Docs Platforms AI Agents Can Read: Mintlify, GitBook, Fumadocs, Docusaurus and More

If you want AI agents to read your docs with no extra work, the hosted platforms do it out of the box: Mintlify and GitBook both generate llms.txt, a Markdown copy of every page and an MCP server, and both have a free plan. Jamdesk does the same but has no free plan. If you would rather own the code, Fumadocs ships first-party llms.txt, Markdown and MCP recipes; Docusaurus and Starlight get there through plugins.

Six platforms are covered below. Every feature, price and license was checked against each vendor's own pricing page, docs or GitHub repository on 11 November 2026.

What "agents can read it" means

Three things decide how well a coding agent or AI search engine can use your docs:

• llms.txt — a plain-text index of your pages at the site root, in the llmstxt.org format. Often paired with llms-full.txt, the whole site in one file.
• Markdown pages — the same page as raw Markdown, usually by adding .md to the URL. An agent gets the text without navigation, scripts and layout.
• An MCP server — an endpoint an agent connects to and calls tools on, such as "search the docs" or "read this page", instead of scraping.

The first two are files any static site can serve. The third needs a server, which is why it is mostly a hosted-platform feature.

Side by side

Platform	Type	llms.txt	.md pages	MCP server	Free plan	License
Mintlify	Hosted	Built in	Built in	Built in	Starter, $0	Proprietary SaaS
GitBook	Hosted	Built in	Built in	Built in	Free, 1 user	Proprietary SaaS
Jamdesk	Hosted	Built in	Built in	Built in (Pro)	None (14-day trial)	Proprietary SaaS
Fumadocs	Framework	First-party recipe	First-party recipe	First-party recipe	Free	MIT
Docusaurus	Static generator	Community plugin	Community plugin	Not built in	Free	MIT
Starlight	Static generator	Community plugin	Community plugin	Third-party plugins	Free	MIT

"Proprietary SaaS" means you use the hosted product; there is no source to self-host.

Hosted platforms

Mintlify

Mintlify has a free Starter plan with up to five editor seats, a custom domain, Git sync and an MCP server. Pro is $450/month billed annually ($540 monthly) and adds the AI Assistant and preview deployments.

For agents, Mintlify's llms.txt docs say it generates llms.txt and llms-full.txt at the root (and under /.well-known/), plus a Markdown version of every page. Its MCP docs describe a search MCP server at /mcp on your docs URL, with tools to search, read the docs filesystem and submit feedback. The pricing page does not say whether llms.txt depends on the plan.

Best for: teams that want everything generated for them and are fine with a large jump from free to Pro.

GitBook

GitBook has a Free plan for one user that includes its "AI-ready" features: an auto-generated MCP server, llms.txt, llms-full.txt and Markdown pages. The catch is the domain: Free has no custom domain. Essential is $65/site/month billed annually ($79 monthly), with extra users from $12/month.

Its LLM-ready docs page gives the paths: .md on any page, /llms.txt, /llms-full.txt, and an MCP server at /~gitbook/mcp. It also notes that hidden pages stay readable in llms-full.txt and over MCP, which is worth knowing before you hide anything sensitive.

Best for: a solo maintainer who wants agent-readable docs on a GitBook subdomain for free, or a team that prefers a visual block editor to MDX files.

Jamdesk

Jamdesk has one self-serve plan: Pro at $29/month, with unlimited pages and team members, a custom domain, AI chat and a built-in MCP server. There is no free plan; there is a 14-day trial with no card, after which the site is paused rather than deleted.

Its docs say every site generates an llms.txt and that adding .md to a page URL returns Markdown. Content lives in your GitHub repo as MDX with a docs.json config, and pushes deploy to your-project.jamdesk.app or your own domain. llms-full.txt is not mentioned.

Best for: small teams that want the Mintlify-style Git-and-MDX workflow at a much lower paid price, and don't need a free tier.

Frameworks you host yourself

Fumadocs

Fumadocs is an MIT-licensed React docs framework. Next.js is the recommended base, and the docs also cover React Router, TanStack Start, Waku and Astro. A new project starts with npm create fumadocs-app.

It has the most complete agent story of the self-hosted options. The LLM integration guide adds llms.txt, llms-full.txt and per-page .md routes through npx @fumadocs/cli feature llms, plus optional Accept-header negotiation that serves Markdown to clients that ask for it. The same guide sets up an MCP server at /api/mcp with tools to list, search and read pages, and UI components to copy a page as Markdown or open it in an AI app.

These are recipes you add to your app, not switches: you own the routes and you host them, so the MCP endpoint needs a server runtime rather than a purely static export.

Best for: teams already on Next.js or another React framework who want docs inside their own app, MCP included, without a hosted bill.

Docusaurus

Docusaurus is Meta's MIT-licensed static site generator, at version 3.10.2 on its installation page (Node.js 20 or later). Start with npx create-docusaurus@latest my-website classic. Per its deployment docs, npm run build emits static files into build/, so any static host works.

Docusaurus has no built-in llms.txt; an @docusaurus/plugin-llms-txt package is not published on npm today. Community plugins fill the gap, for example docusaurus-plugin-llms (MIT), which generates llms.txt and llms-full.txt and can write a .md file per page. There is no MCP server in core.

Best for: large, versioned open-source docs that already run on Docusaurus and only need llms.txt added.

Starlight

Starlight is the Astro team's MIT-licensed docs theme. Start with npm create astro@latest -- --template starlight, per its getting-started guide.

Agent support comes from its plugin list, which is long. starlight-llms-txt (MIT) generates llms.txt, llms-full.txt and llms-small.txt; starlight-md-txt serves raw Markdown at .md.txt URLs; and a few third-party plugins add MCP endpoints through outside services. None of this is in Starlight core.

Best for: fast static docs with a content-first setup, where llms.txt from a plugin is enough.

How to choose

• You want an MCP server with no code: Mintlify (free Starter) or GitBook (free, but no custom domain). Jamdesk if $29/month is fine.
• You need a custom domain for free: Mintlify Starter includes one; GitBook Free does not.
• You want open source and MCP: Fumadocs, which documents the MCP route itself.
• You only need llms.txt and Markdown: any of the six. On Docusaurus or Starlight that means one community plugin.
• You have private or hidden pages: read each platform's notes first. GitBook keeps hidden pages in llms-full.txt and MCP; Mintlify scopes the files to what is public on partially authenticated sites.

FAQ

What is the best Mintlify alternative?

It depends on why you are leaving. For a lower paid price with the same Git-and-MDX workflow, Jamdesk is $29/month. For a free plan with built-in MCP, GitBook. To self-host with MCP, Fumadocs. "Best" here is the one that matches your reason.

Does Docusaurus support llms.txt?

Not in core. Community plugins such as docusaurus-plugin-llms generate llms.txt and llms-full.txt at build time. No official @docusaurus package for it is on npm today.

Do I need an MCP server for my docs, or is llms.txt enough?

For most projects llms.txt plus Markdown pages is enough: an agent can fetch the index and read the pages it needs. An MCP server helps when docs are large and agents should search instead of loading everything, which is where llms-full.txt gets unwieldy.

Which docs platforms are free and open source?

Fumadocs, Docusaurus and Starlight are all MIT-licensed and free to host anywhere. Mintlify and GitBook have free plans, but they are hosted products, not open source.

---

For the wider picture of how AI search finds and cites a dev tool, read how to get your dev tool cited by AI search. If you are wiring docs into a coding agent, the MCP servers for web developers list and the MCP section are the next stop. More build and docs tooling lives in Developer Tools.