webolator
Point it at a folder of markdown and get a website. No config file, no index file, no SUMMARY.md.
This site is itself built by webolator from the docs/ folder of the repository. See Publishing to GitHub Pages for how.
How it works
flowchart LR
A[folder or .md file] --> B[scan / follow links]
B --> C[render markdown<br/>+ highlight code]
C --> D[rewrite links]
D --> E1[static site]
D --> E2[single HTML file]
D --> E3[live preview]
Features
- Zero config. The sidebar comes from the directory tree, and page titles come from each file's first
# heading. - Mermaid diagrams are rendered in the browser.
- Syntax highlighting happens at build time, with light and dark themes.
- Cross-file links to
.mdfiles, folders and headings are rewritten to the right place. - Sibling files (raw HTML, text, PDFs, images) are kept and linked.
- Single-file output puts a whole folder of docs into one
.htmlfile. - Live reload with
--serve. - File lists:
--files assets/lists a folder of downloads instead of rendering it. - Image galleries:
--gallery screenshots/shows a folder of images as a thumbnail grid. - Syntax reference: every supported markdown form, with examples.
- Reading comfort: an "On this page" sidebar, previous/next links, "last updated" and "Edit this page" from git, a light/dark toggle, copy buttons, image zoom and a phone menu.
- Writing extras: math, emoji,
[[wikilinks]]and optional front matter. - Leaves out junk:
.gitignoreis honored, and.webolatorignoreand--excludecover the rest. - Custom CSS: drop a
webolator.cssinto the folder, or pass--css.
See it in action
- The demo site is built from
examples/demo. It shows raw HTML, log and PDF files next to the markdown. - This documentation as a single file is every page of these docs in one self-contained HTML file.
Install
For a one-off run, you don't need to install anything:
To keep it around:
For every install option (uv, pre-built binaries, or building from source), see the installation instructions in the README.
Next: Usage.