std-docs

Active contributors: andrewrk, mlugg

Purpose

lib/compiler/std-docs.zig (~16 KB) backs zig std. Running zig std boots a tiny local HTTP server and opens it in the user's browser. The page hosted there is the Zig standard library's autodoc — a search-as-you-type interface over every type, declaration, and pub fn exported from lib/std/.

How it works

sequenceDiagram
    actor User
    User->>+zig: zig std
    zig->>+std-docs: lib/compiler/std-docs.zig main()
    std-docs->>+std.http.Server: bind on localhost
    std-docs->>+lib/docs/index.html: serve UI
    User->>+std.http.Server: open http://localhost:<port>
    std.http.Server-->>-User: HTML + JSON index

• The UI bundle lives in lib/docs/ (HTML/JS/CSS).
• The JSON index is generated at compile time by the same autodoc machinery used for zig build std-docs (build.zig's install_std_docs step).
• Search and navigation happen entirely client-side.

Build-time docs

zig build std-docs builds the same documentation as a static site under zig-out/doc/std/. lib/docs/index.html is the entry point (and the -Denable-superhtml flag in build.zig validates it).

Integration points

• Build system: build.zig's addInstallDirectory(...) for getEmittedDocs().
• Autodoc generation: lives inside the compiler itself — the same path that emits doc JSON for any package compiled with --emit-docs.
• std.http.Server: the embedded server.

Key source files

File	Purpose
lib/compiler/std-docs.zig	The CLI tool.
lib/docs/	HTML/JS frontend.
lib/std/http.zig	HTTP server used to serve the page.

See build.zig for the matching std-docs build step.