Wiki Page Type — How-To

A step-by-step procedural guide for completing a specific task.

What It Is

A how-to page is task-oriented. It starts from a clear precondition and ends at a clear outcome. It answers “how do I do X?” with numbered steps, not prose explanation.

When to Write One

• When a task has a non-obvious sequence of steps that is worth preserving.
• When you’ve done something manually and want to capture it so you don’t have to re-derive it.
• When an entity or concept page accumulates too many “how to use it” details — extract them into a how-to.

What It Contains

• One-sentence statement of what the guide accomplishes
• Prerequisites (what must be true before starting)
• Numbered steps
• Expected outcome
• Common failure modes or gotchas (optional but high value)
• Links to entity/concept pages for background

What It Is Not

• Not a concept page. If you’re explaining what something is rather than how to do it, write a concepts/ page.
• Not a reference page. Exhaustive parameter listings belong in entity pages or external docs.
• Not a comparison. “Should I use X or Y?” belongs in comparisons/.

Examples

• [[wiki/elastic/how-to/create-jira-issues-from-watcher]] — configure a Jira account and attach a Jira action to a watch
• [[wiki/knowledge-management/how-to/ingest-a-source]] — how to add a URL or file to the wiki

See Also

• wiki-page-type-concept — background understanding that often precedes a how-to
• wiki-page-type-entity — the named tools and services a how-to acts on
• wiki-schema — full schema this page type lives in