Connect your GitHub. Get beautiful, AI-generated documentation instantly.
Docs that don't look boring.

Website • Features • How It Works • Quickstart • Templates • Tech Stack

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The Problem

Every developer knows the pain: you build something great, but writing the docs feels like a second full-time job. So you don't. Your README stays a one-liner, your API has no reference, and your users bounce.

WhatDoc fixes this. Connect your GitHub, import a repo, pick a template, and get production-ready documentation in under 60 seconds.

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✨ Features

	Feature	Description
🧠	Smart Code Ingestion	Shallow-clones your repo, walks the directory tree, filters noise (lockfiles, dist, tests), and compresses source via a regex-based minifier before sending to the LLM.
🎨	4 Pro Templates	Choose from Twilio, Django, MDN, or AeroLaTeX-inspired themes. Every template is responsive, dark-mode ready, and gorgeous.
🌐	Custom Subdomains	Every project gets its own yourproject.whatdoc.xyz subdomain — instant shareable docs.
🔑	BYOK (Bring Your Own Key)	Plug in your Gemini API key for unthrottled, limit-free generation. Stored in local storage, never touches our servers.
🔗	GitHub OAuth	Connect your GitHub, import repos (public or private), and generate docs in one flow.
✏️	Live Editor	Edit your generated documentation in a rich markdown editor. Changes save instantly.
🚀	One-Click Deploy	Generate → customize → deploy. Your docs go live at a permanent URL in seconds.
🧪	API Playground	Test API endpoints directly from your documentation page — auto-generated from backend routes.
✂️	Token Guillotine	Caps free-tier payloads at ~200k tokens with a smart file-boundary cutoff. BYOK users get the full context window.
⌨️	Command Palette	Power-user keyboard shortcuts for fast navigation.

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⚙️ The Engine

WhatDoc uses a multi-stage pipeline to go from raw repo → polished docs:

┌┐
│                                                              │
│   ① Shallow Clone        ② Code Ingestion      ③ LLM Call   │
│   ──     ──     ──   │
│   simple-git depth-1     Walk dir tree,         Gemini       │
│   to /tmp, ephemeral     filter noise files,    generates    │
│                          regex-minify each,     README +     │
│                          concatenate all         API ref     │
│                                                              │
│   ④ Cleanup & Render                                         │
│   ──                                         │
│   Nuke cloned files,                                         │
│   save markdown to DB,                                       │
│   render with chosen                                         │
│   React template                                             │
│                                                              │
└┘

Key design decisions:

• Ephemeral clones — Repos are cloned to /tmp, parsed, and deleted. Nothing persists on disk.
• Regex Guillotine — Strips block comments, consecutive // runs, base64 blobs, long string literals, and collapses blank lines before sending to the LLM. Keeps token count lean.
• Paradigm-aware prompting — The system prompt instructs Gemini to detect the repo type (REST API vs frontend vs CLI) and adapt the doc structure accordingly.
• Fat-Trimmer blocklist — Lockfiles, dist/, __tests__/, .min.js, source maps, and existing READMEs are all excluded automatically.
• Round-robin key rotation — Free-tier requests rotate across multiple Gemini API keys to avoid 429s. BYOK bypasses this entirely.
• Retry with exponential backoff — Rate-limited requests retry up to 3 times with 15s → 30s → 60s delays.

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🎨 Templates

Twilio API-first dark layout with sidebar nav

Django Classic two-column docs with TOC

MDN Reference-style with breadcrumbs

AeroLaTeX Academic glassmorphic on paper-white

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🚀 Quickstart

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• MongoDB (local or Atlas)
• Gemini API Key — Get one free

1. Clone

git clone https://github.com/herin7/whatdoc.xyz.git
cd whatdoc.xyz

2. Setup Server

cd server
npm install

Create a .env file:

MONGO_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/whatdoc
JWT_SECRET=your-secret-key
GEMINI_API_KEY=your-gemini-key
PORT=3000
CLIENT_URL=http://localhost:5173
CORS_ORIGINS=http://localhost:5173,http://localhost:4173
APP_DOMAIN=localhost

Start the server:

npm start

3. Setup Client

cd ../client
npm install

Create a .env file:

VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:3000
VITE_APP_DOMAIN=localhost:5173

Start the dev server:

npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173 and you're live. 🎉

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🛠 Tech Stack

Frontend

Tech	Purpose
React 19	UI framework
Vite	Build tool & dev server
TailwindCSS	Utility-first styling
React Router	Client-side routing
Lucide Icons	Icon system
React Markdown	Markdown rendering
React Syntax Highlighter	Code blocks

Backend

Tech	Purpose
Express 5	HTTP server
MongoDB + Mongoose	Database & ODM
Gemini API	AI-powered doc generation
simple-git	Ephemeral repo cloning
ignore	.gitignore-aware file filtering
JWT + bcrypt	Authentication
Zod	Schema validation

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📂 Project Structure

whatdoc.xyz/
├── client/                 # React frontend
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── app/            # Landing page
│   │   ├── components/     # Reusable UI components
│   │   ├── config/         # Template registry
│   │   ├── context/        # Auth context provider
│   │   ├── lib/            # API client & utilities
│   │   ├── pages/          # Route pages
│   │   └── templates/      # Doc display templates
│   └── public/             # Static assets
│
├── server/                 # Express backend
│   ├── controllers/        # Route handlers
│   ├── models/             # Mongoose schemas
│   ├── routes/             # API routes
│   ├── services/           # Engine & LLM logic
│   ├── middlewares/        # Auth middleware
│   └── utils/              # Key rotation manager
│
└── README.md

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Here's how:

1. Fork the repo
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feat/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'feat: add amazing feature')
4. Push to branch (git push origin feat/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

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📄 License

This project is open source under the MIT License.

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_{Built by @herin7
If WhatDoc helped you, consider giving it a ⭐}