Dokugen (TypeScript Client)

Dokugen is a lightweight, AI-powered CLI tool that automatically generates and maintains README.md files and LICENSE files for your projects. It scans your codebase, understands what your project does, and produces clean, professional documentation — so you don't have to.

Quick Start

Installation

Install Dokugen globally once:

npm install -g dokugen
# or
yarn global add dokugen
# or
pnpm install -g dokugen

Usage

1. Launch the Interactive Assistant

Simply run dokugen in your project folder to open the interactive setup assistant. From here, you can generate a README, update existing docs, generate a LICENSE file, revert backups, or run AI-assisted Git commits.

dokugen

2. Standalone Commands

Generate README

Scan your project files and construct a new README.md.

dokugen generate

Generate README with a Custom Template

Use any public README.md file as a structure template.

dokugen generate --template https://raw.githubusercontent.com/username/repo/main/README.md

Smart Update README

Intelligently rebuilds auto-generated sections (tech stack, API details, file layout) while keeping your custom text, notes, and badges intact.

dokugen update

Generate LICENSE File

Instantly scaffold a LICENSE file for your project. Dokugen will prompt you to pick from the most common open-source licenses, pre-filled with your name and the current year.

dokugen license

Supported licenses:

• MIT, Simple and permissive. Great for most open-source projects.
• ISC, Same as MIT but shorter.
• Apache 2.0, Permissive with explicit patent rights grant.
• GNU GPLv3, Strong copyleft. Derivatives must also be open source.
• BSD 2-Clause, Permissive. Requires copyright notice preservation.
• Unlicense, Public domain. No rules, no conditions.

AI Git Commit (aic)

Analyze your staged files, generate a Conventional Commit message automatically, commit, and optionally push.

dokugen aic
# or push immediately after committing
dokugen aic --push

Safety Backup Revert (revert)

Accidentally generated something you didn't like? Restore your previous README.md instantly from the automatic backup.

dokugen revert

Features

• Interactive Menu: Run dokugen with no arguments to navigate all tool actions through a beautiful console prompt, perfect for both new and experienced developers.
• Smart README Updates: Re-run generation without losing your manual modifications. Only auto-generated blocks get updated; your custom content stays untouched.
• LICENSE Generator: Pick from 6 popular open-source licenses and have a properly formatted LICENSE file created instantly, pre-filled with your author name and year.
• AI-Powered Commits: Automatic staging and conventional commit message generation via Google Gemini, keeps your commit history clean and consistent.
• Compressed Uploads: Efficiently packages codebases with 70–90% upload size compression to support analyzing larger projects without hitting API size limits.
• Language & Framework Agnostic: Works out of the box with any programming language or framework (JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Rust, Go, Java, PHP, C++, Django, React, etc.). You don't need Node.js or Python to be your codebase's main language; you can simply install Dokugen globally using Node (npm/pnpm/yarn) or Python (pip/uv), and run it in any directory.
• Custom Templates: Use any public GitHub README as a structural template for your generated docs.

System Architecture

Dokugen uses a client-server architecture. The TypeScript CLI sends your project data to a backend API, which uses Google Gemini to generate your README or commit messages. User profile data is stored securely in Supabase.

flowchart LR
  TSCLI["TypeScript CLI (dokugen)"]
  API["API Server (Node.js / Express)"]
  AI["AI Model (Google Gemini)"]
  DB[("Supabase Database")]

  TSCLI --> API
  API --> AI
  API --> DB

  style TSCLI fill:#1f3a60,stroke:#3b82f6,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff
  style API fill:#4a1525,stroke:#ec4899,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff
  style AI fill:#5c1d24,stroke:#ef4444,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff
  style DB fill:#1a2d42,stroke:#3b82f6,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Read our Contribution Guide to get started.

License

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

Author

• Samuel Tuoyo
• X (Twitter)
• LinkedIn