Retype builds a documentation site from Markdown and nothing else

One command, one file, one output folder

Retype is described as an ultra-high-performance static site generator that builds a website based on simple text files, and its own positioning is a Markdown-first documentation website builder.

The promise is stated in the readme as: Retype turns your Markdown files into a beautiful, production-ready website, with no design work, no coding, no recurring fees and no vendor lock-in. You write your content, run one command, and the site is ready to share. The emphasis on no design work is the real differentiator, because the alternative for a documentation site is usually a theme you configure or a framework you assemble.

The input is a folder of Markdown files and the output is a static HTML website. The readme puts the minimum at its most basic: all you need is a single .md file. There is no build pipeline to design and no framework to learn, and the design principle is stated as getting out of your way so you can focus on writing.

The audience is therefore a documentation team that writes Markdown and does not want to become a front end developer, and the readme carries a quote that names the persona exactly: tech savvy non-devs who want to write using the best web standards out there.

Two things about the distribution model are worth underlining. The output is a static site with no server-side software and no external dependencies, so it can be hosted on GitHub Pages, Netlify, Cloudflare, or any web server, and the readme is explicit that the site can be public or private within an organisation's network. And the content stays in plain Markdown files that you own, with no proprietary format, which is the substance behind the no vendor lock-in claim.

Installing and running the first build

There are three installation routes, and they are chosen to match the toolchain you already have rather than to impose one.

With npm:

npm install retypeapp --global

With Yarn:

yarn global add retypeapp

And with the dotnet CLI:

dotnet tool install retypeapp --global

All three install globally, which tells you something about the intended workflow: the tool is a single command you run in a content folder, not a dependency your project declares.

The first build is then one command. You navigate to any folder that contains Markdown files and run:

retype start

Retype builds the site and opens it in the browser automatically. There is no project scaffolding step, no configuration file to create first, and no dev server to configure, which is the point of the installation card in the readme that promises installation in seconds.

The readme also states that the installation takes only a few seconds and that after it, all you need is one Markdown .md file which Retype will start building a new website from. For someone evaluating a static site generator, that is the fastest possible test: point the tool at an existing folder of notes and see what comes out.

Configuration is a YAML file and a component vocabulary

Beyond plain Markdown, Retype has two layers of its own, and they are the parts a user has to learn.

The first is project level configuration, in a file called retype.yml, and the readme says that it unlocks many more features and customization. Page level configuration is also available, and the examples it gives are setting a custom navigation label or an icon for a page. So the navigation entries, which in a plain Markdown site are usually a hand written index file, are described by configuration instead.

The second layer is components. The readme describes pages as being formatted with Markdown syntax and Retype components, and links to a components page. The repository shows what that vocabulary looks like in practice, because the readme itself is written in it. The header of the readme is a front matter block with a label, an icon and a backlinks setting. The install section uses a tabbed block with the three package managers as tabs. There is a callout block with a quote, a section that renders as a callout with an exclamation marker, and the support section is pulled in with an include directive that names a snippet file.

Those are not Markdown features, they are Retype's, and they are why the readme looks like a documentation site rather than a README. It is also why the project can claim no design work: the components are the design system, already written, and a user composes them rather than writing CSS.

The repository layout mirrors that vocabulary. There are directories for components, configuration, guides, hosting, samples and templating, plus underscore prefixed directories for reusable components and includes, a retype.yml at the root, a retype.build.yml for the build, and an llms.txt file, which is the convention for exposing a documentation site's content to language model tooling.

Live reload, and hosting the output anywhere

The development loop is the part that makes a documentation tool pleasant to use day to day.

If a change is detected, such as editing and saving an .md file, the Retype website is updated almost instantly within the browser. So the workflow is one terminal running retype start, one browser tab, and no rebuild command, no bundler watch mode to configure and no server to restart. The readme's claim is simply that Retype was built for speed, and the live reload is the visible part of that.

The output side is deliberately boring. Retype generates an HTML website that you can self-host on any web hosting service, or for free using GitHub Pages, Netlify or Cloudflare, and no special server-side software or external dependencies are required. The readme links to separate hosting guides for each of the three free options, and for anyone who wants their own server.

The two properties together are what produce the no vendor lock-in claim. The input is plain Markdown files in a Git repository, and the output is static HTML. There is no database to migrate, no service to keep running, and no format that only one tool can read. If you stopped using Retype tomorrow, the content would still be Markdown, and a different generator could build it.

The private case is worth noting too, because it is a documentation project and not every documentation project should be public. The readme says a Retype site can be hosted as a public website or as a private website within an organisation's network, and the samples directory includes files named private and protected, which suggests the project supports a distinction between public and restricted pages.

The readme is a demonstration of the tool

The clearest thing about the project is that its own website is built with it, and the readme points at the source.

The retype.com website was generated using Retype, and the readme links to the source files used to generate that very page, which are the README.md and the other Markdown files in the repository. So the documentation is not a description of the tool written by someone else, it is the tool's output, and you can read the source of the page you are reading.

That is a stronger form of documentation than a tutorial, and it has a practical consequence for anyone evaluating the project: the format vocabulary is not described in prose so much as demonstrated. The front matter, the tabbed install block, the callout, the include directive and the card links at the top are all doing their job on the page, and a reader can copy the pattern without reading a specification.

The samples directory makes the same point from the other side, with example pages covering a basic page, a page with a header, an advanced project configuration, a basic project configuration and a YAML index, plus hidden, private and protected pages. That is a small catalogue of the decisions a project makes, and for a tool whose selling point is that it should not need a specification, having the decisions laid out as files to copy is the right approach.

The features are organised in a similar way in the repository, with a features.md and a feature-log.md, so the change history of the features is kept next to the features themselves rather than only in a changelog.

Licence, the commercial edges and where the project stands

Two things to check before you build a documentation site on this.

The first is the licence. The repository contains a LICENSE.md file, but the licence field on the GitHub page is listed as a custom licence that GitHub cannot classify, so the file is the authoritative text and it needs reading. For a tool whose pitch includes no recurring fees, the terms in that file are the part that decides whether the promise holds for your use.

The second is the boundary between the free tool and anything commercial. The readme argues for no recurring fees and no lock-in, and the repository contains a directory named pro/ alongside the open parts of the tree, which is the place to look if your organisation needs the professional tier. The samples include pages named private and protected, so if you are publishing documentation with different access levels, that is a feature to evaluate rather than assume.

The rest of the repository is a documentation project in the fullest sense: guides for installation, getting started and the command line interface, a configuration section, a hosting section with per provider guides, a community page, a blog directory, an about page and a frequently asked questions file. The command line reference is a separate page in the guides, which is a good sign for a tool whose entire interface is a command line.

On maintenance, the recent releases are 4.6.0 on 2026-05-25 and a 4.7.0 preview on 2026-06-08, with the preview build published a little after the stable one, and the last push was on 2026-06-09. The repository is not archived, and the versioning with a preview channel for the next minor release is a pattern that suggests a team shipping on a schedule.

Editorial conclusion

Retype suits a team writing documentation in Markdown that wants a presentable site without maintaining a framework, and it suits people who are technical but do not want to write code to write docs. It is the wrong choice if you need a framework you already know, because the component syntax and the configuration file are Retype's own, and a poor match if you need to run a build on a continuous integration server with a locked toolchain, since the global install is the documented path. Before adopting, read the licence file in the repository, because the licence field is listed as unclassified, and try it on a small folder of existing Markdown to see whether its rendering matches what your content expects.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. Project website
3. README
4. Releases
5. retypeapp/retype on GitHub