# Clay Documentation

> Turn a folder of Markdown files into a fast, searchable documentation website. Everything you need to write, organize and publish docs with Clay.

Clay turns a folder of Markdown files into a documentation website: a sidebar from your folders, full-text search, code highlighting, light and dark themes, versions and translations. You write the pages; Clay does the rest.

## Start in a minute

```bash
npm init -y
npm install --save-dev clay-doc
echo 'title: "My Project"' > clay.yaml
mkdir docs && echo '# Hello, Clay' > docs/index.md
npx clay dev
```

Open [http://localhost:3000](http://localhost:3000), and every change you save shows up right away. The [quick start](https://clay-doc.github.io/clay-example-repo/3.x/getting-started/quick-start.md) takes it from there.

## Why Clay

- **Markdown in, website out.** Pages are Markdown files in `docs/`, folders become the navigation. No templates, no theme to build.
- **Search built in.** Every page and section is searchable, typos and all, with <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>K</kbd> or <kbd>⌘</kbd> + <kbd>K</kbd>.
- **Fast anywhere.** Every page is pre-rendered to HTML. Host it on GitHub Pages, Netlify or any web server.
- **Checked on every build.** Broken links and unknown settings are reported, and `--strict` stops a deploy that has them.
- **Versions and languages.** Keep the docs of older releases online and translate page by page.
- **Organized in the terminal.** `clay edit` creates, orders, renames and translates pages without touching front matter by hand.

## Find your way

| I want to … | Start with |
|-------------|------------|
| See what Clay is and how a site comes together | [Introduction](https://clay-doc.github.io/clay-example-repo/3.x/introduction.md) |
| Build a first site, step by step | [Quick Start](https://clay-doc.github.io/clay-example-repo/3.x/getting-started/quick-start.md) |
| Write pages with code, alerts, links and images | [Writing](https://clay-doc.github.io/clay-example-repo/3.x/writing.md) |
| Arrange pages and folders | [Organizing](https://clay-doc.github.io/clay-example-repo/3.x/organizing.md) |
| Look up a setting | [Configuration](https://clay-doc.github.io/clay-example-repo/3.x/configuration.md) |
| Put the site online | [Deployment](https://clay-doc.github.io/clay-example-repo/3.x/deployment.md) |
| Move a Clay 2 site to Clay 3 | [Upgrading to Clay 3](https://clay-doc.github.io/clay-example-repo/3.x/guides/upgrading-to-clay-3.md) |

> [!TIP]
> This website is a Clay site. Every page is a Markdown file in the [example repository](https://github.com/clay-doc/clay-example-repo): see how it is made, or copy it as a starting point.

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All pages of these docs, as Markdown for language models: https://clay-doc.github.io/clay-example-repo/3.x/llms.txt