URL: /installation
---
title: Installation
description: Install Tangly into a new or existing project.
icon: "package"
---
# Installation
## Requirements
- **Node 20+** (or Bun 1.2+).
- A package manager — `bun` (recommended), `pnpm`, `npm`, or `yarn` all work.
- A directory you want to render. Tangly does not impose a folder structure beyond `docs.json` at the root.
## Install
```bash bun
bun add -D tangly
```
```bash pnpm
pnpm add -D tangly
```
```bash npm
npm install --save-dev tangly
```
```bash yarn
yarn add -D tangly
```
The `tangly` binary becomes available via `bun x tangly`, `pnpm exec tangly`, `npx tangly`, etc.
## Project layout
A minimal Tangly project is two files:
- my-docs/
- docs.json navigation + branding (required)
- introduction.mdx
- package.json
A typical project grows like this:
- my-docs/
- docs.json
- introduction.mdx
- quickstart.mdx
- guides/
- concepts.mdx
- advanced.mdx
- reference/
- api.mdx
- images/
- logo.svg
- theme/ optional component overrides
- components/
- Card.astro
- tangly.config.ts optional content collections
- package.json
Tangly does not require `src/`, `pages/`, or any framework files. The MDX files at any depth are the source of truth; `docs.json` decides which ones appear in navigation. Files prefixed with `_` (e.g. `_section.mdx`) and the `snippets/` folder are skipped.
## Editor support
Add this to the top of `docs.json` for autocomplete + inline validation:
```json
{
"$schema": "./node_modules/tangly/schema/docs.json",
"name": "My docs"
}
```
VS Code, Cursor, JetBrains, and any editor with a JSON-Schema language server pick this up automatically. You'll get IntelliSense for every nav field, color token, and analytics provider.
## Optional: scripts
Wire dev/build into your `package.json`:
```json
{
"scripts": {
"dev": "tangly dev",
"build": "tangly build",
"preview": "tangly preview",
"check": "tangly check --strict"
}
}
```
## Agent skills
Tangly ships two Claude Code skills you can install into any project that uses Claude Code:
- **`tanglify`** — drives the Tangly CLI, scaffolds `docs.json`, ports from Mintlify, picks deploy adapters.
- **`tech-documentation`** — Diátaxis-grounded principles for writing the actual content.
Install via the npm `skills` convention:
```bash
npx skills add tanglify
npx skills add tech-documentation
```
Or point at the repo directly:
```bash
npx skills add github:tanglydocs/tangly/skills/tanglify
npx skills add github:tanglydocs/tangly/skills/tech-documentation
```
The skills live under [`skills/`](https://github.com/tanglydocs/tangly/tree/main/skills) and are versioned alongside the framework — when CLI flags or schema fields change, the skill content moves with them.
## What's next
Scaffold + run dev in under a minute.
Every `docs.json` field with examples.