Doctocat is a Gatsby theme from GitHub's Primer team for quickly setting up documentation sites so authors can focus on writing docs.
What is Doctocat?
Doctocat is an open-source Gatsby theme distributed as @primer/gatsby-theme-doctocat on npm. It takes your documentation content and produces a documentation website styled with Primer, GitHub's design system. The theme is maintained by the Primer team and hosted at github.com/primer/doctocat, with live documentation at primer.style/doctocat.
Key Features
- Gatsby theme architecture — Installed as
@primer/gatsby-theme-doctocat, it can be added to a Gatsby site via npm.
- Primer design system — Uses Primer components and styling, giving documentation sites a look consistent with GitHub's design language.
- Focus on content — The setup handles site structure and layout so writers can concentrate on authoring documentation.
- Open source with automated publishing — The repository has a Publish workflow badge, indicating automated releases to npm.
- Live docs site — Primer hosts a full documentation site at primer.style/doctocat for installation and usage guides.
Who is it for?
- Technical writers — Write docs and get a styled docs site without building the site from scratch.
- Open-source maintainers — Publish documentation for their projects using a Gatsby theme that matches GitHub's visual style.
- Design system teams — Document Primer components and patterns with a theme built by the Primer team itself.
What can you do with Doctocat?
- Set up a docs site in minutes — Install the theme, add your content, and run Gatsby to generate a documentation site.
- Write docs with a clean workflow — Focus on content while the theme provides layout, navigation, and Primer styling.
- Deploy to any static host — Since it's Gatsby, the output is static HTML, JavaScript, and CSS deployable to Netlify, Vercel, or GitHub Pages.
Pricing
Doctocat is free and open source. The npm package and source code are publicly available.
FAQ
Is Doctocat free?
Yes, Doctocat is open source and freely available on GitHub and npm.
What does Doctocat do?
It's a Gatsby theme for building documentation websites. You install it, add your own content, and it provides the site layout and styling based on Primer.
How do I get started with Doctocat?
Visit primer.style/doctocat for installation instructions and documentation.
Who maintains Doctocat?
The Primer team at GitHub maintains the theme, as indicated by the @primer npm scope and the repository under the GitHub organization.
