Documentation

Generate professional compliance documentation in seven formats, with a live preview.

Create guides for auditors, technical teams, or management with customizable content and branding.

What Does Documentation Do?

Documentation generates comprehensive guides from your compliance baseline. Instead of manually writing documentation, MACE creates professional documents that include rule details, remediation steps, configuration profiles, and compliance references.

Documentation vs Build vs Audit

Build creates deployable files (scripts, profiles, DDM) for your MDM.

Audit checks a Mac's current compliance status.

Documentation creates human-readable guides explaining your compliance requirements.

Output Formats

📄

PDF

Professional document format. Ideal for sharing with auditors, printing for meetings, or archiving compliance documentation. Always US Letter, with page numbers, a clickable table of contents, and sidebar bookmarks. Pick a Light or Dark color scheme, or Both to get two files.

🌐

HTML

Web-based format. Opens in any browser, easy to share via email, and works well for internal team reference. Self-contained single file with all styles and the logo embedded. By default it follows the reader's light or dark system setting.

📊

XLSX

Excel workbook with a Compliance Rules sheet and an Info sheet, auto-filters, frozen panes, and optional row colors by rule status. Best for compliance teams who need to sort, filter, and work with rule data in a spreadsheet.

📝

Markdown

Lightweight text format that renders on GitHub, wikis, and most editors. Best for version-controlled documentation or internal knowledge bases.

📑

AsciiDoc

Structured authoring format popular for technical documentation and publishing toolchains. Converts cleanly to other formats and works well in docs-as-code workflows.

📊

CSV

Spreadsheet-friendly export of rule data. Import into Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers for custom filtering, sorting, and analysis.

🧩

JSON

Structured data format for automation and integrations. Feed rule content into custom tooling, dashboards, or other systems.

Live Preview

The Documentation Builder includes a live preview. Switch formats with the tabs at the top, toggle content and structure options in the sidebar, and the preview updates in real time — what you see is what you generate. Use Show Raw to inspect the underlying output.

Document Types

MACE offers six pre-configured document types, each designed for a different audience:

📚

Full Report

Everything enabled — the most comprehensive option.

• All rule content and discussions
• Check and fix commands
• Configuration profiles and DDM info
• Framework references and appendices
• Complete structure (ToC, glossary, quick reference)

📋

Compliance Guide

Policy-focused documentation for compliance teams and auditors.

• Rule discussions and rationale
• Fix commands and remediation steps
• Configuration profiles and DDM info
• Compliance framework references
• Section summaries with statistics

🔧

Technical Reference

Implementation-focused for IT administrators.

• Check and fix commands
• Configuration profile payloads
• DDM declaration details
• Technical implementation notes
• Command-focused format

🔧

Remediation Guide

Fix-focused guide for hands-on remediation.

• Remediation steps for each rule
• Fix commands and verification commands
• Minimal background — action-oriented
• Ideal for working through non-compliant settings

✅

Audit Report

Audit trail for evidence and assessments.

• Rule status and justifications
• Compliance framework mapping
• Suitable as an audit record
• Documents what was checked and the outcome

📊

Executive Summary

High-level overview for management.

• Compliance scope and coverage
• Key statistics and metrics
• Minimal technical details
• Stakeholder-friendly format
• Quick overview of requirements

Generating Documentation

1

Open your projectLoad a compliance project with your selected baseline and rules

2

Click DocumentationUse the Documentation button in the editor's bottom bar

3

Select engineIn the Select Engine sheet, M.A.C.E. Docs is preselected. mSCP Docs runs the original Python scripts

4

Choose document typePick one of the six types: Full Report, Compliance Guide, Technical Reference, Remediation Guide, Audit Report, or Executive Summary. Each applies its own preset

5

Preview a formatSwitch between the HTML, PDF, Markdown, AsciiDoc, XLSX, CSV, and JSON tabs. The preview offers light and dark modes, zoom, search, and a raw view for text formats

6

Configure optionsCustomize content, structure, branding, and format options. Check Remember for Build Output to have builds generate documentation automatically

7

Click GeneratePick a single format from the Generate menu, or Generate All Formats… to write all seven into one folder. The save panel starts in Downloads

Documentation Engines

mSCP Documentation Engine

Runs mscp.py guidance with default options. Output lands in MSCP_Project_Files/build/ and overwrites earlier runs.

• Optional Markdown and Excel output
• Logo from the project's logo.png
• Generate All Artifacts and custom flags under Advanced

Official Scripts

M.A.C.E. Documentation Engine

The recommended engine. Fast, full-featured, and built into MACE.

• PDF, HTML, Markdown, AsciiDoc, XLSX, CSV, and JSON output
• Clickable table of contents
• Custom branding and colors
• All content options available

Fast & Customizable

What's in the Document?

A generated document includes multiple sections organized for easy reference:

📖Cover Page

Logo, title, subtitle, platform and version, date, and author line. Every piece can be turned off or edited under Branding.

📑Table of Contents

Clickable navigation to all sections. Optional detailed view with numbered sections and all rules listed.

📋Foreword & Scope

Introduction explaining what platform and compliance framework the document covers.

📊Section Summaries

Statistics for each section showing total rules, configurable rules, manual rules, and more.

📝Rule Details

Each rule with its ID, title, discussion, commands, profiles, and references. The core content of the document.

🔍Quick Reference Table

Appendix table listing all rules at a glance for quick lookup.

📚Glossary & Acronyms

Definitions of technical terms and abbreviations used in the document.