Hudocs is a documentation theme for Hugo focused on multi-version documentation, allowing you to document multiple versions of a project within a single site.

Ultra lightweight — zero initial configuration.

Prerequisites #

Before installing Hudocs, make sure you have:

  • Hugo Extended 0.164.0 or higher.
    • Hudocs uses Sass to compile its stylesheets.
    • Verify the installed version with hugo version
    • The output must include extended.
  • Git installed and available in the terminal to clone the repository or manage submodules.

Installation #

Git Submodule #

A submodule lets you keep the Hudocs code separate from your site repository and update it whenever needed.

git submodule add https://github.com/zkreations/hudocs themes/hudocs

To update the submodule:

git submodule update --remote --merge

Hugo Modules #

Hugo Modules lets you manage Hudocs as a Go dependency.

  1. Initialize the module #

    Initialize your site’s module, replacing the path with your repository’s:

    hugo mod init github.com/your-username/my-docs

  2. Add Hudocs #

    Add Hudocs to hugo.toml:

    theme = "github.com/zkreations/hudocs"

  3. Download the module #

    Download Hudocs and its dependencies:

    hugo mod get github.com/zkreations/hudocs

Direct Clone #

You can clone Hudocs directly into themes/ if you need to modify its source code:

git clone https://github.com/zkreations/hudocs themes/hudocs

Example Site #

The exampleSite directory contains a configuration and content you can use as a starting point.

When using Git Submodules or Direct Clone, copy the example files directly from the themes/ directory:

  1. Copy the example files #

    Copy the example configuration and content to the root of your project:

    cp themes/hudocs/exampleSite/hugo.toml .
cp -R themes/hudocs/exampleSite/content .

    If you installed via Hugo Modules, you can download or copy these files directly from the GitHub repository.

  2. Start the server #

    Start the development server:

    hugo server

  3. Open the site #

    Open http://localhost:1313/ in your browser.

Next Steps #

See the Configuration guide to set up theme options, branding, and multilingual support.