astro-starlight

Also covers multi-language documentation with hreflang support and Content Layer API integration (docsLoader, schema) specific to Starlight's content model, plus CSS custom property theming. Does not cover generic Astro Content Layer usage outside Starlight (astro-content) or non-Starlight i18n routing (astro-i18n) — those are handled by their own skills.

Astro Starlight

Production-ready documentation theme for Astro with built-in search, dark mode, i18n, and rich plugin ecosystem.

Agent Workflow (MANDATORY)

Before ANY implementation, spawn 3 agents in parallel, one Agent call each with a name:

1. fuse-ai-pilot:explore-codebase - Analyze existing Starlight config, sidebar, and content structure
2. fuse-ai-pilot:research-expert - Verify Starlight plugin APIs via Context7/Exa
3. mcp__context7__query-docs - Check Starlight docs for Content Layer and i18n patterns

After implementation, run fuse-ai-pilot:sniper for validation.

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Overview

When to Use

• Building technical documentation sites
• Creating API reference docs (with starlight-openapi)
• Generating docs from TypeScript types (with starlight-typedoc)
• Adding a blog to a documentation site (with starlight-blog)
• Setting up versioned documentation (with starlight-versions)
• Multi-language documentation with hreflang support

Why Starlight

Feature	Benefit
Pagefind built-in	Full-text search, zero config
Dark/light mode	Automatic, CSS custom properties
Sidebar config	Filesystem-based or manual groups
Plugin ecosystem	DocSearch, blog, openapi, typedoc
Content Layer API	Astro 7 content collections integration
llms.txt support	starlight-llms-txt for AI discoverability
No-JS mobile menu (0.42)	Popover API — menu works with JS disabled; ships compiled JS + .d.ts (faster tsc)

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Reference Guide

Concepts

Topic	Reference	When to Consult
Setup	setup.md	Installation, project structure
Sidebar	sidebar-config.md	Navigation, groups, auto-gen
Search	search.md	Pagefind, DocSearch, exclude pages
Plugins	plugins.md	Blog, openapi, typedoc, versions
i18n	i18n-multilang.md	Locales, translations, hreflang
Content Layer	content-layer.md	docsLoader, schema, collections
Customization	customization.md	CSS variables, components override

Templates

Template	When to Use
starlight-config.md	Full astro.config.mjs with Starlight
sidebar-example.md	Complex sidebar with groups and badges

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Best Practices

1. Start with filesystem sidebar - Add manual config only when needed
2. Keep Pagefind for small sites - DocSearch for high-traffic or large docs
3. Use starlight-llms-txt - AI crawlers increasingly important for docs
4. Content Layer schema - Type-safe frontmatter prevents runtime errors
5. CSS custom properties - Override theme without component slots