dartdoc_vitepress 1.1.1

Fork of dartdoc with VitePress backend — generates modern static documentation sites with auto-linking, interactive DartPad embeds, and full Vue.js theming.

dartdoc-vitepress

Fork of dart-lang/dartdoc with a VitePress backend for generating modern, beautiful API documentation as a static VitePress site instead of default HTML.

What's different from dartdoc?

Feature	dartdoc	dartdoc-vitepress
Output format	Static HTML	VitePress Markdown site
Search	Built-in (basic)	VitePress local search (MiniSearch)
Theming	CSS customization	Full Vue.js theming
Guide docs	Not supported	Auto-discovers doc/ & docs/ files
Workspace mode	Not supported	--workspace-docs for mono-repos
Sidebar	HTML nav	Auto-generated TypeScript sidebar data
Customization	Templates	VitePress ecosystem (Vue, plugins)

The fork adds a --format vitepress option while keeping full backward compatibility with the original dart doc HTML output.

Installation

# From pub.dev (recommended)
dart pub global activate dartdoc_vitepress

Quick Start

# Generate VitePress docs for a single package
dart pub global run dartdoc_vitepress --format vitepress --output docs-site

# Generate docs for a Dart workspace (mono-repo)
dart pub global run dartdoc_vitepress \
  --format vitepress \
  --workspace-docs \
  --exclude-packages 'example_app,test_utils' \
  --output docs-site

# Preview locally
cd docs-site && npm install && npx vitepress dev

How it works

Dart source -> [analyzer] -> PackageGraph -> [VitePress backend] -> Markdown + sidebar data

1. API docs — each library, class, function, property gets a .md file under api/
2. Guide docs — markdown files from doc/ or docs/ are copied to guide/ with sidebar generation
3. Scaffold files — config.ts, package.json, index.md are created once and never overwritten, so you can customize them freely
4. Sidebar data — api-sidebar.ts and guide-sidebar.ts are auto-generated and imported by config.ts

Generated structure

docs-site/
├── .vitepress/
│   ├── config.ts                 # Your customizable config (created once)
│   └── generated/
│       ├── api-sidebar.ts        # Auto-generated API sidebar
│       └── guide-sidebar.ts      # Auto-generated guide sidebar
├── api/                          # Auto-generated API markdown
│   ├── index.md
│   ├── my_package/
│   │   ├── MyClass-class.md
│   │   └── ...
│   └── ...
├── guide/                        # Copied from doc/ & docs/ directories
│   ├── index.md                  # Created once (customizable)
│   └── my-guide.md
├── index.md                      # Landing page (created once)
└── package.json                  # VitePress dependency (created once)

CI/CD with GitHub Pages

Add to .github/workflows/docs.yml:

name: Deploy Documentation

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

permissions:
  contents: read
  pages: write
  id-token: write

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: subosito/flutter-action@v2
        with:
          channel: stable
          cache: true

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
          cache: npm
          cache-dependency-path: docs-site/package-lock.json

      - name: Install dartdoc-vitepress
        run: dart pub global activate dartdoc_vitepress

      - name: Generate API docs
        run: dart pub global run dartdoc_vitepress --format vitepress --output docs-site

      - run: npm ci
        working-directory: docs-site

      - run: npx vitepress build
        working-directory: docs-site

      - uses: actions/configure-pages@v5
      - uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v3
        with:
          path: docs-site/.vitepress/dist

  deploy:
    needs: build
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    environment:
      name: github-pages
      url: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.page_url }}
    permissions:
      pages: write
      id-token: write
    steps:
      - id: deployment
        uses: actions/deploy-pages@v4

Don't forget: Settings → Pages → Source: GitHub Actions.

Key CLI options

Option	Description
--format vitepress	Generate VitePress markdown instead of HTML
--workspace-docs	Document all packages in a Dart workspace
--exclude-packages 'a,b,c'	Skip specific packages
--output <dir>	Output directory (default: doc/api)
--guide-dirs 'doc,docs'	Directories to scan for guide markdown (default: doc,docs)

All original dartdoc options (--exclude, --include, --header, etc.) are still supported.

Extensible Plugin Architecture

The generated site is a standard VitePress project — you can add custom markdown-it plugins, Vue components, and CSS to extend functionality beyond what dartdoc provides.

Bundled plugin examples

These are not part of the generator itself, but patterns you can add to docs-site/.vitepress/theme/plugins/:

API Auto-linker

A markdown-it plugin that scans the generated api/ directory at build time and automatically converts inline code references in guide pages to clickable links pointing to API docs.

Write `ModuleScope` in your guide — it renders as a styled link to /api/your_package/ModuleScope. Handles dotted access (`Modularity.observer`), generics (`ModuleScope<Auth>`), and skips Dart/Flutter built-in types.

// .vitepress/theme/plugins/api-linker.ts
// Scans api/ at init, builds symbol map, transforms code_inline tokens
md.use(apiLinkerPlugin)

Interactive DartPad Embeds

A markdown-it plugin + Vue component that turns ```dartpad code fences into interactive playgrounds with syntax highlighting, a "Run" button, and a DartPad iframe — all without leaving the docs page.

  ```dartpad height=400 mode=flutter
  import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
  void main() => runApp(const Text('Hello'));

#### API Breadcrumbs

A Vue component (`<ApiBreadcrumb />`) auto-injected into API pages.
Renders `package > category` navigation from the route path and frontmatter.

### Why this matters

Standard dartdoc generates closed HTML output.
dartdoc-vitepress generates **open markdown + TypeScript data**
that you can extend:

- **Custom plugins** — `md.use(yourPlugin)` in `config.ts`
- **Vue components** — register in `theme/index.ts`, use in `.md`
- **Theme customization** — `custom.css` or full theme override
- **Data transforms** — import `api-sidebar.ts` or scan `api/`

## Upstream

Based on [dart-lang/dartdoc v9.0.2](https://github.com/dart-lang/dartdoc) (commit `af008503`).

The VitePress backend is implemented as an additional `GeneratorBackend`, not a replacement — the original HTML generation is fully intact.

## License

Same as [dartdoc](https://github.com/dart-lang/dartdoc/blob/main/LICENSE) — BSD-3-Clause.