Problem

Hosting your documentation on a single server in one geographic region (e.g., US-East) means that users in other parts of the world (e.g., Europe or Asia) will experience significant network latency. Every page load, image, and script must travel thousands of miles, making your documentation feel sluggish and unresponsive for a global audience.

Why it matters

High latency directly harms the developer experience. Even if your documentation is well-written and lightweight, the “Time to First Byte” (TTFB) is limited by the laws of physics. If your site feels slow, developers are more likely to lose focus or abandon your tool entirely in favour of one with faster, more accessible documentation.

Approach

The optimal solution is to deploy your site to an Edge CDN. Because docmd generates pure static assets (HTML, CSS, JS), it is perfectly suited for edge distribution. CDNs replicate your files across hundreds of globally distributed “Edge Nodes,” serving your users from the data center closest to them.

Implementation

1. Choose a Platform

docmd is natively compatible with all modern static hosting and edge platforms. We recommend the following for their global performance and ease of use:

• Cloudflare Pages: Extremely fast global edge network with built-in DDoS protection.
• Vercel: Optimised for performance with excellent developer workflow integration.
• Netlify: Powerful automation features and a robust global CDN.

2. Automate the Build

Use a CI/CD pipeline to build and deploy your site automatically whenever you push changes. See the GitHub Actions Guide for detailed examples.

# .github/workflows/deploy.yml
jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 22
      
      # Build the site into the default 'site/' directory
      - run: npm install && npx @docmd/core build
      
      # Example: Deploying to Cloudflare Pages
      - name: Deploy
        uses: cloudflare/pages-action@v1
        with:
          apiToken: ${{ secrets.CF_API_TOKEN }}
          accountId: ${{ secrets.CF_ACCOUNT_ID }}
          projectName: my-docs
          directory: site

3. Verification

Once deployed, you can verify your global performance using tools like PageSpeed Insights or global ping tests. You should see sub-100ms response times from almost any location worldwide.

Trade-offs

Global edge networks abstract away server management, which is a major advantage for documentation teams. However, debugging regional caching issues can occasionally be more complex than reviewing a single server log. Using platforms with robust “instant cache invalidation” ensures that your users always see the latest version of your documentation immediately after a deployment.