Tanka Documentation Generator

Tanka Docs is a powerful technical documentation generator designed for .NET projects, inspired by the Antora project. It transforms your Markdown files and code examples into beautiful, versioned documentation websites.

🚀 Key Features

• Versioned Documentation: Generate documentation from Git repositories with support for versioning using tags and branches
• Modular Structure: Organize documentation using sections for better maintainability
• Live Code Integration: Include C# code snippets/files using #include syntax with Roslyn integration
• Dynamic Content Support: Include generated files with type: files sections for build artifacts and reports
• Cross-References: Link between documents using xref:// syntax for maintainable internal links
• Customizable UI: Use Handlebars templates for flexible UI customization
• Git Integration: Built-in support for Git repositories and version management
• Static Site Generation: Generates static HTML sites that can be hosted anywhere

📦 Quick Start

1. Install

Install Tanka Docs as a .NET global tool:

# Install from NuGet (recommended)
dotnet tool install --global Tanka.DocsGen

# Or install from local source (for development)
git clone https://github.com/pekkah/tanka-docs-gen.git
cd tanka-docs-gen
dotnet pack -c Release -o ./artifacts
dotnet tool install --global --add-source ./artifacts Tanka.DocsGen

2. Initialize Your Project

Navigate to your project directory and initialize Tanka Docs:

# Navigate to your project (must be a Git repository)
cd my-project

# Initialize Tanka Docs project
tanka-docs init

This creates:

• tanka-docs.yml - Production configuration
• tanka-docs-wip.yml - Development configuration
• ui-bundle/ - Customizable UI templates

3. Create Documentation Content

Create your documentation directory and files:

mkdir docs
echo "# Welcome to My Documentation" > docs/index.md

4. Build

# If installed as global tool:
tanka-docs build

# Or run directly from source:
dotnet run --project ./src/DocsTool/ -- build

5. Serve Locally

dotnet tool install --global dotnet-serve
cd output
dotnet serve

📚 Documentation

Comprehensive documentation is available at: https://pekkah.github.io/tanka-docs-gen

Quick Links

• Getting Started Guide - Step-by-step setup instructions
• CLI Reference - Command line options and usage
• Include Directives - Embedding code and content
• Cross-References - Internal linking system
• Troubleshooting - Common issues and solutions

🛠️ Command Line Usage

Initialize New Project

# Initialize in current directory
tanka-docs init

# Initialize with custom project name
tanka-docs init --project-name "My Amazing Docs"

# Initialize with custom branch
tanka-docs init --branch main

# Only create configuration files (skip UI bundle)
tanka-docs init --config-only

# Only extract UI bundle (skip configuration)
tanka-docs init --ui-bundle-only

# Force overwrite existing files
tanka-docs init --force

# Quiet mode (skip guidance output)
tanka-docs init --quiet

# Skip WIP configuration
tanka-docs init --no-wip

# Initialize in specific directory
tanka-docs init --output-dir /path/to/project

Build Documentation

# Basic build
tanka-docs build

# With custom configuration
tanka-docs build -f custom-config.yml

# With custom output directory  
tanka-docs build -o ./dist

# With debug output
tanka-docs build --debug

# For subdirectory deployment
tanka-docs build --base "/my-docs/"

Development Mode

# Development server with live reload
tanka-docs dev

# Custom port and configuration
tanka-docs dev --port 8080 -f custom-config.yml

📁 Project Structure

my-project/
├── tanka-docs.yml              # Main configuration
├── docs/                       # Documentation section
│   ├── tanka-docs-section.yml  # Section configuration
│   ├── index.md               # Documentation files
│   └── getting-started.md
├── reports/                    # Generated content section
│   ├── tanka-docs-section.yml  # type: files for dynamic content
│   ├── benchmark.md           # Generated at build time
│   └── coverage-report.html   # Generated reports
├── _partials/                  # Shared content
│   ├── tanka-docs-section.yml
│   └── common-notice.md
└── src/                        # Source code (for includes)
    └── Program.cs

✨ Advanced Features

Include Code Snippets

Include entire files or specific symbols:

\```csharp
# Include entire file
\#include::xref://src:Program.cs

# Include specific method
\#include::xref://src:MyClass.cs?s=MyNamespace.MyClass.MyMethod

# Include from another section
\#include::xref://examples:sample.cs
\```

Dynamic Content Sections

Include dynamically generated content that exists in your working directory but may not be committed to version control:

# reports/tanka-docs-section.yml
id: performance-reports
type: files  # <-- Special section type for dynamic content
title: "Performance Reports"
includes:
  - "**/*.md"
  - "*.html"
  - "*.json"

Perfect for:

• Build artifacts and generated reports
• Benchmark results created during CI/CD
• API documentation generated from code analysis
• Coverage reports and metrics

Cross-Reference Links

Create maintainable internal links:

[Getting Started](xref://getting-started.md)
[API Reference](xref://api:overview.md)
[Version 1.0 Docs](xref://docs@1.0.0:index.md)
[Latest Benchmarks](xref://performance-reports:benchmark.md)

Versioning with Git

In Tanka Docs, versioning is managed directly through branches and tags in your tanka-docs.yml.

# tanka-docs.yml
title: "My Project"
output_path: "output"

# Build docs from the main branch
branches:
  HEAD:
    input_path:
      - docs

# Build docs from all v1.* tags
tags:
  'v1.*':
    input_path:
      - docs

🎨 Customization

Custom UI Bundle

Create custom templates using Handlebars:

<!-- ui-bundle/article.hbs -->
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>{{page.title}} | {{site.title}}</title>
</head>
<body>
    <header>{{site.title}}</header>
    <main>{{{content}}}</main>
</body>
</html>

Custom Styling

/* ui-bundle/css/custom.css */
:root {
  --primary-color: #007acc;
  --background-color: #f8f9fa;
}

🔧 Configuration Options

Option	Description	Default
title	Site title	-
description	Site description	-
output_path	Output directory	gh-pages
build_path	Build cache directory	System temp directory
base_path	Base URL path	/
ui_bundle	UI template bundle	default

📋 Requirements

• .NET 9+ - Required for running the tool
• Git - Optional, for version control and Git sources
• Text Editor - Any editor that supports Markdown

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Add tests if applicable
5. Submit a pull request

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🆘 Support

• Documentation: https://pekkah.github.io/tanka-docs-gen
• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Discussions: GitHub Discussions