Methodology

Leadtype is a docs pipeline, not a docs website framework. It produces the artifacts a docs site needs — markdown, llms.txt, a search index, navigation, AGENTS.md — and stays out of routing, layout, and theming. It's designed to work with a framework, not instead of one.

Where leadtype fits

Most docs tools answer "how do I publish a great docs site?" Leadtype answers a narrower, complementary question: "how do I own portable, agent-readable docs artifacts across any framework or repo?" The two compose.

Reach for a framework like Fumadocs or Starlight when the job is shipping a polished docs UI — they're built for exactly that. Choose a managed platform like Mintlify when you want publishing, search, and AI handled for you. Use leadtype when you want to own the generated artifacts — framework-agnostic markdown, navigation, search, llms.txt, a root llms-full.txt fallback, and AGENTS.md bundles that ship inside your npm tarballs — and keep them identical across frameworks and repos. These aren't mutually exclusive: leadtype is happiest underneath a host you control, whether that is a custom docs app or a framework you already like.

What leadtype owns

• The MDX tag contract — typed prop shapes for <Callout>, <Tabs>, <Steps>, <TypeTable>, and the rest of the custom tags (see leadtype/mdx).
• A build-time source preset that expands <include> partials, resolves <ExtractedTypeTable>, and strips authoring imports — without flattening live components.
• A framework-neutral source primitive (createDocsSource) exposing navigation, page loading, search index building, and include resolution.
• Framework adapters and recipes — thin, optional packages or copyable recipes that wire the source primitive into native host conventions: Next App Router, TanStack Start, Nuxt/Nitro, Astro, SvelteKit, Fumadocs, Vue, and Svelte. Adapters export state and routing primitives only — hooks, composables, stores, route-handler factories, static-param helpers, pure data helpers — never rendered DOM.
• The agent / LLM pipeline: MDX-to-markdown conversion, llms.txt, root llms-full.txt fallback context, markdown mirrors, sitemap, and AGENTS.md bundles.
• A static, edge-safe search index plus optional source-grounded answer streaming.
• Lint rules for frontmatter, navigation metadata, and internal links.
• CLI orchestration so the whole pipeline runs from one command.

What leadtype does not own

• Rendered DOM, ever. No leadtype package — core or adapter — ships <SearchBox>, <DocsLayout>, <Callout>, <Sidebar>, or any component that emits markup. This is permanent, not a "for now." Consumers implement components against the tag contract from leadtype/mdx; leadtype supplies the data, types, and wiring. The one-line test for any new adapter: does it return data, state, or a function, or does it return JSX? If JSX, it doesn't ship.
• Visual UI, theming, CSS, design tokens, or component styling. This is a framework's job, and frameworks like Fumadocs and Starlight do it beautifully — leadtype deliberately leaves that to them.
• Routing, hosting, deployment, or analytics.
• The MDX compiler — leadtype produces the source preset; your bundler (Next App Router, TanStack Start, Nuxt, Astro, SvelteKit, or fumadocs-mdx) does the compile.

Pairing with a framework

Leadtype is built to power the docs host, not own the visual shell. Use a custom docs app when you want full control, or use Fumadocs or Starlight for the UI and run leadtype alongside for one portable pipeline — markdown, search, llms.txt, root llms-full.txt, Agent Readability files, and npm-bundled AGENTS.md — shared across every framework and package. The Integrate with Fumadocs guide is a worked example: Fumadocs renders the site, leadtype adds the content and agent layer underneath.

This pairing shines across repos: each repo keeps its content next to the code it documents, and a shared docs app — public, private, or templated — renders it all with your design system. Leadtype handles conversion, search, validation, and agent outputs identically everywhere, whatever framework draws the UI.