Built for Laravel 12 & 13 · PHP 8.5+

Beautiful docs,
from plain Markdown.

Drop .md files into your Laravel app. One Artisan command later — a fully rendered, cached, and searchable documentation site. No Node.js, no database, no configuration.

Get started View on GitHub

terminal

$composer require affonsopaulo/manual

$php artisan vendor:publish --tag=manual-assets

$php artisan manual:init

$php artisan manual:build

# Manual build complete: 14 documents scanned.

# Visit /manual in your browser.

Features

Everything your docs need.
Nothing you don't.

Servera Manual is opinionated about simplicity. Every feature is designed to stay out of your way while delivering a production-quality documentation experience.

File-System Routing

The directory layout is the navigation. No route declarations, no config files — every URL, breadcrumb, and sidebar entry is derived automatically from your files.

getting-started/index.md → /manual/getting-started

YAML Front Matter

Control titles, custom URLs, navigation order, page visibility, and stable keys — from a small YAML block at the top of each Markdown file.

title, order, slug, url, hidden, key

Two-Layer Cache

A manifest cache stores the full document graph. Each page is cached individually. Both layers auto-invalidate the moment any file changes — no manual purging required.

manifest cache + per-page HTML cache

Client-Side Search

A JSON endpoint exposes the full search index — titles, headings, excerpts, and content. No search server, no Algolia API key, no external dependencies.

/_manual/search.json · hidden pages excluded

Image Serving

Images are served through the same middleware as documents. Use @image/ from any page depth — no relative paths to maintain.

![](@image/screenshot.png) · works anywhere

Dynamic Helpers

Embed Laravel route URLs and cross-page links directly in Markdown using {{ }} expressions. Links resolve at render time — always correct, refactor-safe.

{{ doc('key') }} · {{ route('name') }}

How it works

From zero to live docs in three steps.

No build pipeline to configure, no tooling to install. Just Markdown files and one Artisan command standing between you and a production-quality documentation site.

Write your Markdown files

Create .md files anywhere inside your source directory. The directory structure becomes the sidebar automatically. Add optional YAML front matter to customize titles, order, and URLs per page.

docs/manual/

├── index.md

├── getting-started/

│ ├── index.md

│ └── installation.md

└── guides/

└── front-matter.md

Run the build command

A single Artisan command scans your source directory, validates routes, renders every page to HTML, warms both cache layers, and builds the JSON search index. Run it once on deploy and you're done.

$ php artisan manual:build

# Manual build complete:

# 14 documents scanned,

# 14 cached pages,

# 14 search documents.

Your docs are live

Visit /manual in your browser. Sidebar navigation, breadcrumbs, prev/next links, syntax-highlighted code, full-text search — all ready, all from your Markdown files.

# Routes registered:

GET /manual

GET /manual/{path}

GET /manual/_images/{f}

GET /manual/_manual/search.json

In practice

Markdown in, documentation out.

Write a Markdown file with optional front matter on the left. On the right, what Servera Manual automatically generates — navigation, breadcrumbs, prev/next, search, and syntax highlighting.

 getting-started/installation.md
---
title: Installation
description: Step-by-step guide to installing Servera Manual.
order: 1
key: getting-started.installation
---

# Installation

Install the package via Composer:

```bash
composer require affonsopaulo/manual
```

Publish assets and scaffold:

```bash
php artisan manual:init
php artisan manual:build
```

Visit `/manual` — your docs are live.

// Dynamic cross-page link:
[Config]({{ doc('getting-started.configuration') }})

localhost/manual/getting-started/installation

Installation

Step-by-step guide to installing Servera Manual.

Install the package via Composer:

$ composer require affonsopaulo/manual

Publish assets and scaffold:

$ php artisan manual:init
$ php artisan manual:build

Visit /manual — your docs are live.

← Overview

Configuration →

Configuration

Sensible defaults. Full control.

Publish the config file when you need to change something. Everything has a default that works without touching it — including the source path, cache, middleware, and search endpoint.

config/manual.php

<?php

return [

    // The directory scanned for .md files (relative to base_path())
    'source_path' => 'docs/manual',

    // URL prefix for all routes: /manual, /manual/...
    'route_prefix' => 'manual',

    // Shown in the browser tab and on error pages
    'site_title' => env('APP_NAME', 'Documentation'),

    // null = default Laravel store · 0 or negative = bypass (dev mode)
    'cache_store' => env('MANUAL_CACHE_STORE'),
    'cache_ttl' => 3600,

    // Applied to all routes: documents, images, and the search endpoint
    'middleware' => ['web'],

    'assets' => ['enabled' => true],

    'search' => [
        'enabled' => true,
        'endpoint' => '_manual/search.json',
    ],

    'images' => [
        'enabled' => true,
        'path' => '_images',
        'extensions' => ['jpg', 'jpeg', 'png', 'gif', 'webp', 'svg', 'ico'],
    ],
];

Beautiful docs,from plain Markdown.

Everything your docs need.Nothing you don't.

From zero to live docs in three steps.

Markdown in, documentation out.

Sensible defaults. Full control.

Ship your docs today.

Beautiful docs,
from plain Markdown.

Everything your docs need.
Nothing you don't.