NextGuide

Developer Mode

File-based Next.js documentation using MDX, version control, and your own hosting.

Developer Mode

Developer Mode is NextGuide's file-first workflow. Documentation lives inside your Next.js project, so pages, navigation, and configuration can be edited in your existing editor and committed to Git.

Initialize Developer ModeShell
bunx nextguide init --developer

What gets installed?

The CLI generates a responsive documentation layout, sidebar navigation, local search (Ctrl/Cmd+K), light/dark/system theme controls, breadcrumbs, a table of contents, page actions, and an MDX component registry.

Your application gains real routes and starter content—not a set of snippets you must assemble manually. See every generated file and its purpose.

Write and organize pages

Add a guideShell
bunx nextguide page add guides/setup --title "Setup"

The CLI creates an MDX file and updates the _meta.json navigation entries. You can edit the resulting content in any editor. Use --dry-run to preview a change.

Learn how nested pages and navigation work.

Choose your theme

Initialize with system appearance and a teal accentShell
bunx nextguide init --developer --system --accent:teal

Choose --light, --dark, or --system, and an accent preset: blue, red, green, purple, yellow, orange, teal, or pink.

NextGuide saves these choices to nextguide.config.json. You can customize your site's own CSS afterward.

Built-in page actions

The documentation layout supports copying the original page Markdown, opening an AI assistant with a prepared page prompt, and optional source editing links.

To show Edit on GitHub, configure your repository's edit URL:

{
  "site": {
    "editBase": "https://github.com/owner/repository/edit/main/content/docs"
  }
}

This is an example field to add to your existing nextguide.config.json, not a replacement for the entire configuration. The edit link is hidden when no URL is configured.

Rendering and hosting

  • App Router: Next.js generates documentation pages from your MDX collection.
  • Pages Router: NextGuide generates compatible static page routes and data loaders.
  • Static hosting: Developer Mode can use Next.js output: "export", including on GitHub Pages.
  • Server deployment: Deploy alongside your normal Next.js app on a managed host or your own server.

Read the Vercel, GitHub Pages, and self-hosting guides.

Upgrade an existing installation

Upgrading the npm dependency does not automatically replace the source files created by a previous init.

Preview generated-layout updatesShell
bunx nextguide upgrade --refresh-generated --dry-run

Review the proposed changes, then opt in to the refresh if appropriate. NextGuide creates backups of generated files and preserves user-authored MDX and navigation.

Read the upgrade guide.

Check the installed version

Installed versionShell
bunx nextguide --version

Run bunx nextguide version check --tag alpha to compare with the published alpha channel. The check does not install anything. Version selection shown on NextGuide's official docs is not added to sites generated for users.

Developer Mode vs Account Mode

Developer Mode does not require passwords, user accounts, a database, or a separate content server. Editing happens in source files. If you need browser-based editing, see the Account Mode preview, which is still under development.

Installation · Generated files · Components