---
title: Methodology
description: 'How leadtype differs from Fumadocs, Starlight, and Mintlify.'
group: get-started
lastModified: '2026-05-11T20:02:32-07:00'
lastAuthor: 'github-actions[bot]'
---
# Methodology

Leadtype is **a docs pipeline, not a docs website framework**. It produces the artifacts a docs site needs (markdown, llms.txt, search index, navigation) and stays out of routing, layout, and theming.

## The short version

|Tool|What it gives you|
|--|--|
|Fumadocs|A React docs framework (Next.js, TanStack Start, React Router, Waku). Supports `llms.txt` and content negotiation via framework route handlers.|
|Starlight|An Astro docs site framework. `llms.txt` via the `starlight-llms-txt` community plugin (not built-in); static client-side search via Pagefind.|
|Mintlify|A hosted docs SaaS (with an optional headless Astro mode that still calls Mintlify's search and assistant APIs).|
|Leadtype|The portable content layer behind any of the above.|

Choose a website framework when the main job is publishing a polished docs UI quickly. Consider a hosted platform if you want managed publishing, search, analytics, and AI features and accept that service dependency. Opt for leadtype when you need to **own the generated docs artifacts**: framework-agnostic markdown, navigation, search, `llms.txt`, a root `llms-full.txt` fallback, and optional `AGENTS.md` package bundles that ship inside npm tarballs.

## What leadtype owns

* MDX-to-markdown conversion via a remark plugin stack.
* `llms.txt`, markdown mirrors, and root `llms-full.txt` fallback context for agents.
* 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

* Visual UI, theming, or component styling.
* Routing, hosting, deployment, or analytics.
* A prebuilt MDX component library — your docs app provides those (see [Components](/docs/authoring/components)).

## When the combination shines

You want one docs experience across many repos, but each repo keeps its content next to the code it documents. A shared docs app — public, private, or templated — renders that content with your design system. Leadtype handles conversion, search, validation, and agent outputs identically across every repo.

You can also pair leadtype *with* a website framework: use Fumadocs or Starlight for the UI, and run leadtype alongside it when you want one portable pipeline for generated markdown, search, `llms.txt`, root `llms-full.txt`, Agent Readability files, and npm-bundled `AGENTS.md` docs across frameworks and packages.