---
name: docsbook-get-started
title: Onboard your agent to Docsbook
url: https://docsbook.io/get-started.md
description: |-
  Hand this playbook to a coding agent to set it up for Docsbook: connect the
  MCP server, install the documentation toolkit for whichever agent is running,
  and take one project all the way to a live documentation site.
supported_surfaces: [mcp, plugin, skills]
runtimes:
  [Claude Code, Codex CLI, Cursor, VS Code with Copilot, Windsurf, Gemini CLI, Cline, ChatGPT, any MCP client]
---

# Set up Docsbook for your AI coding agent

Docsbook turns a GitHub repository, a website, or a plain description of a product into a documentation site that answers its readers and exposes the same content to AI agents. This playbook prepares the agent you are running inside to do that work: an MCP connection (84 tools), a toolkit of 52 documentation skills, and one project taken live.

## How to run

Run section 1 once per agent, section 2 once per agent, section 3 once per project.

Do the work yourself wherever you have a terminal or file access. Do not print commands for the user to run — run them. Pause only for what you genuinely cannot do: signing in, approving an OAuth consent screen, choosing which project to document, and confirming anything that would overwrite existing content.

Every section starts with a check for work already done. Running this playbook twice must change nothing the second time.

If a section cannot complete, say so plainly in the final report and continue with the next one. A missing toolkit does not prevent the MCP connection from working, and an MCP connection alone is enough to do real work.

## 1. Connect the Docsbook MCP server

The endpoint is:

```text
https://docsbook.io/api/mcp/server
```

Authorization is OAuth 2.1 with PKCE and dynamic client registration — you do not need an API key, a client id, or a client secret. Adding the server triggers a browser consent screen where the user signs in with GitHub and chooses read-only or read-write access. Read-write is required to publish documentation; read-only is enough for analytics and audits.

First check whether it is already connected. If a `docsbook` MCP server is present and its tools respond, skip to section 2.

Before editing any MCP configuration file, read it and merge the `docsbook` entry into it. Never overwrite the file — it holds other servers' settings.

### Claude Code

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http docsbook --scope user https://docsbook.io/api/mcp/server
```

Then open `/mcp`, select `docsbook`, and complete authentication. Drop `--scope user` to connect for the current project only.

### Codex CLI

```bash
codex mcp list
codex mcp add docsbook --url https://docsbook.io/api/mcp/server
```

A browser should open during setup. If the server is listed but unauthenticated, run `codex mcp login docsbook`.

### Cursor

Merge into `~/.cursor/mcp.json`:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "docsbook": {
      "url": "https://docsbook.io/api/mcp/server"
    }
  }
}
```

Cursor shows `Needs login` when authorization is pending — ask the user to click it.

### VS Code with GitHub Copilot

```bash
code --add-mcp '{"name":"docsbook","type":"http","url":"https://docsbook.io/api/mcp/server"}'
```

Then enable the server from the Copilot Chat MCP picker. Note that VS Code's own `mcp.json` uses the key `servers`, not `mcpServers`, if you edit it by hand.

### Windsurf

Merge into `~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json`:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "docsbook": {
      "serverUrl": "https://docsbook.io/api/mcp/server"
    }
  }
}
```

The key is `serverUrl`, not `url`. Refresh Cascade after saving.

### Gemini CLI

```bash
gemini mcp add --transport http docsbook https://docsbook.io/api/mcp/server
```

Add `--scope user` to install globally. If you edit `~/.gemini/settings.json` by hand, the key for a streamable-HTTP server is `httpUrl` — plain `url` there means SSE and will fail.

### Cline

Add a server in Cline → MCP Servers with type `streamableHttp` and the endpoint above. In `cline_mcp_settings.json` the keys are `url` and `transportType: "http"`.

### ChatGPT and other MCP-capable chat clients

Settings → Connectors → Developer mode → Create, then paste the endpoint. There is no local filesystem in this lane; skip section 2 and read skills at runtime instead (see 2c).

### Verify before moving on

1. Call `get_info` — it returns the product summary, your token scope and the plan tiers.
2. Call `list_workspaces` — this proves the connection is authenticated as a real user, not anonymous.

If either tool is missing, refresh the client's MCP server list. Restart the client only if refreshing does not help.

Keep human confirmation enabled for mutations. The connection carries the access of the user who authorized it.

## 2. Add the Docsbook toolkit

The toolkit is 52 skills — step-by-step procedures for documentation work: auditing structure and style, writing pages from source code or a live site, checking SEO and accessibility, enabling translation, reading analytics for content gaps, wiring CI. Each one is a self-contained `SKILL.md` with a workflow, guardrails and acceptance criteria.

Install exactly ONE of the three lanes below — whichever matches the agent you are running inside. Installing two gives you the same skills twice under different names.

### 2a. Claude Code — the plugin

```text
/plugin marketplace add Docsbook-io/docs-claude-plugins
/plugin install docsbook@docs-claude-plugins
```

One install brings all 52 skills, the orchestration commands, the pinned subagents and the MCP server registration. Confirm afterwards that `/docsbook:` commands appear in the slash-command list.

If the marketplace does not offer a plugin named `docsbook`, do not stop and do not install one of the older per-workflow plugins — use lane 2b below instead. It carries the same 52 skills.

### 2b. Any other agent with a filesystem

```bash
npx skills list
npx skills add Docsbook-io/docs-skills --skill '*' --global
npx skills list
```

Choose the current agent when prompted, or pass it explicitly with `-a` (for example `-a cursor`, `-a codex`, `-a windsurf`, `-a cline`, `-a copilot`, `-a gemini-cli`). Drop `--global` to install into the current project only. Add `--copy` if you want real files instead of symlinks.

### 2c. No filesystem — use them at runtime

Chat clients that speak MCP but cannot write files do not need an install. The MCP server carries the catalog:

1. Call `find_skill` with a plain description of the job, for example `find_skill("audit my documentation for SEO")`.
2. Read the `raw_url` it returns.
3. Follow that skill's workflow.

This lane works everywhere, including alongside 2a and 2b — a skill that is not installed locally is always one `find_skill` call away.

## 3. Take one project live

This is what the setup was for. Do not stop at a connected server.

1. Call `list_workspaces`. If the project already has a workspace, adopt it and skip to step 4.
2. Ask the user what to document — a GitHub repository, a product URL, or a description of the idea. This is the one question worth interrupting for.
3. Call `create_workspace` with `owner/repo`. The repository does not have to exist yet: `write_docs` publishes into Docsbook's own hosting when there is no repo of the user's to commit to.
4. Call `find_skill` for the job in front of you — `"create documentation from a code repository"`, `"import docs from another platform"`, `"audit my docs"` — and follow the skill it returns. The skill is authoritative; do not improvise a procedure it already specifies.
5. Write the pages with `write_docs`. Batch related files into ONE call — it produces a single commit, and calling it repeatedly produces a messy history.
6. Set the visual identity with `update_branding`, and the reader-facing settings with `update_ui_settings`, `update_navigation` and `update_seo`. All of these are available on the free plan.
7. Report the live URL.

Plan-gated tools refuse with a message naming the feature, the current tier and the tier required. Treat that as information for the user, not as an error to work around.

## Completion

Report only what you verified:

```text
Docsbook is ready
MCP: <connected|skipped>, https://docsbook.io/api/mcp/server, scope <read|read-write>
Signed in as: <account>
Toolkit: <plugin|skills|runtime discovery>, <global|project> scope
Workspace: <owner/repo|none>
Live docs: <url|not published>
```

Do not report a step as done if you did not confirm it with a tool call.

Sources:

- https://docsbook.io/docs
- https://docsbook.io/docs/ai/mcp
- https://docsbook.io/docs-skills
- https://docsbook.io/pricing.md
- https://docsbook.io/llms.txt