Geistdocs — Vercel Documentation Template

You are an expert in Geistdocs, Vercel's production-ready documentation template built with Next.js 16 and Fumadocs. It provides MDX authoring, AI-powered chat, i18n, feedback collection, search, GitHub integration, and RSS out of the box. Currently in beta.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Node.js 18+, pnpm, GitHub account
Familiarity with MDX, Next.js, React

Create a New Project

npx @vercel/geistdocs init

This clones the template, prompts for a project name, installs dependencies, and removes sample content.

Environment Setup

cp .env.example .env.local
pnpm dev

Variable	Description
`AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY`	Powers AI chat; auto-configured on Vercel deployments
`NEXT_PUBLIC_VERCEL_PROJECT_PRODUCTION_URL`	Production domain (format: `localhost:3000`, no protocol prefix); auto-set by Vercel

Project Structure

geistdocs.tsx          # Root config — Logo, nav, title, prompt, suggestions, github, translations
content/docs/          # MDX documentation content
  getting-started.mdx  # → /docs/getting-started
  my-page.mdx          # → /docs/my-page
  my-page.cn.mdx       # → /cn/docs/my-page (i18n)
.env.local             # Environment variables

Pages auto-route from the content/docs/ directory: content/docs/my-first-page.mdx becomes /docs/my-first-page.

Configuration (`geistdocs.tsx`)

The root config file exports these values:

import { BookHeartIcon } from "lucide-react";

// Header branding
export const Logo = () => (
  <span className="flex items-center gap-2 font-semibold">
    <BookHeartIcon className="size-5" />
    My Docs
  </span>
);

// Navigation links
export const nav = [
  { label: "Blog", href: "/blog" },
  { label: "GitHub", href: "https://github.com/org/repo" },
];

// Site title (used in RSS, metadata)
export const title = "My Documentation";

// AI assistant system prompt
export const prompt = "You are a helpful assistant for My Product documentation.";

// AI suggested prompts
export const suggestions = [
  "How do I get started?",
  "What features are available?",
];

// Edit on GitHub integration
export const github = { owner: "username", repo: "repo-name" };

// Internationalization
export const translations = {
  en: { displayName: "English" },
  cn: { displayName: "中文", search: "搜尋文檔" },
};

MDX Syntax & Frontmatter

Every MDX file requires frontmatter:

---
title: My Page Title
description: A brief description of this page
---

Your content here...

Supported Syntax

Text: Bold, italic, strikethrough, inline code
Headings: H1–H6 with auto anchor links
Lists: Ordered, unordered, nested, task lists (GFM)
Tables: GFM tables
Links, Images, Blockquotes: Standard markdown

Code Blocks

Language specification with special attributes:

```tsx title="app/page.tsx" lineNumbers
export default function Page() {
  return <h1>Hello</h1> // [!code highlight]
}
```

Attribute	Effect
`title="filename"`	File path header
`lineNumbers`	Show line numbers
`[!code highlight]`	Highlight line
`[!code word:term]`	Highlight term
`[!code ++]` / `[!code --]`	Diff additions/deletions
`[!code focus]`	Focus line

Mermaid Diagrams

```mermaid
graph TD
  A[Start] --> B[Process]
  B --> C[End]
```

Supports flowcharts, sequence diagrams, and architecture diagrams.

GeistdocsProvider

Root-level wrapper extending Fumadocs' RootProvider. Provides toast notifications (Sonner), Vercel Analytics, and search dialog. The AI sidebar auto-adds padding on desktop; mobile uses a drawer.

import { GeistdocsProvider } from "./components/provider";

export default function RootLayout({ children }) {
  return (
    <html>
      <body>
        <GeistdocsProvider>{children}</GeistdocsProvider>
      </body>
    </html>
  );
}

Toast API: toast.success("msg"), toast.error("msg") via Sonner.

Features

Edit on GitHub

Set github in config → auto-generates edit links in the ToC sidebar. No env vars or API keys needed.

Feedback Widget

Interactive widget in ToC sidebar. Collects message, emotion emoji, name, email. Auto-creates structured GitHub Issues with labels.

Internationalization (i18n)

Uses Fumadocs' language-aware routing with [lang] URL segments. Default language has no prefix; others get prefix (e.g., /cn/docs/getting-started).

File naming: getting-started.mdx (en), getting-started.cn.mdx (cn), getting-started.fr.mdx (fr).

Auto-translate: pnpm translate [--pattern "path/**/*.mdx"] [--config file.tsx] [--url "api-url"]

RSS Feed

Auto-generated at /rss.xml. Requires NEXT_PUBLIC_VERCEL_PROJECT_PRODUCTION_URL and title export. Customize via frontmatter lastModified: 2025-11-12.

.md Extension (Raw Markdown)

Append .md or .mdx to any URL to get raw Markdown. Useful for AI chat platforms (ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor) and LLM context ingestion.

llms.txt

Endpoint at /llms.txt returns ALL documentation as plain Markdown in a single response. Follows the llms.txt standard.

Ask AI

AI chat assistant using openai/gpt-4.1-mini via Vercel AI Gateway. Features: search_docs tool, source citations, IndexedDB chat history, suggested prompts, file/image upload, Markdown rendering. Access via navbar button or ⌘I / Ctrl+I.

Open in Chat

Button in ToC sidebar opens docs page in external AI platforms (Cursor, v0, ChatGPT, Claude).

Deployment

Push to GitHub
Import at vercel.com/new → select repo
Framework: Next.js (auto-detected), Build: pnpm build, Output: .next
Add environment variables (AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY, NEXT_PUBLIC_VERCEL_PROJECT_PRODUCTION_URL)
Deploy

Key Commands

Command	Description
`npx @vercel/geistdocs init`	Create new project
`pnpm dev`	Start dev server
`pnpm build`	Production build
`pnpm translate`	Auto-translate content

geistdocs