docs-site Skill

Scaffold a Markdown + Eleventy documentation site with build-time data injection and GitHub Pages deployment.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• A package.json in the project root (or willingness to create one)

Step 1: Gather Project Info

Ask the user:

1. Project name -- Used in site title, footer, nav logo
2. Site URL -- For meta tags, sitemap, og:url (e.g., https://example.com)
3. Author name -- For blog attribution, structured data, and E-E-A-T signals (e.g., Jean Deruelle)
4. Docs input directory -- Where docs source files live (e.g., docs/)
5. GitHub repository URL -- For nav link and deployment
6. Pages to create -- Which pages beyond index (e.g., getting-started, changelog, API reference)

Step 2: Install Dependencies

npm install --save-dev @11ty/eleventy

Add scripts to package.json:

{
  "scripts": {
    "docs:dev": "npx @11ty/eleventy --serve",
    "docs:build": "npx @11ty/eleventy"
  }
}

Ensure "type": "module" is set in package.json for ESM config.

Step 3: Create Eleventy Config

Create eleventy.config.js at the project root:

const INPUT = "<docs-input-dir>";

export default function (eleventyConfig) {
  eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy({ [`${INPUT}/css`]: "css" });
  eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy({ [`${INPUT}/images`]: "images" });
  // Add more passthrough copies as needed
}

export const config = {
  dir: {
    input: INPUT,
    output: "_site",
    includes: "_includes",
    data: "_data",
  },
  markdownTemplateEngine: "njk",
  htmlTemplateEngine: "njk",
  templateFormats: ["md", "njk"],
};

Add _site/ to .gitignore.

Step 4: Create Directory Structure

<docs-input-dir>/
  _data/
    site.json          # Site metadata (name, url, nav)
  _includes/
    base.njk           # Base HTML layout
  css/
    style.css          # Minimal starter CSS
  images/              # Static images
  index.njk            # Landing page
  pages/
    getting-started.md # First content page

_data/site.json

{
  "name": "<Project Name>",
  "url": "<site-url>",
  "author": {
    "name": "<Author Name>",
    "url": "<site-url>"
  },
  "nav": [
    { "label": "Get Started", "url": "pages/getting-started.html" }
  ]
}

_includes/base.njk

Create a minimal HTML shell with:

• Head: charset, viewport, description meta, title, CSS link
• Header: logo linking to index.html, nav from site.nav
• Main: {{ content | safe }}
• Footer: project name, links

Use page.url comparison for aria-current="page" on nav links.

css/style.css

Provide a minimal starter stylesheet with CSS custom properties for easy theming.

Content pages

Create .md files with YAML frontmatter:

---
title: Getting Started
description: "How to get started with <Project Name>"
layout: base.njk
permalink: pages/getting-started.html
---

Step 5: Data Files (Optional)

If the project has components to catalog at build time, create data files in _data/:

// _data/version.js -- reads version from package.json
import { readFileSync } from "node:fs";
import { resolve } from "node:path";

export default function () {
  const pkg = JSON.parse(readFileSync(resolve("package.json"), "utf-8"));
  return pkg.version;
}

Data files export a function that returns data available in all templates.

Step 6: GitHub Pages Workflow

Create .github/workflows/deploy-docs.yml:

name: Deploy Documentation

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
    paths:
      - '<docs-input-dir>/**'
  workflow_dispatch:

permissions:
  contents: read
  pages: write
  id-token: write

concurrency:
  group: pages
  cancel-in-progress: false

jobs:
  deploy:
    environment:
      name: github-pages
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
          cache: npm
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npx @11ty/eleventy
      - uses: actions/configure-pages@v4
      - uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v3
        with:
          path: _site
      - uses: actions/deploy-pages@v4

Step 7: Verify

npx @11ty/eleventy --serve

Open http://localhost:8080 and verify:

• All pages render correctly
• CSS loads
• Navigation works with aria-current="page"
• Data variables resolve in templates

Notes

• Nunjucks variables ({{ var }}) are NOT resolved inside YAML frontmatter. Use static strings for description in frontmatter, and template variables only in the page body.
• Passthrough copy paths in addPassthroughCopy() are relative to the project root, NOT the input directory. Use the mapping format: { "source/path": "output/path" }.
• Eleventy v3 uses ESM (export default) -- do not use CommonJS (module.exports).