How to create a documentation theme used by discourse

AI-generated summary

The discussion revolves around creating a documentation theme in Discourse, specifically focusing on a left sidebar with categories and topics. abhijeet_kumar seeks guidance on implementing this UI, referencing a screenshot. Jagster notes it’s a new, unpublished feature. merefield shares a link to a topic on automatic table of contents, while JammyDodger points to a meta topic about improved documentation navigation. abhijeet_kumar clarifies the need for a left sidebar with categories and topics, referencing the documentation category on Meta. Moin confirms it’s visible on Meta but not working with the docs plugin. abhijeet_kumar asks about the required topic ID for the index page. david explains the theme is under active development and advises creating an index topic with a specific structure. abhijeet_kumar notes that Tally uses a similar setup with nested subcategories and a two-level index page, which he plans to explore.

I could not find a guide to implement the discourse documentation UI as attached screenshot. Can someone help?

I would guess this is really fresh feature and not published yet for us. So there isn’t any documentation.

So, we have to way, unless someone from the team will give us kind of beta state help :smirking_face:

It’s just this, no?:

The docs sidebar on the left is very new, but you can give feedback and find more about it in this topic:

TOC is right sidebar, I am looking for left sidebar where you have categories and then topics slug below.
Check this link:
Create a category in Discourse - Documentation / Site Management - Discourse Meta

or check click on documentation category of discourse forum

Got it..Will it work with docs plugin ? or where can i see it working..as i Cant find it in final UI

You can see it working in the Documentation category here at Meta.
I don’t think it’s working in combination with the docs view of the docs plugin.

Thanks and Got it..We need to add category in settings to see it working. However I did not understand on topic id need to be given..which topic id needs to be provided here…check the screenshot please..

This theme component is under active development, and is certain to change significantly in the coming days/weeks. I would not recommend trying to use it anywhere important. Once it’s in a reasonable state, we’ll be creating a topic on Meta with all the info you need.

But if you really want to experiment, you need to create an index topic in each category like this. It needs to follow the exact header/link structure that we’re using there.

Thanks @david Got the index page one..I found tally is using it beautifully since 2 months or so..check the screenshot..also they are using nested subcategories as well and index page is two level down ..not sure how to achieve that..I ll give a try..