Application: government-frontend

Serves government pages on GOV.UK

• GitHub: government-frontend
• Ownership: #govuk-navigation-tech
• Category: Frontend apps
• Links:
  • Sentry (error tracking)
  • App dashboard: request rates, errors, durations
  • Component guide
  • Kibana App Logs (Production, last 3 hours)
  • Kibana Worker Logs (Production, last 3 hours)
  • Argo CD (government-frontend)
  • Argo CD (draft-government-frontend)

Relevant manual pages

• Add an organisation’s brand colour or logo
• Setup maintenance mode

Example pages published by government-frontend

• History of the UK government

Example pages rendered by government-frontend

• Car driving test
• Giving notice of possession to tenants before 1 May 2026
• MOT inspection manual: motorcycles
• Renting out your property: guidance for landlords and letting agents
• Introduction
• 6. Structure and attachments
• 4. Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment
• Create digital records
• Ending a tenancy
• 5. Wheels, tyres and suspension

README

Government Frontend is a public-facing app to display the majority of documents on the /government part of GOV.UK, which are fetched from the Content Store. It is a replacement for the public-facing parts of the Whitehall application.

Schemas

Schema	Live example
Consultation	View on GOV.UK
Contacts	View on GOV.UK
Corporate information page	View on GOV.UK
HTML Publication	View on GOV.UK
Publication	View on GOV.UK
Specialist document	View on GOV.UK
Statistics announcement	View on GOV.UK
Topical event about page	View on GOV.UK
Working group	View on GOV.UK
Worldwide corporate information page	View on GOV.UK
Worldwide office	View on GOV.UK
Worldwide organisation	View on GOV.UK

Technical documentation

This is a Ruby on Rails app, and should follow our Rails app conventions.

You can use the GOV.UK Docker environment or the local startup.sh script to run the app. Read the guidance on local frontend development to find out more about each approach, before you get started.

If you are using GOV.UK Docker, remember to combine it with the commands that follow. See the GOV.UK Docker usage instructions for examples.

Running the test suite

bundle install
yarn install
bundle exec rake

Components

Pages are rendered using components. Components can be specific to government-frontend or shared between applications.

Components specific to government-frontend are within the application and follow rules set out by the govuk_publishing_components gem. They are documented in the government-frontend component guide.

Further documentation

• Webchat

Licence

MIT License