SmartDocs

Commands & Deployment

Project Commands

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the page index (required for search + AI)
npm run build:graph

# Start dev server
npm run dev

# Build for production
npm run build

# Start production server
npm start

# TypeScript check
npx tsc --noEmit

Adding Documentation Pages

Create .md files in the content/ directory. The folder structure becomes your URL structure:

content/
├── index.md              → /
├── getting-started/
│   └── quickstart.md     → /docs/getting-started/quickstart
├── guides/
│   ├── configuration.md  → /docs/guides/configuration
│   └── api-keys.md       → /docs/guides/api-keys
├── api/
│   └── reference.md      → /docs/api/reference
└── topics/
    ├── how-it-works.md   → /docs/topics/how-it-works
    └── search.md         → /docs/topics/search

After adding or changing pages, rebuild the index:

npm run build:graph

Customizing the Theme

SmartDocs uses CSS custom properties for theming. Override them in app/globals.css:

:root {
  --primary: #2563eb;
  --bg: #ffffff;
  --text: #1e293b;
  /* etc. */
}

.dark {
  --primary: #60a5fa;
  --bg: #0f172a;
  /* etc. */
}

Navigation

Edit the NAV_ITEMS arrays in:

  • components/Sidebar.tsx (desktop)
  • components/MobileNav.tsx (mobile)

Add new sections and pages there. Update the ORDER list in lib/markdoc.ts to control the previous/next pagination order.

Deploy

Vercel (Recommended)

  1. Push to GitHub
  2. Go to vercel.com/new and import your repo
  3. Add environment variables:
    • SMARTDOCS_API_KEY
    • SMARTDOCS_AI_PROVIDER
    • SMARTDOCS_MODEL
  4. Deploy

Vercel automatically detects Next.js and configures the build.

Static Export

npm run build
# Output in out/

Deploy the out/ folder to any host (Netlify, GitHub Pages, S3). Note: static export does not support the /api/chat route.

Custom Domain

Add your domain in the Vercel dashboard. SmartDocs supports any domain.

Next: How the AI Works — the graph-backed retrieval pipeline

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