Docs Template

Generate a documentation site from Markdown pages in one request.

Send Pages

Send a name, a theme, navigation groups, and Markdown pages, and Manifest builds a documentation site from its docs template. There's no build step on your side.

The template is a shortcut. For your own navigation, files, images, and design, publish your own build instead.

Save the content as content.json:

content.json
{
  "template": "docs",
  "env": "staging",
  "site": {
    "name": "Acme Help",
    "description": "Answers for Acme customers.",
    "theme": {
      "tokens": { "color-brand-surface": "oklch(55% 0.2 260)" },
      "dark": { "color-brand-surface": "#6677ff" }
    }
  },
  "groups": [{ "slug": "start", "description": "First steps with Acme." }],
  "articles": [
    { "group": "Getting started", "group_slug": "start", "title": "Welcome", "slug": "welcome", "markdown": "Hello from Acme.", "order": 1 },
    { "group": "Billing", "title": "Invoices", "slug": "invoices", "markdown": "## Download\n\nUse the portal.", "icon": "lucide:receipt" }
  ]
}

Then send it:

cURLJavaScript

curl -X POST https://api.manifestx.dev/v1/projects/proj_…/content \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $MANIFEST_ACCOUNT_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: help-center-sync-0193" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @content.json
import { readFile } from 'node:fs/promises'

const res = await fetch(`https://api.manifestx.dev/v1/projects/${projectId}/content`, {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.MANIFEST_ACCOUNT_KEY}`,
    'Idempotency-Key': 'help-center-sync-0193',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: await readFile('content.json'),
})
const { deployment, url } = await res.json()

The site answers 201 Created and is live on that environment's address straight away:

{
  "deployment": { "id": "dep_…", "env": "staging", "status": "ready", "files": 10, "bytes": 26676 },
  "template": { "name": "docs", "version": "0.1.2" },
  "url": "https://acme-docs-staging.manifestx.ai",
  "request_id": "…"
}

The Invoices page is now at /docs/billing/invoices on that address. Promote, rollback, and the deployment list work exactly as for your own builds.

Good to know:

• Projects your keys created only. On your other projects, content answers 422 not_api_project, so it never replaces a project you built another way. Publish a zip to those instead.
• Production ingests also return a prerender object, usually { "status": "pending" }. Manifest renders every page to static HTML in the background, then swaps that version in.
• A warning with code post_publish_incomplete means the site is live but a follow-up step, like setting up the default address, didn't finish. Don't resend. It completes on the next publish that changes the content, and url can be null until then.

Fields

Each entry in articles is one page:

Any field not listed here is refused, and so is Markdown with control characters. Images and other files aren't part of the request, so link to them by full URL.

Unchanged Content

On staging, content identical to what's live there answers 200 OK with unchanged: true. No deployment is created, and nothing counts toward the daily publish limit. So a scheduled sync can send everything every time, and the site rebuilds only when something changed.

{
  "unchanged": true,
  "deployment": { "id": "dep_…", "env": "staging", "status": "ready", "files": 10, "bytes": 26676 },
  "template": { "name": "docs", "version": "0.1.2" },
  "url": "https://acme-docs-staging.manifestx.ai",
  "request_id": "…"
}

Good to know:

• Order matters, formatting doesn't. Key order and whitespace are ignored, but the order of articles and groups counts.
• It compares with what's live, not your last request. After a file update or rollback to a version your content didn't build, the next ingest deploys.
• Production always deploys, even when nothing changed.

Slugs

A page is served at /docs/<group_slug>/<slug>. Slugs are lowercase words joined by single hyphens, like payment-methods.

• A page slug is unique across all groups, not only its own.
• A page slug can't match a group slug. Name a billing page in a billing group billing-overview instead.
• Neither can be docs, the segment the site lives under.
• Each group_slug has one group name, and two groups can't share a name.

Theme Values

tokens and dark map the template's theme token names to CSS values. Write names with or without the leading --, but not both for one token.

• Allowed: colors, numbers, lengths, quoted font names, and the functions rgb, rgba, hsl, hsla, hwb, lab, lch, oklab, oklch, color, color-mix, var, calc, min, max, clamp, and light-dark.
• Refused: url(), comments, semicolons, braces, unclosed quotes or parentheses, and values over 200 characters.

Template Version

A project's first successful ingest pins the docs template version it used. Later ingests keep that version, so a template update never changes a live site unasked. The version is in every response.

Limits

Retries

Send an Idempotency-Key with every request. A retry with the same key and body returns the first answer and creates no second deployment. See Idempotency.

Errors

Every error has the same shape. A content problem answers 422 with a field naming the page and property, and no deployment is created:

{
  "error": "invalid_content",
  "message": "articles[1].slug: invalid slug \"Bad Slug\".",
  "field": "articles[1].slug",
  "request_id": "…"
}