Laravel Packages

Version-Controlled Documentation Inside Your Laravel App with Laradocs

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Version-Controlled Documentation Inside Your Laravel App with Laradocs image

Laradocs is a Laravel package that serves a documentation site from markdown files kept inside your codebase. You write the docs next to the code they describe, commit them together, and Laradocs renders them at /docs with navigation, search-friendly metadata, and a responsive UI.

  • Multi-level file structure — nested folders become nested navigation.
  • Filename or metadata routing — slug: front-matter overrides paths.
  • Markdown → HTML powered by CommonMark (GFM, tables, footnotes, …).
  • Rich per-file metadata — title, description, order, hidden, group, badge, redirect, tags, and more.
  • Polished default UI — responsive, dark-mode, sidebar, breadcrumbs, on-page table of contents, prev/next — all publishable and overridable.
  • Smart caching — rendered HTML cached and auto-invalidated on file change.
  • And more

Folder Structure Becomes Navigation

Laradocs builds its sidebar from your directory layout. Nested folders turn into sections, and an _index.md file acts as a section's landing page. Routing follows the filenames by default, but you can override a path with a slug field in front-matter when you want a URL that differs from the file location.

Scaffold a new page with the generator command:

php artisan make:doc guide/getting-started --title="Getting Started" --order=1

Front-Matter Metadata

Each page carries metadata in YAML front-matter that controls how it appears in navigation and search:

---
title: Getting Started
description: Install and configure the app.
order: 1
group: Basics
---

Supported fields include title, description, order, hidden, group, badge, redirect, tags, and slug. Markdown is processed through CommonMark with GitHub-flavored markdown, tables, and footnotes, plus callout blocks using the familiar GitHub syntax:

> [!TIP]
> Folders become sidebar sections; `_index.md` is a section's landing page.

Variables and Macros for Reuse

To avoid repeating values across pages, Laradocs lets you register shared variables and reusable macro blocks from a service provider. Variables interpolate into markdown with {{ value }} syntax, and macros render with an @docs() block:

use PeteBishwhip\Laradocs\Facades\Laradocs;

Laradocs::variables(fn () => ['version' => '1.0.0']);
Laradocs::share('app_name', config('app.name'));
Laradocs::macro('tweet', fn (array $args) => "<a href=\"...\">@{$args['user']}</a>");

SEO, Caching, and Output

Rendered pages get automatic meta tags, Open Graph and Twitter card data, and JSON-LD, along with a generated sitemap at /sitemap.xml. Laradocs caches rendered pages and invalidates the cache when source files change. You can also pre-render every page ahead of time or clear the cache manually:

php artisan laradocs:cache
php artisan laradocs:clear

The package requires PHP 8.2+ and supports Laravel 11, 12, and 13. You can learn more on the Laradocs website and view the source on GitHub.

Paul Redmond photo

Staff writer at Laravel News. Full stack web developer and author.

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