Getting Started
- 1Install Starlight
- 2Add first page
- 3Deploy to web
Starlight FrontendDocumentation sites built on Astro
Starlight is Astro's official documentation framework — beautiful, accessible docs with full-text search, dark mode, i18n, and sidebar navigation out of the box. We build and customise Starlight for developer products.
Starlight is Astro's official documentation framework — purpose-built for creating beautiful, fast, and accessible documentation sites. It provides full-text search, dark mode, sidebar navigation, table of contents, i18n, and MDX component support out of the box, with perfect Lighthouse scores. Starlight leverages Astro's content-first architecture, shipping zero JavaScript by default and hydrating interactive components only when needed. It's the recommended choice for developer product documentation, API references, and knowledge bases.
Quick start
# Create a new Starlight site
npm create astro@latest -- --template starlight
# Or add Starlight to an existing Astro project
npx astro add starlight
# Start development
npm run devRead the full documentation at starlight.astro.build/
Full-text search
Algolia or local search built in — instant results as users type, configurable relevance and facets.
Internationalisation
First-class i18n with locale-based routing, translated sidebars, and per-locale versioning out of the box.
Dark mode & accessibility
System-aware dark mode toggle and accessible markup — meets WCAG standards without extra configuration.
Sidebar & TOC
Auto-generated sidebar navigation from file structure and in-page table of contents from headings.
MDX components
Embed React components in Markdown — tabs, admonitions, code blocks, and interactive examples inline.
Perfect Lighthouse scores
Static site generation with optimised assets — 100/100 Lighthouse scores for performance, accessibility, and SEO.
Why it's hard
Customization beyond built-in themes
Starlight provides extensive configuration but deep visual customization requires understanding Astro's component override system. The override mechanism is well-documented but has a learning curve.
Large documentation sites
Sites with thousands of pages may experience longer build times. Astro's incremental builds and content collection caching help, but very large sites should be tested for build performance.
Migration from other doc platforms
Migrating from Docusaurus, GitBook, or VuePress requires converting content and restructuring navigation. The markdown format is standard but frontmatter and config differ.
Best practices
Use MDX for interactive documentation
Starlight supports MDX — embed React or Astro components in your documentation for interactive examples, code playgrounds, and API explorers.
Configure sidebar groups logically
Organize sidebar navigation by user journey (Getting Started, Guides, API Reference, FAQ) rather than internal project structure.
Enable i18n from the start
If you plan to support multiple languages, configure Starlight's i18n system early — retrofitting translations is harder than building with i18n from the beginning.
Frequently asked questions
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Want to build with Starlight?
Talk to our engineering team about your Starlight architecture. We'll respond within 24 hours.
We limit intake each month so every project gets the focus it deserves.