[COPILOT TEST] Refactor cumulative docs index to follow overview content type template

[Copilot]

[[[JUST A TEST]]]

Refactor cumulative docs index page to follow overview template

Summary

Successfully refactored /contribute-docs/how-to/cumulative-docs/index.md to follow the overview content type template and best practices. This is the first page in the cumulative docs section to be updated as requested in the issue.

Changes Completed

Structure and Organization

• Added proper frontmatter (type: overview, applies_to tags, description)
• Restructured introduction following overview template
• Added "Use cases" section (when cumulative docs are valuable)
• Reorganized into "Benefits" section (for readers and contributors)
• Improved "How it works" section with clear subsections
• Added "Key concepts" section with terminology definitions
• Converted "Key principles" to tip box for contributor guidance
• Enhanced "Next steps" section with clear navigation
• Added "Related pages" section with relevant links
• Removed development warning note

Content Improvements

• Applied inverted pyramid approach (most important info first)
• Improved clarity and flow throughout the page
• Added definitions for key terms (applies_to tags, dynamic rendering, etc.)
• Better structured the tagging system explanation
• Enhanced accessibility with descriptive image alt text

Bug Fixes

• Preserved anchor how-do-these-tags-behave-in-the-output for cross-document links
• Fixed build errors related to missing anchor references

Validation

• Reviewed changes against overview template
• Ensured content follows overview best practices
• Verified all links and images exist
• Addressed code review feedback
• Fixed build errors
• All commits pushed successfully

Alignment with Content Types Guidelines

The refactored page now includes all required elements for an overview:

• ✅ Proper frontmatter with type: overview, description, and applies_to
• ✅ Clear title and introduction
• ✅ Use cases section
• ✅ How it works section
• ✅ Key concepts section
• ✅ Next steps section
• ✅ Related pages section
• ✅ Preserved backward compatibility with existing cross-references

Next Steps

As noted in the issue, this PR focuses on the index/overview page. Future PRs can address:

• guidelines.md - Should be reference/decision guide content type
• badge-placement.md - Should be how-to content type
• example-scenarios.md - Should be how-to/tutorial hybrid
• reference.md - Already reference type, may need refinement

Original prompt

---

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>[COPILOT TEST ISSUE] Update the cumulative docs guidelines</issue_title>
<issue_description>## Background

We have a bunch of docs about the cumulative docs framework at Elastic and the applies to mechanism for writing versioned docs:

https://www.elastic.co/docs/contribute-docs/how-to/cumulative-docs
https://www.elastic.co/docs/contribute-docs/how-to/cumulative-docs/guidelines
https://www.elastic.co/docs/contribute-docs/how-to/cumulative-docs/badge-placement
https://www.elastic.co/docs/contribute-docs/how-to/cumulative-docs/example-scenarios
https://www.elastic.co/docs/contribute-docs/how-to/cumulative-docs/reference

Task

To test out our new content types guidelines and templates concretely, please read those pages and refactor them based on the guidelines/templates.

You'll need to review all the pages in this folder:

https://github.com/elastic/docs-content/tree/main/contribute-docs/content-types/

The algorithm should be to:

• familiarize yourself broadly with the content types
• check what type of page each of those https://www.elastic.co/docs/contribute-docs/how-to/cumulative-docs* belong to
• diagnose issues with those pages and refactor accordingly

Start with one PR for the index/overview page and let's see how it goes </issue_description>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

• Fixes [COPILOT TEST ISSUE] Update the cumulative docs guidelines #5007

---

✨ Let Copilot coding agent set things up for you — coding agent works faster and does higher quality work when set up for your repo.

[github-actions]

Vale Linting Results

Summary: 1 suggestion found

💡 Suggestions (1)

File	Line	Rule	Message
contribute-docs/how-to/cumulative-docs/index.md	127	Elastic.WordChoice	Consider using 'refer to (if it's a document), view (if it's a UI element)' instead of 'see', unless the term is in the UI.

---

The Vale linter checks documentation changes against the Elastic Docs style guide.

To use Vale locally or report issues, refer to Elastic style guide for Vale.

[leemthompo]

@copilot you have build errors:

Error: `how-do-these-tags-behave-in-the-output` does not exist in contribute-docs/how-to/cumulative-docs/index.md.
    ┌─[/github/workspace/contribute-docs/_snippets/stack-serverless-lifecycle-example.md]
    │
 11 │ Because these changes need to be published as soon as the feature is released in Serverless, you might need to publish your docs before the feature is available in the {{stack}}. To allow for this, Docs V3 [displays badges differently](/contribute-docs/how-to/cumulative-docs/index.md#how-do-these-tags-behave-in-the-output) when the `applies_to` tag specifies a product version that has not yet been released to customers.
    ·                                                                                                                                                                                                              ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────                                                                                                                                   
    ·                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
    │
    └─
 
Error: `how-do-these-tags-behave-in-the-output` does not exist in contribute-docs/how-to/cumulative-docs/index.md.
    ┌─[/github/workspace/contribute-docs/_snippets/stack-serverless-lifecycle-example.md]
    │
 11 │ Because these changes need to be published as soon as the feature is released in Serverless, you might need to publish your docs before the feature is available in the {{stack}}. To allow for this, Docs V3 [displays badges differently](/contribute-docs/how-to/cumulative-docs/index.md#how-do-these-tags-behave-in-the-output) when the `applies_to` tag specifies a product version that has not yet been released to customers.
    ·                                                                                                                                                                                                              ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────                                                                                                                                   

[Copilot]

@copilot you have build errors:

...

Fixed in f0c03ba. I restored the anchor [how-do-these-tags-behave-in-the-output] to the "Version configuration and dynamic rendering" section that was inadvertently removed during refactoring. This anchor is referenced by /contribute-docs/_snippets/stack-serverless-lifecycle-example.md.

[github-actions]

🔍 Preview links for changed docs

• contribute-docs/how-to/cumulative-docs/index.md

[leemthompo]

testing complete