Microsoft Learn is changing how it manages public documentation repositories. Learn what the changes mean for GitHub contributors and where to continue sharing feedback.

If you contribute to Microsoft Learn documentation through GitHub, here’s what you need to know about upcoming changes to our public documentation repositories and what they mean for your contributions.

Over the coming months, Microsoft Learn will retire most public repositories associated with product documentation. As a guiding principle, documentation repositories associated with open-source products, projects, or communities are expected to remain open to public contributions. This change applies only to Microsoft Learn documentation repositories. It does not affect product source code repositories or sample code repositories.

Our goal is to maintain trusted, high-quality technical content for customers while establishing clearer criteria for when documentation repositories remain open to public contributions.

How repository retirement decisions will be made

Microsoft Learn will evaluate public documentation repositories based on several factors, including contribution activity, community engagement, business needs, and operational dependencies.

When a repository is approved for retirement, it will no longer be publicly accessible or visible. Members of the public will no longer be able to view Microsoft's repository history, pull requests, or issues. Personal forks will still be accessible.

What contributors can expect

For documentation repositories that remain open to external contributions, the contribution experience will not change. Contributors can continue using existing GitHub workflows to submit corrections, updates, and other improvements.

Before retiring a repository, Microsoft Learn will evaluate its open pull requests and GitHub issues through the existing process. Contributors with open contributions will receive repository-specific updates through GitHub comments.

Microsoft Learn has begun retiring public documentation repositories with smaller footprints and expects to retire the relevant repositories by the end of December 2026.

If you have an open contribution, watch the associated pull request or issue for updates.

How to continue sharing feedback

Community feedback remains an important part of improving Microsoft Learn documentation. If you want to provide documentation feedback after a repository retires, you can continue sharing questions and feedback through:

• Microsoft Q&A
• Feedback options available on Microsoft Learn pages
• Microsoft community forums

These channels provide ways to report documentation concerns, ask questions, and participate in technical community discussions after a public documentation repository has been retired.

Our continued commitment to the community

We sincerely thank everyone who has contributed to Microsoft Learn documentation. Community members have corrected errors, clarified technical concepts, suggested improvements, and made substantial content updates. These contributions have helped make Microsoft Learn documentation more accurate and useful for customers around the world.

Although the availability of some public documentation repositories is changing, our commitment to trusted, high-quality technical content and meaningful community feedback remains unchanged.

If you currently contribute through GitHub, continue following your open pull requests and issues for repository-specific notifications. You can also use Microsoft Q&A, feedback options on Microsoft Learn pages, and Microsoft community forums to continue sharing feedback.