms is a breaking change to an API, and for that reason the bike shedding is endless.

To get a better understanding of how SemVer is intended to work over a project's lifetime, read this article from the creator of SemVer:

• "Major Version Numbers are Not Sacred"

See CHANGELOG.md for a list of releases.

📄 License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License . See LICENSE.txt for the official Copyright Notice.

© Copyright

• Copyright (c) 2025 Aboling0 & Peter H. Boling, of Galtzo.com , and yard-yaml contributors.

🤑 A request for help

Maintainers have teeth and need to pay their dentists. After getting laid off in an RIF in March, and encountering difficulty finding a new one, I began spending most of my time building open source tools. I'm hoping to be able to pay for my kids' health insurance this month, so if you value the work I am doing, I need your support. Please consider sponsoring me or the project.

To join the community or get help 👇️ Join the Discord.

To say "thanks!" ☝️ Join the Discord or 👇️ send money.

💌 💌 💌

Please give the project a star ⭐ ♥.

Thanks for RTFM. ☺️