# Shell Docs

`showcase/shell-docs` is the Next.js app that builds and serves
`docs.copilotkit.ai`. Author CopilotKit product documentation here, not in the retired
top-level `docs/` app.

## Run Locally

Shell-docs is a standalone npm-based app. You do not need a root install just to run the
docs app locally.

```bash
cd showcase/scripts
npm install

cd ../shell-docs
npm install
npm run dev
```

The local dev server runs on port `3003`.

```text
http://localhost:3003
```

The shell-docs npm lifecycle generates registry, demo-content, setup-content, and search
data before `dev`, `build`, and `typecheck`.

## Validate Changes

Run these from `showcase/shell-docs`:

```bash
npm run build
npm run typecheck
npm run test
```

For repo-level CI parity, prefer Nx when a shell-docs target is available in the current
checkout and root dependencies are installed. For normal shell-docs local development, the
npm commands above are the canonical path.

## Authoring Recipes

### Showcase-Driven Framework Docs

Showcase-driven frameworks use `docs_mode: generated`. The docs are assembled from showcase
registry/generated data, demos, source regions, shared/root MDX, snippets, and sparse
framework overrides.

To update showcase-driven docs:

1. Edit the showcase source of truth: manifests, demos, feature coverage, source regions, or
   registry inputs.
2. Edit shared/root MDX only when the change applies across generated frameworks.
3. Add sparse framework overrides only for real framework-specific differences.
4. Do not hand-edit generated files under `src/data/frameworks/`.
5. Validate routes, sidebar state, search results, snippets, and framework switching.

### Authored Framework Docs

Authored frameworks use `docs_mode: authored`. The framework owns an MDX tree under
`src/content/docs/integrations/<docsFolder>/` with a `meta.json` sidebar.

To update authored docs:

1. Check `getDocsFolder()` in `src/lib/registry.ts`; the URL slug and folder name may differ.
2. Edit the MDX page under `src/content/docs/integrations/<docsFolder>/`.
3. Update that folder's `meta.json` when adding, removing, or moving pages.
4. Reuse shared snippets from `src/content/snippets/` when content should stay consistent
   across frameworks.
5. Validate the framework route, sidebar, search result, and any shared snippet render.

### Reference Docs

Edit API reference pages under `src/content/reference/`.

The v2 reference does not use `meta.json`; navigation is generated by walking the tree and
reading each page's `title` and `description` frontmatter. Only the legacy `reference/v1/`
tree uses `meta.json`.

### Snippets

Reusable snippets live under `src/content/snippets/`. Snippets may be rendered by root docs,
authored framework pages, and showcase-driven framework pages, so keep them general unless
the path is intentionally framework-specific.

### Frontend Applicability

Frontend routes use page-level applicability metadata, independent from where the content is
authored. A page can be authored MDX, showcase-generated content, mirrored protocol docs, or
reference content and still be universal across frontends.

Use the `frontend` field in page frontmatter or `meta.json` when a root doc should appear in
non-React frontend docs:

- `universal` — render the same page under `/<frontend>/...`.
- `frontend-variant` — render only when a matching page exists under
  `src/content/docs/frontends/<frontend>/...`.
- `hide` — omit the page from frontend-scoped docs.

Do not use "showcase-driven" as a proxy for frontend availability. Showcase derivation is an
authoring/source detail; frontend applicability controls routing and sidebar inclusion.

### AG-UI Mirrored Docs

AG-UI protocol docs are authored upstream in `ag-ui-protocol/ag-ui`. The
`src/content/ag-ui/` tree is a downstream mirror rendered on the CopilotKit docs host.
Change AG-UI docs upstream first, then sync the mirror back into shell-docs.

## Top-Level Docs Symlink

The repository's top-level `docs/` path is a symlink to `showcase/shell-docs/` for
contributor muscle memory. It is not a separate docs app. Do not recreate the old
`docs/content/docs/` tree; author CopilotKit docs in `showcase/shell-docs/src/content/`.