Getting Started

All sladocs needs is a directory containing Markdown — no configuration, no added dependencies.

Requirements

• Node.js 20 or later (22 LTS recommended)
• A directory containing .md or .mdx files

Running

npx sladocs

This previews the current directory. Pass a path to preview a different one.

npx sladocs ./docs

Once it starts, a URL is printed — open it in your browser.

ready: http://localhost:8080/

Press Ctrl-C to cleanly shut down the file watcher and the HTTP server.

What gets included

sladocs builds the site by collecting the Markdown (.md, .mdx) and meta.json files under the target directory. The sidebar, search, and hot reload all follow this collected set. .mdx files are parsed as Markdown only — JSX and import/export are left as plain text, not evaluated.

For a git repository, files listed in .gitignore are excluded automatically — you don't need to spell out node_modules, dist, and so on. For a non-git directory, only node_modules is excluded.

You can also tune what gets collected with include / exclude.

Live reload

While the server is running, edit and save any file shown on the site and the browser updates in place.

Multiple projects

By default, sladocs collects Markdown from a single directory. Pass two or more paths and it switches to a multi-project layout.

npx sladocs ./docs ./packages/web

Each directory becomes a separate tab (dropdown) in the top navigation. Tab labels use the folder name, but you can override them in sladocs.json (see Configuration).

Multiple languages

Declare your languages in sladocs.json and name files by locale (guide.md, guide.ja.md). A language switcher then appears in the sidebar.

{
  "i18n": { "languages": ["en", "ja"], "defaultLanguage": "en" }
}

See i18n for file naming, URL layout, and switcher labels.

CLI reference

sladocs provides only a single command. There are no subcommands.

sladocs [dirs...] [options]

Arguments

If projects is declared in sladocs.json, the CLI arguments are ignored and the configuration takes precedence (see Configuration).

Options