Documentation Subsystem

DWE includes an integrated documentation browser and reference system. Access embedded built-in docs, project-specific docs (when present), render markdown with syntax highlighting, and view mermaid diagrams inline.

Pages

• Interactive TUI browser — dwe docs keys, layout, search
• Non-interactive commands — show, list, search, export, llms-txt, cache clear, plus mermaid configuration and mmdc install
• Translations and language behavior — locale resolution, file layout, content-hash staleness check

Quick start

View docs interactively:

dwe docs

Show a specific topic in the terminal:

dwe docs show config/services/fields
dwe docs show config/userconfig#binary-overrides

List all available topics:

dwe docs list

Export all docs to a directory:

dwe docs export ./my-docs

Project docs

DWE automatically detects and includes documentation from your project’s ./docs/ directory.

When ./docs/ exists, the TUI browser shows a second top-level branch:

DWE
  concepts/
  config/
  render/
  guides/
  README
Project
  guides/
  examples/

If ./docs/ is absent or empty, the Project branch is omitted.

Structure:

<project>/
  docs/
    guides/
      setup.md
    examples/
      docker.md
    README.md

Hot reload: Edit files in ./docs/ while the TUI is open; the viewport updates automatically (press r to manually reload if auto-detect misses an edit).

Configuration reference

mmdc binary override

Path or name of the mermaid-cli executable. Defaults to mmdc (searched on $PATH).

This is overridden in the user-config file (~/.config/dwe/config, or .dwe/config in a project) as a flat binary_mmdc key — not in workspace.yml:

binary_mmdc = /usr/local/bin/mmdc   # Absolute path; omit to use `mmdc` on $PATH (default)

See config/userconfig for the full binary-override list.

docs.mermaid

Mermaid rendering mode. One of:

• auto — Render if mmdc available; fall back to raw blocks if missing (default)
• mmdc — Require mmdc; error placeholder if missing
• off — Never render; always show raw mermaid blocks

Default: auto

docs:
  mermaid: auto   # Default
  mermaid: mmdc   # Strict mode
  mermaid: off    # Disabled

docs.cache_size_mb

Maximum size of the mermaid diagram cache in MB. Defaults to 100.

docs:
  cache_size_mb: 50   # 50 MB cache
  cache_size_mb: 500  # 500 MB cache

Once the cache exceeds this limit, oldest diagrams are automatically deleted (LRU eviction).

Related commands

• dwe docs generate — Generate markdown documentation from user commands
• dwe validate — Check for documentation errors and orphan translation entries
• dwe commands list — List user commands with translated descriptions