Star-Lite Docs

The Starlight documentation experience, powered by EmDash CMS. Edit docs visually in the browser - no MDX files, no Git commits, no rebuilds.

Get Started

Install Bun if you don't have it:

curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash

Then create your project:

bun create star-lite-docs

The CLI scaffolds your project and offers three deployment targets: Local, Docker, or Cloudflare Workers (with automatic D1/R2 provisioning and deploy).

[!TIP] Star-Lite also works with any existing emdash site - just run bunx astro add star-lite-docs. Block components, the welcome page, and route conflict warnings are all handled automatically at build time.

Why Star-Lite?

Starlight is great for developers. But non-technical contributors can't edit MDX files, and every change requires a commit + rebuild. Star-Lite gives you the same Starlight layout and components, backed by a CMS with visual editing - click text on the page, edit it, hit Save.

Visual Editing

Toggle Edit in the toolbar, click any text, and edit in place. A Save button appears - click it and your changes are live.

Block Editor

Hover any block to reveal an Edit button. Opens an inline property editor for all fields - no admin panel needed.

Markdown Mode

Click "Edit as MD" to switch to a full-page markdown textarea. All blocks round-trip as markdown. Same workflow as Starlight.

Features

• Starlight layout - collapsible sidebar, table of contents, Ctrl+K search, dark/light/auto theme
• 14 block types - hero, tabs, cards, asides, steps, badges, file trees, icons, link buttons, code, images, and raw HTML
• Zero config - one integration, no schema setup. First request seeds the pages collection, sidebar menu, and welcome page
• Menu-driven sidebar - edit navigation from the admin UI, no rebuild needed
• Expressive Code - syntax highlighting with bundled Night Owl themes
• Copy Page MD - one-click clipboard export of any page as markdown

Deploy

Cloudflare Workers

The CLI handles everything - D1, R2, deploy, admin user creation, and seed content:

bun create star-lite-docs   # choose Cloudflare Workers → Start now

Docker

bun create star-lite-docs   # choose Docker → Start now

Or manually:

docker build -t <project-name> .
docker run -d --restart unless-stopped -p 4321:4321 \
  -v <project-name>-data:/app/data \
  -v <project-name>-uploads:/app/uploads \
  <project-name>

Node.js

bun create star-lite-docs   # choose Local development → Start now

Configuration

starLiteDocs({
  title: "My Docs",

  // Omit for menu-driven sidebar (editable from admin UI)
  sidebar: [
    {
      label: "Guide",
      items: [
        { label: "Getting Started", link: "/getting-started" },
        { label: "Installation", link: "/install" },
      ],
    },
  ],

  // Set to `false` to disable bundled Expressive Code
  expressiveCode: { /* AstroExpressiveCodeOptions */ },
});

Block Types

| Block | Description | | --- | --- | | docs.hero | Splash hero with title, tagline, image, and action buttons | | docs.image | Standalone image with editable src and alt | | docs.html | Raw HTML passthrough (also used for preprocessed text blocks) | | code | Expressive Code syntax-highlighted block | | star-lite.tabs | Tabbed content panels | | star-lite.card | Content card with optional icon and color | | star-lite.cardGrid | Grid layout for cards | | star-lite.linkCard | Navigation card with title, description, and link | | star-lite.aside | Callout box - note, tip, caution, or danger | | star-lite.badge | Inline status badge | | star-lite.fileTree | File and directory tree | | star-lite.icon | Inline icon from the Starlight icon set | | star-lite.linkButton | Styled link rendered as a pill button | | star-lite.steps | Numbered step-by-step instructions |

Add to an Existing EmDash Site

bunx astro add star-lite-docs

This wires starLiteDocs() into your astro.config.mjs. If installing from GitHub instead of npm:

bun add github:gruntlord5/star-lite-docs

Then add the integration manually:

import { starLiteDocs } from "star-lite-docs";

// add to your integrations array:
starLiteDocs({ title: "My Docs" }),

Block components, the welcome page, and route conflict warnings are all handled automatically at build time.

API

import {
  starLiteDocs,        // Astro integration (blocks auto-registered at build)
  starLiteBlocks,      // emdash plugin descriptor (only needed for advanced setups)
  preprocessBlocks,    // PT normalizer (headings, tables, images, text → docs.html)
  preprocessImages,    // image-only subset
  loadSidebarFromMenu, // resolve emdash menu → SidebarConfig[]
  ensurePagesCollection, // idempotent seed bootstrap
  defaultSeed,         // the SeedFile shipped by the plugin
  buildSidebar,        // build sidebar tree from flat config
  markCurrent,         // mark the active sidebar item by slug
} from "star-lite-docs";

import type {
  StarLiteDocsOptions,
  StarLiteDocsConfig,
  SidebarConfig,
  SidebarEntry,
  SidebarLink,
  SidebarGroup,
} from "star-lite-docs";

Astro components are available at subpath imports:

import DocsLayout from "star-lite-docs/layout";

License

MIT