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Project Welcome Pages

4 posts · Aug 2014 – Jul 2025

What this trail covers

Visual Studio project homepages now support a 'Welcome' tab, configurable via Markdown files (README.md) checked into version control. This feature allows teams to easily maintain project documentation alongside their code, with support for GitHub Flavored Markdown rendering. For TFVC projects, additional Markdown files in the root of the Team Project folder are navigable. For Git projects, the left-hand navigation displays repositories for documentation selection. The rendering is powered by the Markdown renderer. This post introduces the general availability of Markdown support for large text fields in work items, allowing users to opt-in to use a Markdown editor for individual work items and fields. It covers best-effort conversion of existing HTML to Markdown, sticky editor preferences for new work items, and automatic conversion of pasted HTML. The REST API also supports setting the format to Markdown via the `/multilineFieldsFormat` setting.

All Microsoft trails
  1. Markdown Support Arrives for Work ItemsIntroduces general availability of Markdown support for large text fields in Azure DevOps work items. Users can opt-in to use a Markdown editor for individual work items and fields. Existing HTML content is converted to Markdown with a best-effort approach, and this conversion is irreversible. New work items default to the user's last chosen editor preference (HTML or Markdown). Pasted HTML into a Markdown field is automatically converted. The REST API supports setting the field format to 'Markdown' via the `/multilineFieldsFormat` path in patch operations.
  2. Announcement: Publish markdown files from your git repository to VSTS WikiThis post introduces the capability to publish markdown files from a git repository directly to VSTS Wiki. This feature addresses challenges with discoverability, ordering, versioning, and searchability of documentation residing in code repositories. It enables mapping a git repository folder to a VSTS Wiki, with automatic updates reflecting changes in the repository. The post details how to publish multiple versions from different branches, reorder pages using a .ORDER file, promote git folders to wiki pages, and unpublish wikis. The search index is populated for the first published branch.
  3. What's new in VSTS Sprint 121 UpdateThis post announces the public preview of Wiki in VSTS, which uses markdown syntax for creating pages to document projects. It also highlights the integration of Ansible for Release, improvements to branch management for identifying stale branches, pull request extensibility in public preview, and enhanced exploratory testing traceability for work item links, iterations, and area paths.
  4. Announcing public preview of Wiki in Visual Studio Team ServicesThis post announces the public preview of Wiki functionality within Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS). It details how each VSTS project can now have its own Wiki, with pages stored in a Git repository. The Wiki supports rich editing using Markdown, allows for page organization through drag-and-drop in a tree view, and provides revision history for tracking changes. It also mentions the deprecation of the existing Wiki extension and provides a migration tool for users to transfer their pages to the new VSTS Wiki. Future features like cross-project search, tags, and work item integration are also outlined.
  5. Project Welcome PagesIntroduced the 'Project Welcome Pages' feature to Visual Studio Online, enabling project homepages to display a 'Welcome' tab. This tab is configured by checking in a README.md file into the root of a TFVC Team Project folder or the default branch of a Git repository. The feature leverages the 'marked' JavaScript library for rendering GitHub Flavored Markdown, including code blocks and tables. Additional Markdown files in TFVC project roots are also navigable.