Alongside Other Tools : docmd documentation

Guides
Integrations
Parallel Tools

Problem

Large organisations rarely use a single tool for all their documentation needs. Your company might use Confluence for internal specifications, Stoplight for API design, and GitHub for code examples. Integrating these disparate sources into a unified user journey is a significant challenge, as users often find themselves jumping between disconnected portals with different styles and navigation.

Why it matters

A fragmented documentation experience ruins developer trust and increases cognitive load. If a user is forced to switch between completely different interfaces just to follow a single tutorial, they are more likely to lose context or abandon your product. Unifying your tools ensures a professional, cohesive experience that encourages exploration and learning.

Approach

Use docmd as your primary documentation hub or “Single Pane of Glass.” By leveraging the Menubar for unified navigation and Embed Containers for third-party content, you can create a seamless interface that hides the complexity of your multi-tool infrastructure.

Implementation

Use the menubar configuration to link your various documentation portals together. This ensures that users can always find their way back to the main guides, regardless of which subdomain they are currently on.

// docmd.config.js
export default {
  layout: {
    menubar: {
      left: [
        { text: 'Guides', url: '/' }, // docmd site
        { text: 'API Reference', url: 'https://api.example.com' }, // External tool
        { text: 'Community', url: 'https://forum.example.com', external: true }
      ]
    }
  }
};

2. Seamless Embedding

For tools that provide a web interface (like interactive API explorers or dashboard previews), use the ::: embed container to display them directly within your docmd pages. This keeps users within your branded environment.

# Interactive API Explorer

::: embed "https://api.example.com/v1/explorer"
:::

For more information, see the Embed Reference.

3. Content Aggregation

For external content that must be searchable alongside your core documentation, consider a build step that fetches data from other sources and converts it into Markdown. This allows docmd to index all your information in a single, unified Search Index.

Trade-offs

While embedding provides a unified look, it can occasionally introduce performance overhead or “scroll-nesting” issues on mobile devices. Furthermore, content within an iframe is not natively indexed by docmd’s search engine. If search parity is critical, prioritizing OpenAPI Generation or other Markdown-based ingestion methods is recommended.