Documentation Development

Documentation Plugin Development

When to use this skill

Use this skill when:

• Adding markdown-based documentation pages inside a Filament admin panel
• Configuring the documentation sidebar navigation, slug, and icons
• Writing documentation with YAML frontmatter and nested directories
• Setting up authorization for documentation access
• Customizing caching, link resolution, or markdown parsing
• Troubleshooting page rendering, navigation, or routing issues

Architecture

Namespace

JeffersonGoncalves\FilamentDocumentation

Key Classes

Dependencies

• filament/filament: ^5.0
• league/commonmark: ^2.4 (Markdown parsing with GFM and extensions)
• spatie/yaml-front-matter: ^2.0 (YAML frontmatter extraction)
• spatie/laravel-package-tools: ^1.16

Configuration

Install Command

php artisan docs:install

This command:

1. Publishes the config file
2. Optionally publishes example documentation files to resources/docs/

Manual Publishing

# Config only
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=filament-documentation-config

# Example docs only
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=filament-documentation-docs

Config File

// config/filament-documentation.php
return [
    'title'         => env('DOCS_TITLE', 'Documentation'),
    'docs_path'     => resource_path('docs'),
    'home'          => 'home.md',
    'cache_minutes' => env('DOCS_CACHE', 10),  // 0 to disable
    'login_route'   => null,
];

Features

Plugin Registration

use JeffersonGoncalves\FilamentDocumentation\FilamentDocumentationPlugin;

public function panel(Panel $panel): Panel
{
    return $panel
        ->plugins([
            FilamentDocumentationPlugin::make()
                ->slug('docs')
                ->navigationLabel('Documentation')
                ->navigationIcon('heroicon-o-book-open')
                ->navigationGroup('Help')
                ->navigationSort(99)
                ->withAuthorization(false),
        ]);
}

Plugin API Reference

Writing Documentation

Place .md files in resources/docs/ (configurable via docs_path).

Frontmatter

---
title: "Getting Started"
path: home
order: 1
---

Nested Directories

Subdirectories become collapsible groups in the sidebar:

resources/docs/
├── home.md
├── installation.md
├── configuration.md
└── advanced/
    ├── overview.md
    ├── authorization.md
    └── customization.md

Directory names are formatted automatically: advanced becomes Advanced, getting-started becomes Getting Started.

Relative Links

Link between docs using relative .md paths -- they auto-convert to panel routes:

- [Installation](installation.md)
- [Advanced](advanced/overview.md)

Authorization

Enable authorization to restrict documentation access:

FilamentDocumentationPlugin::make()
    ->withAuthorization(true)

Then define a gate in your AuthServiceProvider or a policy:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Gate;

Gate::define('viewDocumentation', function ($user) {
    return $user->hasRole('admin');
});

When authorization is enabled, DocumentationPage::canAccess() checks auth()->user()->can('viewDocumentation').

Internal Behavior

DocumentationParser

The parser uses League CommonMark with these extensions:

• CommonMarkCoreExtension -- Standard Markdown
• GithubFlavoredMarkdownExtension -- Tables, strikethrough, autolinks, task lists
• FrontMatterExtension -- YAML frontmatter extraction
• HeadingPermalinkExtension -- Anchor links on headings

Processing pipeline:

1. Extract YAML frontmatter via regex
2. Strip frontmatter from raw content
3. Convert Markdown to HTML via MarkdownConverter
4. Extract title from frontmatter or first H1
5. Add data-lang attributes to code blocks for syntax highlighting
6. Convert relative .md links to panel routes via DocumentationPage::getUrl()

Caching

// Cache key includes file path + modification time
$cacheKey = 'filament_docs_' . md5($filePath . filemtime($filePath));

// Cached for configured minutes (default: 10)
Cache::remember($cacheKey, now()->addMinutes($cacheMinutes), fn () => $this->parseFile($filePath));

Set DOCS_CACHE=0 to disable caching during development.

NavigationBuilder

Builds a recursive navigation tree by scanning the docs directory:

1. Lists all .md files and subdirectories
2. Parses each file to extract title, order, path, and slug
3. Subdirectories become type: 'directory' nodes with children
4. Files become type: 'file' nodes
5. Sorts by order (from frontmatter, default: 999)
6. markActive() sets active and open flags based on current slug

Navigation node structure:

[
    'type'     => 'file',        // 'file' or 'directory'
    'title'    => 'Getting Started',
    'slug'     => 'home',
    'order'    => 1,
    'path'     => 'home',
    'active'   => true,
    'children' => [],
]

DocumentationPage

The page component:

• Route: {slug}/{pageSlug?} with where('pageSlug', '.*') for nested paths
• mount(): Resolves the default slug from config home setting, loads document and navigation
• navigateTo(string $slug): Livewire method for SPA-like navigation with window.history.pushState
• resolveFilePath(): Tries {slug}.md first, then {slug}/index.md, then falls back to home.md

File Resolution Order

// 1. Direct file match
$docsPath . '/' . $slug . '.md'

// 2. Directory index
$docsPath . '/' . $slug . '/index.md'

// 3. Fallback to home
$docsPath . '/' . config('filament-documentation.home', 'home.md')

Troubleshooting

Page Not Found / Shows "Page not found" Message

Cause: The .md file does not exist at the expected path. Solution: Verify the file exists in resources/docs/ (or your configured docs_path). Check the slug matches the filename without .md extension.

Navigation Sidebar Empty

Cause: No .md files in the configured docs_path, or directory does not exist. Solution: Run php artisan docs:install to publish example docs, or create .md files in resources/docs/.

Stale Content After Editing

Cause: Cached parsed content. Solution: Set DOCS_CACHE=0 in .env during development, or clear cache with php artisan cache:clear.

Relative Links Not Working

Cause: Linked .md file does not exist, or path is outside the docs root. Solution: Ensure the linked file exists and the relative path resolves within resources/docs/. The link converter uses realpath() and validates the result is within docs_path.

Authorization Blocking Access

Cause: withAuthorization(true) is enabled but no viewDocumentation gate is defined. Solution: Define the gate in your AuthServiceProvider:

Gate::define('viewDocumentation', fn ($user) => true);

Route Conflicts

Cause: The slug conflicts with another Filament page route. Solution: Change the slug: FilamentDocumentationPlugin::make()->slug('documentation').

Source: jeffersongoncalves/filament-documentation — distributed by TomeVault.