Remove redundant documentation from /docs

[Liongrass]

Change Description

In an attempt to clean up the in-repository documentation, I propose to remove three older documents from lnd/docs.

etcd.md: Etcd support was introduced in v0.11 but never progressed beyond "experimental." We never recommended this feature and likely never will.
nat_traversal: While a useful feature, this kind of short guide would better be placed in the Builder's Guide repository
ruby-thing.rb: This file appears to be created to generated a Table of Contents. It was last edited eight years ago and I don't have a guess for what it could be useful for.

[gemini-code-assist]

Summary of Changes

Hello @Liongrass, I'm Gemini Code Assist¹! I'm currently reviewing this pull request and will post my feedback shortly. In the meantime, here's a summary to help you and other reviewers quickly get up to speed!

This pull request focuses on a documentation cleanup initiative within the lnd/docs directory. The primary goal is to remove outdated, experimental, or misplaced documentation files to streamline the repository's content. This effort ensures that the remaining documentation is relevant, current, and appropriately located, thereby improving the overall clarity and maintainability of the project's guides and references.

Highlights

• Removal of Experimental etcd Documentation: The docs/etcd.md file, detailing experimental etcd support, has been removed. This feature never progressed beyond an experimental stage and was never officially recommended for use.
• Relocation of NAT Traversal Guide: The docs/nat_traversal.md guide has been removed, as its content is deemed more suitable for the Builder's Guide repository, promoting better organization of documentation.
• Deletion of Obsolete Ruby Script: The docs/ruby-thing.rb script, which was last modified eight years ago and likely served to generate a Table of Contents, has been removed due to its apparent obsolescence and lack of current utility.

🧠 New Feature in Public Preview: You can now enable Memory to help Gemini Code Assist learn from your team's feedback. This makes future code reviews more consistent and personalized to your project's style. Click here to enable Memory in your admin console.

Changelog

• docs/etcd.md
  • Removed the documentation file for experimental etcd support, which was never fully adopted or recommended.
• docs/nat_traversal.md
  • Removed the NAT traversal guide, as it is better suited for the external Builder's Guide repository.
• docs/ruby-thing.rb
  • Deleted an old Ruby script, last edited eight years ago, that was likely used for generating a Table of Contents and is no longer relevant.

Activity

• The pull request was created by Liongrass to clean up redundant documentation.

Using Gemini Code Assist

The full guide for Gemini Code Assist can be found on our documentation page, here are some quick tips.

Invoking Gemini

You can request assistance from Gemini at any point by creating a comment using either /gemini <command> or @gemini-code-assist <command>. Below is a summary of the supported commands on the current page.

Feature	Command	Description
Code Review	/gemini review	Performs a code review for the current pull request in its current state.
Pull Request Summary	/gemini summary	Provides a summary of the current pull request in its current state.
Comment	@gemini-code-assist	Responds in comments when explicitly tagged, both in pull request comments and review comments.
Help	/gemini help	Displays a list of available commands.

Customization

To customize Gemini Code Assist for GitHub experience, repository maintainers can create a configuration file and/or provide a custom code review style guide (such as PEP-8 for Python) by creating and adding files to a .gemini/ folder in the base of the repository. Detailed instructions can be found here.

Limitations & Feedback

Gemini Code Assist may make mistakes. Please leave feedback on any instances where its feedback is incorrect or counter productive. You can react with 👍 and 👎 on @gemini-code-assist comments. If you're interested in giving your feedback about your experience with Gemini Code Assist for Github and other Google products, sign up here.

You can also get AI-powered code generation, chat, as well as code reviews directly in the IDE at no cost with the Gemini Code Assist IDE Extension.

Footnotes

1. Review the Privacy Notices, Generative AI Prohibited Use Policy, Terms of Service, and learn how to configure Gemini Code Assist in GitHub here. Gemini can make mistakes, so double check it and use code with caution. ↩

[gemini-code-assist]

Code Review

This pull request cleans up the repository by removing three outdated or misplaced documentation files: etcd.md, nat_traversal.md, and ruby-thing.rb. The reasoning for each removal is sound. I've found one issue: the removal of etcd.md leaves a broken link in docs/INSTALL.md. I've added a comment with details on how to fix this. Once that's addressed, this PR will be a good improvement.

[gemini-code-assist]

While removing this documentation for the experimental etcd support is a good cleanup step, there's a lingering reference to this file in docs/INSTALL.md that should also be removed to avoid a broken link.

In docs/INSTALL.md on line 257, the following line should be removed:

- [kvdb_etcd](/docs/etcd.md)

Since docs/INSTALL.md is not part of this pull request, you will need to add this change to resolve the broken link.

[lightninglabs-deploy]

🟢 PR Severity: LOW

Documentation cleanup | 3 files | 120 lines changed

🟢 Low (3 files)

• docs/etcd.md - Documentation for experimental feature (85 lines deleted)
• docs/nat_traversal.md - User guide documentation (23 lines deleted)
• docs/ruby-thing.rb - Obsolete utility script (12 lines deleted)

Analysis

This PR removes outdated documentation files from the repository:

1. etcd.md: Documentation for an experimental feature from v0.11 that was never recommended for production use
2. nat_traversal.md: User guide content that's being moved to the Builder's Guide repository
3. ruby-thing.rb: An 8-year-old script whose purpose is unclear and no longer maintained

Severity Rationale: Documentation-only changes fall under the LOW severity category per the classification rules. These deletions:

• Do not affect any runtime code or functionality
• Remove only documentation files (docs/* and *.md)
• Require best-effort review only
• Pose no risk to Lightning Network operations

This is a straightforward cleanup PR that improves documentation organization without any technical risk.

---

_{To override, add a severity-override-{critical,high,medium,low} label.}

[lightninglabs-deploy]

🟢 PR Severity: LOW

Documentation cleanup | 4 files | 121 lines deleted

🟢 Low (4 files)

• docs/INSTALL.md - Documentation removal (1 line)
• docs/etcd.md - Documentation removal (85 lines)
• docs/nat_traversal.md - Documentation removal (23 lines)
• docs/ruby-thing.rb - Script removal (12 lines)

Analysis

This PR removes redundant documentation files from the docs/ directory. All changes are purely documentation-related with no code modifications. This is a straightforward cleanup that removes 121 lines across 4 documentation files.

According to the severity classification rules, documentation files (docs/*, *.md) are classified as LOW severity and receive best-effort review. There are no code changes, no API modifications, and no functional impact on lnd's operation.

Recommendation: This is safe to merge after a quick review to ensure the removed documentation is indeed redundant and not referenced elsewhere.

---

_{To override, add a severity-override-{critical,high,medium,low} label.}

[lightninglabs-deploy]

🟢 PR Severity: LOW

Documentation cleanup | 4 files | 121 lines changed

🟢 Low (4 files)

• docs/INSTALL.md - Documentation file (1 line deleted)
• docs/etcd.md - Documentation file (85 lines deleted)
• docs/nat_traversal.md - Documentation file (23 lines deleted)
• docs/ruby-thing.rb - Ruby script in docs (12 lines deleted)

Analysis

This PR removes redundant documentation from the /docs directory. All changes are limited to documentation files and a Ruby script, with no functional code changes to the lnd codebase. According to the severity classification rules, documentation-only changes (docs/*, .md files, scripts/) fall into the LOW severity category, requiring best-effort review.

The PR is a pure cleanup operation:

• Removes outdated or redundant documentation (INSTALL.md, etcd.md, nat_traversal.md)
• Removes a Ruby script (ruby-thing.rb)
• 0 additions, 121 deletions across 4 files
• No impact on runtime behavior, APIs, or critical systems

Recommendation: This can be reviewed by any maintainer familiar with the documentation structure. No specialized domain knowledge is required.

---

_{To override, add a severity-override-{critical,high,medium,low} label.}