THE GITHTML FIELD GUIDE
Find actual HTML documents in a GitHub repository
Look for tracked files ending in .html, then inspect representative files to determine whether they contain complete documents. The filename alone does not prove that a page is independently readable. For gitHtml, this distinction matters because repository syncing indexes .html files rather than converting Markdown, templates, or .htm files.
Search the recorded file list
At the repository root, use git ls-tree -r --name-only HEAD to inspect paths in the current commit. If the listing is long, narrow it to a known directory before searching for HTML filenames. Keep the revision in your notes so the result can be reproduced.
Do not confuse files visible in a local build folder with files already recorded in the repository. A reader syncing repository content cannot discover an output that exists only on your laptop.
Distinguish documents from templates
Open a likely page as source. A complete document should have meaningful text and a coherent structure, although a doctype or title alone is not enough. Template expressions, empty application roots, and large script loaders are clues that another build or runtime step may be necessary.
Compare one short page and one complex page. Documentation collections sometimes mix hand-written HTML with generated screens. A successful opening of the simplest example does not establish compatibility for the rest of the collection.
git ls-tree -r --name-only HEADMake a candidate inventory
For each candidate, record path, visible title, purpose, dependencies, and status. Use concrete statuses such as standalone text, needs neighboring assets, requires browser application, or source only. This makes the next decision explicit instead of treating every HTML extension as equivalent.
A practical initial checklist is: locate a .html path, confirm it contains the intended prose, identify linked CSS and images, and try reading with scripts disabled. Preserve any missing-content observations alongside the filename.
Choose the smallest useful output
If the repository contains only Markdown, generate HTML locally with an appropriate tool and have the owner decide where the output belongs. Do not rename a Markdown file to .html and expect its syntax to become a rendered document.
For a portable reading copy, prefer a complete HTML page with inline CSS and essential content already present in the markup. Keep elaborate generated sites available in their proper environment, and export a focused companion document when a full application is unnecessary.
Sources and further reading
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