Why no config

Every other docs tool
asks for a file first.

Before any of them shows you a single page, you write a list of your pages. That list is the thing that rots — and it rots quietly, one merge at a time.

Connect a repository

docs.json

{
  "navigation": { "groups": [{
    "group": "Get started",
    "pages": ["index", "quickstart"]
  }] }
}

Mintlify — every page, listed.

mkdocs.yml

site_name: Acme
nav:
  - Home: index.md
  - Guides:
    - Install: guides/install.md

MkDocs — every page, listed.

sidebars.js

module.exports = {
  docs: ['intro', {
    type: 'category',
    items: ['guides/install'],
  }],
};

Docusaurus — every page, listed.

SUMMARY.md

# Summary

* [Introduction](README.md)
* [Guides](guides/README.md)
  * [Install](guides/install.md)

GitBook — every page, listed.

Docs Flowy reads the same four repositories and needs none of these.

It looks in docs/, documentation/, doc/ and .github/docs/, then at the adr/, architecture/, specs/ and rfc/ folders at the root, and falls back to every markdown file that is not in a dependency directory. Titles come from front matter, then the first heading, then the filename. Order is README first, numeric prefixes next, then alphabetical by title.

There is an override file. It is never required, and if a repository ever needs one to read well, that is our bug and not your task.

Side by side

A config-driven docs site and Docs Flowy start from different places

Every row here is something the named tool documents about itself. None of it is a judgement about how good it is at the job it was built for.

Docs Flowy compared with config-driven documentation tools
Feature	Docs Flowyno config	Mintlifydocs.json	MkDocsmkdocs.yml	Docusaurussidebars.js	GitBookSUMMARY.md
Getting started
Works with no config filePoint it at a repository that has never heard of it and read a document.	Yes	No	No	No	No
Folder structure is the navigationThe tree, the order and the titles are inferred from what is there.	Yes	No	No	No	No
Page order maintained by handA list somebody edits every time a file is added.	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Shape of the thing
Built forWho the tool assumes is reading.	Your team first, then your customers	Your customers	Your customers	Your customers	Your customers
Many repositories, one workspaceRead and search across every service from one place.	Yes	No	No	No	No
Private repositories, read-onlyNever cloned; no token written to a database.	Yes	No	No	No	No
Needs a build stepA pipeline between the commit and the page.	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
What it does that a docs host does not
An MCP surface for your agentsYour coding agent reads the documentation, with nothing pasted in.	Yes	No	No	No	No
Review and implementation statusTwo axes per document, and drift measured against the content itself.	Yes	No	No	No	No
Notes an agent answers and only a person closes	Yes	No	No	No	No
Docs health — broken links, staleness, docs behind the code	Yes	No	No	No	No

Docs Flowyno config

Getting started

Works with no config file: Yes
Folder structure is the navigation: Yes
Page order maintained by hand: No

Shape of the thing

Built for: Your team first, then your customers
Many repositories, one workspace: Yes
Private repositories, read-only: Yes
Needs a build step: No

What it does that a docs host does not

An MCP surface for your agents: Yes
Review and implementation status: Yes
Notes an agent answers and only a person closes: Yes
Docs health — broken links, staleness, docs behind the code: Yes

Mintlifydocs.json

Getting started

Works with no config file: No
Folder structure is the navigation: No
Page order maintained by hand: Yes

Shape of the thing

Built for: Your customers
Many repositories, one workspace: No
Private repositories, read-only: No
Needs a build step: Yes

What it does that a docs host does not

An MCP surface for your agents: No
Review and implementation status: No
Notes an agent answers and only a person closes: No
Docs health — broken links, staleness, docs behind the code: No

MkDocsmkdocs.yml

Getting started

Works with no config file: No
Folder structure is the navigation: No
Page order maintained by hand: Yes

Shape of the thing

Built for: Your customers
Many repositories, one workspace: No
Private repositories, read-only: No
Needs a build step: Yes

What it does that a docs host does not

An MCP surface for your agents: No
Review and implementation status: No
Notes an agent answers and only a person closes: No
Docs health — broken links, staleness, docs behind the code: No

Docusaurussidebars.js

Getting started

Works with no config file: No
Folder structure is the navigation: No
Page order maintained by hand: Yes

Shape of the thing

Built for: Your customers
Many repositories, one workspace: No
Private repositories, read-only: No
Needs a build step: Yes

What it does that a docs host does not

An MCP surface for your agents: No
Review and implementation status: No
Notes an agent answers and only a person closes: No
Docs health — broken links, staleness, docs behind the code: No

GitBookSUMMARY.md

Getting started

Works with no config file: No
Folder structure is the navigation: No
Page order maintained by hand: Yes

Shape of the thing

Built for: Your customers
Many repositories, one workspace: No
Private repositories, read-only: No
Needs a build step: Yes

What it does that a docs host does not

An MCP surface for your agents: No
Review and implementation status: No
Notes an agent answers and only a person closes: No
Docs health — broken links, staleness, docs behind the code: No

Honestly

When you should use one of them instead

These are real jobs this product does not do, and will not.

A site you design from scratch: Custom components, an interactive API playground and a design of your own. Our public site publishes your Handbook as named releases at your team's docsflowy.site address. It is not a site builder, and Mintlify is good at that job.
A hand-ordered narrative: A tutorial series where chapter three must follow chapter two for a reason no folder name captures. Our order is inferred, on purpose. Use Docusaurus.
A wiki for everything: Your repository documents stay read-only here: you edit them in your editor and commit. Drafts and Handbook pages are written in Docs Flowy, but if every team needs a place to write anything at all, you want a wiki.

What is left is the case nobody built for: engineering documentation that already exists, spread over repositories, changing weekly, read by the people who wrote it and by the agents working alongside them.

Point it at a repository and see what it finds.

You will know inside three minutes whether the tree it builds is the one you would have written.

Start free

Every other docs toolasks for a file first.

A config-driven docs site and Docs Flowy start from different places

Docs Flowyno config

Mintlifydocs.json

MkDocsmkdocs.yml

Docusaurussidebars.js

GitBookSUMMARY.md

When you should use one of them instead

Point it at a repository and see what it finds.

Every other docs tool
asks for a file first.