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Starlight

Create beautiful, accessible, high-performance docs sites with Astro

Starlight is a framework that lets you build fast, accessible, and visually appealing documentation websites on top of Astro, using TypeScript and MDX for a seamless developer experience.

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Overview

Highlights

Beautiful, accessible design system optimized for documentation
Seamless integration with Astro's component and routing model
MDX support for rich, interactive content
Static site generation for fast, CDN‑ready deployment

Pros

  • Fast build times and runtime performance
  • Built‑in accessibility best practices
  • Leverages Astro ecosystem and tooling
  • MIT license encourages community contributions

Considerations

  • Works only within the Astro framework
  • Customization may require TypeScript knowledge
  • Limited to static documentation use‑cases
  • Feature set is focused on docs, not full blogs

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Fit guide

Great for

  • Open‑source libraries needing clear API docs
  • Company internal knowledge bases
  • Developer portals and API reference sites
  • Technical tutorials that benefit from MDX

Not ideal when

  • Non‑technical marketing websites
  • Projects that require server‑side rendering
  • Teams not using Astro or TypeScript
  • Highly dynamic content beyond static docs

How teams use it

Open‑source library documentation

Provides a searchable, well‑styled reference that encourages adoption

Internal company knowledge base

Delivers fast, accessible internal docs without complex infrastructure

API reference portal

Organizes endpoints and examples in a consistent, SEO‑friendly format

Product tutorial site

Combines Markdown and interactive components for step‑by‑step guides

Tech snapshot

TypeScript84%
Astro9%
CSS3%
HTML2%
JavaScript1%
MDX1%

Tags

astrostatic-site-generatordocumentationstarlightdocs-generator

Frequently asked questions

What is Starlight?

Starlight is a documentation website framework built on top of Astro, focused on performance and accessibility.

Do I need to know Astro to use Starlight?

Basic familiarity with Astro helps, but Starlight provides a starter configuration that works out of the box.

Can I customize the theme?

Yes, you can extend or replace the default theme using Astro components and CSS.

Is dark mode supported?

Starlight includes a dark‑mode toggle that respects user system preferences.

What license does Starlight use?

Starlight is released under the MIT license.

Project at a glance

Active
Stars
7,775
Watchers
7,775
Forks
896
LicenseMIT
Repo age2 years old
Last commit3 hours ago
Primary languageTypeScript

Last synced 2 hours ago