WTFM documentation

What WTFM does

WTFM is documentation tooling for component libraries that describe their public API with a Custom Elements Manifest. Its Eleventy plugin turns that manifest into reference pages, combines related elements into documentation surfaces, renders authored guidance, and keeps headings and links stable enough to become compatibility contracts.

The ordinary result is static HTML that can be copied to any static host. An optional build mode also writes a schema-v1 Taproot Docs artifact for a semantic consumer. The artifact is additive: the static site does not read it and Taproot does not scrape the final site HTML.

Choose a path

• Start with installation and Eleventy setup when adding WTFM to a project.
• Use the plugin configuration reference when you need custom sections, routes, source links, or artifact options.
• Read documents and surfaces before choosing which material is authored and which is derived from a manifest.
• Enable the Taproot Docs artifact only when a semantic consumer needs it.
• Keep validation and troubleshooting in the build gate.

Two outputs, one source

The site renderer and semantic renderer share identities, headings, and manifest data, but they have different jobs. Site pages may include layout, styles, and interactive examples. Semantic fragments use a closed HTML subset and plain code examples so a consumer can safely place them in its own shell.

That separation is deliberate. It makes the documentation portable while allowing the same repository content to participate in a stricter artifact contract.

Stability is authored

Routes, surface slugs, resource keys, and explicit heading ids should be treated as public identifiers. Choose them for durability, add redirects when routes move, and use the anchor checker when another application links to field-level help. WTFM fails duplicate or malformed identities instead of silently inventing replacements.

Follow the published source

The public WTFM documentation at wtfm.taproot.io is built from this repository's main branch. Each page's source link points to the exact published Git revision, so you can compare the guidance with the code that produced it.

Documentation updates publish separately from the WTFM npm library. A merge can update this site without changing the library version; use your installed package version when checking whether an API is available in your project.