# Improvements about Bnd Manual / Documentation
**URL:** https://bnd.discourse.group/t/improvements-about-bnd-manual-documentation/530
**Category:** TIPS
**Created:** [July 9, 2025, 4:30pm UTC](https://bnd.discourse.group/t/improvements-about-bnd-manual-documentation/530 "2025-07-09T16:30:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@chrisrueger](https://bnd.discourse.group/u/chrisrueger)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2025, 4:30pm UTC](https://bnd.discourse.group/t/improvements-about-bnd-manual-documentation/530/1 "2025-07-09T16:30:01Z")
The bnd manual did grow and improve recently, because it is now partly generated from the bnd Java Source Code, specifically the pages for Headers, Instructions and Commands on those overviews:
- [Headers | bnd](https://bnd.bndtools.org/chapters/800-headers.html)
- [Instruction Index | bnd](https://bnd.bndtools.org/chapters/825-instructions-ref.html)
- [bnd CLI Commands | bnd](https://bnd.bndtools.org/chapters/400-commands.html#reference)
**Highlights:**
- There should be more pages and also pages with more information than before in a more consistent structure.
- Headers and Instructions are now generated from [Syntax.java](https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/blob/master/biz.aQute.bndlib/src/aQute/bnd/help/Syntax.java) which contains a lot of information and is also used for Tooltips in BndEditor Source View
- Commands are generated from [bnd.java](https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/blob/master/biz.aQute.bnd/src/aQute/bnd/main/bnd.java) which is basically the bnd CLI and contains all the commands and lots of Annotations with descriptions for parameters, sub-commands etc.
- There is an extension mechanism so that we can still add custom manual content for each generated page. You notice this, because the source-code snippets which are present on a lot of pages are still there.
- There is [bnd/docs/generate.sh at master · bndtools/bnd · GitHub](https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/blob/master/docs/generate.sh) which needs to be run to re-generate the pages (the process is documented here [bnd/docs at master · bndtools/bnd · GitHub](https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/tree/master/docs#generating-some-pages-for-headers-and-instructions))
PR was [bnd manual: Generate Header / Instructions / Commands via bnd CLI by chrisrueger · Pull Request #6659 · bndtools/bnd · GitHub](https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6659)
**Future work:**
There are still some pages which for historical reasons display only some code snippets as explanantion. Those could still benefit from some prose and examples. There is currently PR [Finetune docs with Copilot by chrisrueger · Pull Request #6663 · bndtools/bnd · GitHub](https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/pull/6663) to address this.
## Help is welcome
If you want to change anything in the bnd manual
- first have a look at check out this page: [bnd/docs at master · bndtools/bnd · GitHub](https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/tree/master/docs#generating-some-pages-for-headers-and-instructions)
- If it is about bnd Headers or Instructions have a look at [Syntax.java](https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/blob/master/biz.aQute.bndlib/src/aQute/bnd/help/Syntax.java)
- for bnd CLI commands check [bnd.java](https://github.com/bndtools/bnd/blob/master/biz.aQute.bnd/src/aQute/bnd/main/bnd.java) and all those annotations like `@Description`
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### Author:  [@kriegfrj](https://bnd.discourse.group/u/kriegfrj)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2025, 4:16am UTC](https://bnd.discourse.group/t/improvements-about-bnd-manual-documentation/530/2 "2025-07-16T04:16:01Z")
This is a big, tedious, but important job. Thank you so much for taking it on.