Open-Source Blume Framework Ships AI-Ready Docs From Markdown

Hayden Bleasel, a developer formerly associated with OpenAI, has launched Blume, an open-source documentation framework designed for simplicity and immediate deployment. The framework, released as version 1.0.3 on npm, allows users to create production-grade documentation websites by simply placing Markdown or MDX files into a folder. Blume automatically generates navigation, search functionality, theming, and Open Graph images, eliminating the need for extensive app boilerplate code. Configuration is optional, with settings added incrementally as needed.

Blume operates as a command-line tool integrated with a component library. It reads Markdown or MDX content from a designated folder and generates a complete documentation site. The project is MIT-licensed and built using a TypeScript monorepo, with the main published package located in packages/blume. Its own documentation is built using Blume itself. To run Blume, users require Node.js version 22.12 or newer and can utilize package managers like Bun, pnpm, npm, or yarn.

Internally, Blume generates and manages a hidden Astro project. The command-line interface first loads the blume.config.ts file and processes the content into a graph. It then creates an Astro project within a .blume/ directory. Astro renders each page through a single catch-all route, incorporating Blume's pre-built components, generated data, and any user-defined overrides. The .blume/ directory is regenerated on each run, ensuring only modified files are rewritten, which contributes to fast hot reloading during development. The default theme is designed to be lightweight, avoiding client-side framework JavaScript to achieve high scores on Core Web Vitals.

For users requiring complete control over the project structure, the 'blume eject' command can transform the runtime into a standalone Astro application. This ejected project retains its dependency on the blume package. The framework's core functionality is accessed via the 'blume dev' command. The current version, Blume v1.0.3, is licensed under MIT and requires Node.js 22.12+, leveraging Astro and Vite for its build process.