What Capable GitHub is

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GitHub for Confluence lets you put a file from a GitHub repository straight onto a Confluence page, where it renders live: code with syntax highlighting, Markdown as formatted text, diagrams as pictures, and images inline. It comes with one macro, "Github file (Capable)", which you add either from Confluence's macro browser or simply by pasting a GitHub file link into the editor.

Each person connects their own GitHub account, so people only ever see repositories they personally have access to. Public files need no connection at all and are visible to everyone, including logged-out readers.

You also get a page byline showing which GitHub files a page contains, a "Github" section in the Capable app for browsing every page that references GitHub files, and search columns and filters so you can find those pages. In Confluence it is GitHub-only. There is no GitLab or Bitbucket support, and no site-wide or admin-level GitHub connection.

A Confluence page with a GitHub file path above a rendered README, showing a banner image and formatted headings and text
A Markdown file from a repository renders as formatted text with its images in place, rather than as raw source.
A Confluence page with a byline showing two files, a GitHub file path, and a TypeScript file shown as code with line numbers
The file is fetched from the repository each time the page loads, so the code below the heading is whatever is on the branch now. Notice the file count in the byline.

#At a glance

A Confluence page with a GitHub file path above a C4 container diagram, drawn from a mermaid file, showing a user, a web application and services
A mermaid file in a repository arrives on the page as a drawn diagram rather than as its source text.

To see every page that uses GitHub files, open the Github section in the Capable app and choose All files.

The Capable app Github tab, with an All files list of pages and a details panel for the selected page showing its GitHub file
The All files list shows each page with GitHub files. Select a row and the panel on the right lists the files it contains.

#A few things worth knowing

  • Some of the macro's settings have no visible effect. Line numbers are always on, whatever Show Line Numbers says, and the Title is stored but never shown.

  • You will rarely meet those settings anyway. Editing the macro opens the Browse GitHub picker instead of a settings form.

  • Choosing a different file in the picker resets the macro's other settings to their defaults.

The short version.