A modern documentation and team handbook WordPress theme built for remote-first companies, open source projects, agencies, and organisations publishing culture, onboarding, process, and operational documentation publicly.
Theme URI: https://kunalpareek.in/handbook Author: Kunal Pareek — https://kunalpareek.in GitHub: https://github.com/KunalPareek21/handbook License: GPL v2 or later
Handbook is a production-grade WordPress Full Site Editing theme purpose-built for:
- Remote-first company handbooks
- Public internal documentation
- Onboarding guides
- Operational manuals and processes
- Policy systems
- Culture documentation
- Open source governance
- Engineering team documentation
- Distributed team communication
It is designed by someone who understands how serious organisations document operations, communicate asynchronously, and build sustainable knowledge systems.
- A startup landing page theme
- A documentation skin over a blog
- A generic knowledge base template
- A SaaS marketing aesthetic
- A portfolio theme
- Full Site Editing (FSE) with block templates and template parts
theme.jsonv3 with comprehensive design tokens- Block patterns for handbooks, onboarding, policies, FAQs, and more
- 4 style variations: Light, Dark, High Contrast, Minimal
- Custom page templates: Handbook, Policy, Onboarding, Glossary, Full Width
- Typography-first layout with Inter, Source Serif 4, and JetBrains Mono
- 760px content width optimised for long-form reading
- Calm, professional documentation aesthetic
- Dark mode support via
prefers-color-scheme - Print-ready layouts with optimised print stylesheet
- Sticky sidebar documentation navigation
- Deeply nested collapsible navigation sections
- Auto-generated table of contents from headings
- Breadcrumb navigation with schema markup
- Keyboard-accessible search overlay (
/shortcut)
- WCAG 2.1 AA compliant
- Full keyboard navigation
- Skip links
- Visible focus states
prefers-reduced-motionrespected- Semantic HTML5 and ARIA landmarks
- Screen reader support
- Self-hosted variable fonts (no external CDN)
- Deferred JavaScript loading
- Minimal CSS and JS footprint
- No jQuery dependency
- No CSS frameworks
- Optimised for Lighthouse 95+
- JSON-LD structured data (Article, WebPage, BreadcrumbList, SearchAction)
- Open Graph and Twitter Card ready structure
- Semantic heading hierarchy
- WordPress 6.3 or higher
- PHP 8.0 or higher
- Go to Appearance > Themes > Add New.
- Search for "Handbook".
- Click Install, then Activate.
- Download the latest release from GitHub.
- Go to Appearance > Themes > Add New > Upload Theme.
- Upload the ZIP and activate.
- Activate the theme.
- Go to Settings > Reading and set a static front page.
- Create your page hierarchy (see docs/setup.md).
- Create navigation menus in Appearance > Editor > Navigation.
- Assign page templates (Handbook, Policy, Onboarding, etc.) to your pages.
- Start writing documentation.
handbook/
├── assets/
│ ├── css/ # Stylesheets (style, editor, print, docs)
│ ├── js/ # JavaScript (navigation, TOC, search, collapsible nav)
│ ├── fonts/ # Self-hosted variable fonts
│ └── images/ # Theme images
├── docs/ # Theme documentation
├── inc/ # PHP includes
│ ├── setup/ # Theme setup, enqueue, block patterns
│ ├── navigation/ # Breadcrumbs, walker
│ ├── accessibility/# Skip links, focus management
│ ├── search/ # AJAX search functions
│ ├── schema/ # JSON-LD structured data
│ └── performance/ # Performance optimisations
├── parts/ # Template parts (header, footer, sidebar, TOC, etc.)
├── patterns/ # Block patterns (10 documentation patterns)
├── templates/ # Block templates (10 page templates)
├── styles/ # Style variations (light, dark, high-contrast, minimal)
├── languages/ # Translation files
├── theme.json # Global styles and settings
├── functions.php # Theme functions
├── style.css # Theme metadata
└── screenshot.png # Theme preview
| Document | Description |
|---|---|
| docs/setup.md | Installation and initial configuration |
| docs/architecture.md | Theme architecture and file structure |
| docs/customization.md | Colours, typography, navigation, child themes |
| docs/accessibility.md | WCAG compliance and accessibility features |
| docs/performance.md | Optimisation strategy and hosting guidance |
| docs/handbook-structure.md | Organising documentation and page hierarchy |
| docs/onboarding-guide.md | Setting up onboarding documentation |
| docs/contribution-guide.md | Contributing to the theme |
| docs/wordpress-org-submission.md | WordPress.org submission checklist |
Handbook includes 10 purpose-built block patterns:
| Pattern | Description |
|---|---|
| Handbook Hero | Homepage hero section with search |
| Documentation Grid | Card grid for documentation sections |
| Onboarding Guide | Welcome message, checklist, contacts |
| Values Grid | Company values display cards |
| Process Steps | Numbered step-by-step workflows |
| Policy Callout | Policy summary with metadata |
| FAQ Section | Accessible accordion FAQ |
| Glossary Layout | Alphabetical glossary with navigation |
| Contributor Guide | Contribution workflow documentation |
| Async Guidelines | Async communication principles |
| Team Directory | Team member grid with timezone info |
| Variation | Description |
|---|---|
| Light | Default clean white theme |
| Dark | Dark background for low-light reading |
| High Contrast | Enhanced contrast for accessibility |
| Minimal | Monochrome, typography-focused |
Contributions are welcome. See docs/contribution-guide.md for the full guide.
- Fork the repository.
- Create a feature branch from
develop. - Follow WordPress Coding Standards.
- Submit a pull request.
See CHANGELOG.md.
Handbook is licensed under the GNU General Public License v2 or later.
All fonts are licensed under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.
- Author: Kunal Pareek
- Fonts: Inter (Rasmus Andersson), Source Serif 4 (Frank Grießhammer), JetBrains Mono (JetBrains)
- Inspired by: Automattic Handbook, GitLab Handbook, GOV.UK Design System, Stripe Docs