Installation

Boltdocs requires Node.js 18+ and a package manager. We recommend pnpm for its speed and disk efficiency, but npm and yarn work just as well. (Refined)

If you're starting from scratch, use create-boltdocs to generate a complete project with all the boilerplate in place:

pnpm create boltdocs@latest my-docs

Then skip straight to running the dev server.

Manual Installation

If you're adding Boltdocs to an existing project, install it as a dev dependency:

# pnpm
pnpm add -D boltdocs

# npm
npm install --save-dev boltdocs

# yarn
yarn add --dev boltdocs

Create the Docs Directory

Boltdocs expects your content to live in a docs/ folder at the root of your project. Create it and add your first page:

mkdir docs
echo "# Hello, Boltdocs!" > docs/index.md

Add a Config File

Create boltdocs.config.ts in the root of your project:

import { defineConfig } from 'boltdocs'

export default defineConfig({
  siteUrl: 'https://my-project.com',
  theme: {
    title: 'My Project Docs',
    githubRepo: 'my-org/my-project',
  },
})

This file is the single source of truth for your documentation site. You don't need a vite.config.ts — Boltdocs generates the full Vite configuration internally.

Add Scripts to package.json

{
  "scripts": {
    "docs:dev": "boltdocs",
    "docs:build": "boltdocs build",
    "docs:preview": "boltdocs preview"
  }
}

Run the Dev Server

pnpm docs:dev

Open http://localhost:5173 and you'll see your documentation site running locally with hot reload.

Build for Production

pnpm docs:build

The output lands in dist/. Every page is pre-rendered as static HTML, with a client bundle for navigation and search.

What's Next?