Getting started

There are two ways to use Lectio, depending on how much control you want.

The fast path — the CLI

If you just want a docs site, the lectio CLI collects your markdown and builds it for you. No app code:

npx lectio-docs dev

It scaffolds a starter docs.config.ts and opens a local server, so a fresh repo shows a site right away. See The lectio CLI for configuring sources, branding and deploy.

The library path — embed it in your app

If you want to own routing, rendering and theme, use the toolkit directly: point the collector at your sources, then read them back through the content source.

1. Describe your sources

A source is a glob plus the target path it should land under:

{
  output: '.lectio',
  sources: [
    { glob: 'docs/**/*.md', target: '/' },
    { glob: 'libs/*/README.md', target: '/libraries', titleFromPackageJson: true },
  ],
}

2. Collect

collect() copies each match into the output directory, enriches its frontmatter, and writes manifest.json alongside it.

3. Read it back

createContentSource({ manifest, loadBody }) gives you the navigation tree and individual pages. Rendering stays entirely yours.

Under the hood, the CLI is exactly this library wired into a React Router app — so both paths share the same collector and content source.