generate-md.mjs is the main script that drives documentation generation. It initialises TypeDoc with all required plugins and options, converts webpack’s type definitions into a TypeDoc project model, and writes the Markdown output to disk.
webpack must be checked out at ./webpack/ relative to the project root before running this script. The script reads ./webpack/package.json to determine the webpack version and imports ./webpack/types.d.ts as the entry point. If the directory is missing, the script will fail.
Full source
import { Application } from "typedoc";
import webpack from "./webpack/package.json" with { type: "json" };
import { major } from "semver";
const app = await Application.bootstrapWithPlugins({
entryPoints: ["./webpack/types.d.ts"],
out: `pages/v${major(webpack.version)}.x`,
// Plugins
plugin: [
"typedoc-plugin-markdown",
"./plugins/processor.mjs",
"./plugins/theme/index.mjs",
],
theme: "doc-kit",
// Formatting
hideGroupHeadings: true,
hideBreadcrumbs: true,
hidePageHeader: true,
disableSources: true,
router: "module",
entryFileName: "index",
tsconfig: "tsconfig.json",
});
const project = await app.convert();
if (project) {
await app.generateOutputs(project);
}
How it works
The script calls Application.bootstrapWithPlugins, which initialises a TypeDoc Application instance and automatically discovers and loads the plugins listed in the plugin array. Once the application is ready, app.convert() parses the entry point and builds an in-memory project model. If conversion succeeds, app.generateOutputs(project) writes all output files to disk.
TypeDoc options
entryPoints
entryPoints: ["./webpack/types.d.ts"]
types.d.ts is webpack’s top-level type declaration file and is the canonical source of all public API types. TypeDoc follows imports and re-exports from this file to build the full type graph.
out
out: `pages/v${major(webpack.version)}.x`
./webpack/. For example, if ./webpack/package.json reports version 5.105.4, the output directory becomes pages/v5.x. This makes it straightforward to maintain versioned documentation side-by-side.
plugin
plugin: [
"typedoc-plugin-markdown",
"./plugins/processor.mjs",
"./plugins/theme/index.mjs",
]
| Plugin | Purpose |
|---|
typedoc-plugin-markdown | Replaces TypeDoc’s default HTML renderer with a Markdown renderer. |
./plugins/processor.mjs | A custom plugin that converts accessors to properties, merges export= namespaces, and writes type-map.json. |
./plugins/theme/index.mjs | Registers the doc-kit custom theme used by the theme option below. |
theme
Selects the doc-kit theme, which is registered by ./plugins/theme/index.mjs. The theme controls the structure and formatting of every generated Markdown page.
hideGroupHeadings: true,
hideBreadcrumbs: true,
hidePageHeader: true,
disableSources: true,
| Option | Effect |
|---|
hideGroupHeadings | Omits the bold group-name headings (e.g. “Classes”, “Interfaces”) that TypeDoc normally inserts above member groups. |
hideBreadcrumbs | Removes the breadcrumb trail at the top of each page. |
hidePageHeader | Suppresses the auto-generated page title/header block. |
disableSources | Does not emit links back to webpack source files. |
router
Tells TypeDoc to use module-based routing, where each module (or namespace) gets its own output file. This keeps the generated file tree aligned with webpack’s module structure.
entryFileName
Sets the name (without extension) of the root output file for each module directory. Each module’s top-level page is written as index.md.
tsconfig
tsconfig: "tsconfig.json"
Running the script
The script is wired to the generate-docs npm script:
To run the full pipeline (Markdown generation followed by HTML build), use: