Laravel Pergament

A file-based CMS package for Laravel. Renders documentation, blog posts, and standalone pages from Markdown files with YAML front matter. Blade templates, Tailwind CSS, dark mode, server-side syntax highlighting — no database required.

Installation

Add the package via Composer:

composer require rokde/laravel-pergament

Publish the configuration:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=pergament-config

Publish the views (optional, for customization):

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=pergament-views

Publish only the header component (navigation bar, search, font controls, dark mode toggle):

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=pergament-header

Publish only the footer component (copyright bar):

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=pergament-footer

Configuration

The main config file is config/pergament.php. Key options:

Base URL Prefix

Control where Pergament listens. All routes are nested under this prefix:

'prefix' => '/',                    // Pergament owns the root
'prefix' => 'docs',                 // Pergament lives at /docs/*
'prefix' => 'landing-page/hello',   // Pergament lives at /landing-page/hello/*

Content Path

Where your Markdown content lives on disk:

'content_path' => base_path('content'),

Homepage

Configure what shows at the base URL:

'homepage' => [
    'type' => 'page',        // "page", "blog-index", "doc-page", or "redirect"
    'source' => 'home',      // page slug, "chapter/page", or redirect target
],

Documentation

'docs' => [
    'enabled' => true,
    'path' => 'docs',            // subfolder under content_path
    'url_prefix' => 'docs',      // URL segment: /prefix/docs/chapter/page
    'title' => 'Documentation',
],

Blog

'blog' => [
    'enabled' => true,
    'path' => 'blog',
    'url_prefix' => 'blog',
    'title' => 'Blog',
    'per_page' => 12,
    'default_authors' => [],
    'feed' => [
        'enabled' => true,
        'type' => 'atom',        // "atom" or "rss"
        'title' => null,
        'description' => '',
        'limit' => 20,
    ],
],

Colors & Theming

Configure your brand color and page background. Both values propagate as CSS custom properties (--p-primary, --p-bg) that drive the entire UI — navigation highlights, badges, links, scrollbars, focus rings, text selection, and more:

'colors' => [
    'primary'    => '#3b82f6',   // any CSS color: hex, oklch, named…
    'background' => '#ffffff',
],

Dark mode is handled automatically: the background switches to a dark slate (#111827) and tints derived from --p-primary re-resolve against it without any extra configuration.

Site & SEO

'site' => [
    'name' => env('APP_NAME', 'Pergament'),
    'url' => env('APP_URL', 'http://localhost'),
    'locale' => 'en',
    'seo' => [
        'title' => env('APP_NAME', 'Pergament'),
        'description' => '',
        'keywords' => '',
        'og_image' => '',
        'twitter_card' => 'summary_large_image',
        'robots' => 'index, follow',
    ],
],

Text-to-Speech

Add a play/pause button that reads page content aloud using the browser's Speech Synthesis API. Each content type can be enabled independently:

'tts' => [
    'blog'  => true,            // show on blog posts
    'docs'  => true,            // show on documentation pages
    'pages' => false,           // show on standalone pages
    'voice' => 'Samantha',      // preferred voice name (null = browser default)
    'rate'  => 1.0,             // speech rate: 0.5 (slow) to 2.0 (fast)
],

The voice value is browser- and OS-dependent. Common options:

Platform	Voices
macOS / iOS	`Samantha`, `Alex`, `Daniel`, `Karen`, `Moira`, `Thomas`
Chrome	`Google UK English Female`, `Google UK English Male`, `Google US English`
Windows	`Microsoft David`, `Microsoft Zira`, `Microsoft Mark`

If the chosen voice is unavailable, the browser's default voice is used as fallback.

Content Structure

content/
├── docs/
│   ├── 0-getting-started/
│   │   ├── 01-introduction.md
│   │   └── 02-installation.md
│   └── 1-configuration/
│       └── 01-basic-setup.md
├── blog/
│   ├── 2024-01-15-hello-world/
│   │   ├── post.md
│   │   └── hero.png
│   └── 2024-03-20-new-feature/
│       └── post.md
└── pages/
    ├── home.md
    ├── about.md
    └── pricing.md

Documentation

Documentation lives in numbered chapter directories. Each chapter contains numbered Markdown files:

Directory format: {order}-{chapter-slug}/ (e.g. 0-getting-started/)
File format: {order}-{page-slug}.md (e.g. 01-introduction.md)
The numeric prefixes control sort order and are stripped from URLs

Blog Posts

Blog posts live in date-prefixed directories:

Directory format: {YYYY-MM-DD}-{slug}/ (e.g. 2024-01-15-hello-world/)
Each directory contains a post.md file and any associated media files
The date is extracted from the directory name

Standalone Pages

Simple Markdown files in the pages/ directory. The filename (without .md) becomes the URL slug.

Front Matter

All content files use YAML front matter delimited by ---:

---
title: My Page Title
excerpt: A brief description shown on index pages
---

# My Page Title

Content goes here.

Documentation Front Matter

---
title: Introduction
excerpt: Getting started with Pergament
---

Blog Post Front Matter

---
title: "Hello World"
excerpt: "Our very first blog post"
category: "Announcements"
tags:
  - "laravel"
  - "pergament"
author: "Jane Doe"
---

You can also define multiple authors with details:

authors:
  - name: "Jane Doe"
    email: "jane@example.com"
    url: "https://janedoe.com"
    avatar: "https://example.com/avatar.jpg"
  - name: "John Smith"

Page Front Matter

---
title: About Us
excerpt: Learn more about our company
layout: landing
---

Set layout: landing to use the full-width landing page layout instead of the default centered content layout.

SEO Overrides

Any page can override global SEO settings using dot notation in its front matter:

---
title: My Page
seo.title: "Custom SEO Title - My Site"
seo.description: "A custom meta description for this specific page"
seo.og_image: "https://example.com/special-og.png"
seo.robots: "noindex, nofollow"
---

These override the corresponding values from config('pergament.site.seo.*').

GitHub-Style Alerts

Pergament supports GitHub-style alert blocks for highlighting important information. Alerts are enabled by default.

Syntax

> [!NOTE]
> Useful information that users should know, even when skimming.

> [!TIP]
> Helpful advice for doing things better or more easily.

> [!IMPORTANT]
> Key information users need to know to achieve their goal.

> [!WARNING]
> Urgent info that needs immediate user attention to avoid problems.

> [!CAUTION]
> Advises about risks or negative outcomes of certain actions.

Alert Types

Type	Purpose	Color
`NOTE`	Supplementary information	Blue
`TIP`	Helpful advice	Green
`IMPORTANT`	Key information	Purple
`WARNING`	Urgent notices	Amber
`CAUTION`	Risk warnings	Red

Each alert renders as a styled <div> with an icon, title, and content. Dark mode variants are included automatically.

Configuration

'markdown' => [
    'alerts' => true,   // set to false to disable alert rendering
],

When disabled, alert syntax is rendered as a plain blockquote.

Downloads

Pergament automatically handles file download links in blog posts and documentation pages.

Relative download links

Any relative link in a blog post or documentation page that points to a file (not an external URL, anchor, or another Markdown page) is automatically rewritten to the correct media URL:

[Download the guide](guide.pdf)
[Get the source archive](src.zip)

In a blog post, these become /blog/media/{slug}/guide.pdf and /blog/media/{slug}/src.zip. In a documentation page they resolve to the equivalent docs media path. Place the files in the same directory as your post.md or doc Markdown file.

External links (http://, https://), anchors (#), mailto: links, and links to other Markdown pages (.md) are left unchanged.

`:::download` block directive

Wrap one or more links in a :::download block to add the HTML download attribute, which instructs the browser to download the file instead of navigating to it:

:::download

[Download PDF](report.pdf)
[Download CSV](data.csv)

:::

Links inside a :::download block receive the download attribute — the browser saves the file to disk rather than opening it. The relative-path URL rewriting described above still applies. External links and anchors inside the block are not given the download attribute.

Footnotes

Pergament supports inline footnotes via the CommonMark FootnoteExtension. Footnotes are disabled by default.

Syntax

Here is a sentence with a footnote.[^1]

You can have multiple footnotes[^2] in a single document[^3].

[^1]: This is the first footnote.
[^2]: This is the second footnote.
[^3]: Footnotes can contain **Markdown** formatting.

Footnote references render as superscript links (<sup>) that anchor to the footnote list at the bottom of the page. Each footnote includes a backlink to return to the reference in the text.

Configuration

'markdown' => [
    'footnotes' => false,   // set to true to enable footnote support
],

Block-Based Landing Pages

For landing pages and homepages, you can use block directives in Markdown to create structured sections. Block directives wrap content in <div> elements with CSS classes for styling.

Syntax

:::hero

# Welcome to Our Product

The best solution for your needs.

[Get Started](/docs/getting-started/introduction)

:::

:::features

## Why Choose Us

- **Fast** — Built for speed
- **Reliable** — 99.9% uptime
- **Simple** — Easy to use

:::

:::cta

## Ready to Get Started?

Sign up today and see the difference.

[Sign Up Free](/register)

:::

Each :::{name} block becomes a <div class="pergament-block pergament-block-{name}"> in the rendered HTML. The closing ::: ends the block.

Built-in Block Types

The default views include basic styles for these block types:

Directive	CSS Class	Purpose
`:::hero`	`pergament-block-hero`	Hero sections with centered text
`:::features`	`pergament-block-features`	Feature grids and lists
`:::cta`	`pergament-block-cta`	Call-to-action sections

You can use any name — it maps directly to a CSS class. Custom blocks like :::pricing, :::testimonials, or :::team will generate pergament-block-pricing, pergament-block-testimonials, and pergament-block-team classes respectively.

Styling Blocks

Override the default styles by publishing the views and editing the CSS, or add your own styles targeting the generated classes:

.pergament-block-hero {
    padding: 6rem 2rem;
    text-align: center;
    background: linear-gradient(135deg, #667eea 0%, #764ba2 100%);
    color: white;
}

.pergament-block-features {
    display: grid;
    grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr);
    gap: 2rem;
    padding: 4rem 2rem;
}

.pergament-block-pricing {
    /* your custom block styles */
}

Full Landing Page Example

Create content/pages/home.md:

---
title: "My Product"
layout: landing
seo.title: "My Product - The Best Solution"
seo.description: "Discover the best solution for your needs"
---

:::hero

# My Product

Build something amazing with our platform.

[Get Started](/docs/getting-started/introduction) [Learn More](#features)

:::

:::features

## Features

### Lightning Fast
Our platform is optimized for performance at every level.

### Fully Extensible
Plugin system lets you customize everything.

### Dark Mode
Beautiful light and dark themes out of the box.

:::

:::cta

## Start Building Today

Join thousands of developers who trust our platform.

[Sign Up Free](/register)

:::

Then set the homepage config to use it:

'homepage' => [
    'type' => 'page',
    'source' => 'home',
],

Dark Mode

The package supports class-based dark mode. Add the dark class to your <html> element to activate dark mode. All views include dark: Tailwind variants.

Themed Images

Documentation images can have dark/light variants that automatically switch based on the active theme. Place variant files alongside the original:

content/docs/0-getting-started/
├── 01-introduction.md
├── dashboard.png           # referenced in markdown
├── dashboard.dark.png      # shown in dark mode
└── dashboard.light.png     # shown in light mode (optional)

The variant resolution works as follows:

Dark variant exists	Light variant exists	Light mode shows	Dark mode shows
No	No	`dashboard.png`	`dashboard.png`
Yes	No	`dashboard.png`	`dashboard.dark.png`
No	Yes	`dashboard.light.png`	`dashboard.png`
Yes	Yes	`dashboard.light.png`	`dashboard.dark.png`

Command Palette Search

When search is enabled, a command palette is available on every page. Open it with Cmd+K (macOS) or Ctrl+K (other platforms), or by clicking the search input in the navigation bar.

Real-time results — results appear as you type, fetched from the search endpoint as JSON (no page reload)
Type badges — each result is labelled Doc, Post, or Page
Keyboard navigation — ↑/↓ to move between results, Enter to open, Escape to close
Mouse navigation — click any result to navigate
Excerpt preview — a short excerpt is shown below each title; falls back to the first 160 characters of content when no explicit excerpt is set in front matter
No-JS fallback — the nav search form submits to /search?q=… as before when JavaScript is unavailable

Search covers all three content types:

Type	Source
Doc	Documentation pages
Post	Blog posts
Page	Standalone pages

Blade Components

The header and footer are extracted as anonymous Blade components so you can publish and customise them independently without overriding the entire view set.

Header (`<x-pergament::header />`)

The header component renders the sticky navigation bar and includes:

Site name / logo link
Documentation and Blog navigation links (shown when the respective feature is enabled)
Search input (shown when search is enabled)
Font-size controls (A− / A+ / OpenDyslexic toggle)
Dark mode toggle
Mobile hamburger menu with all of the above
Command palette overlay (shown when search is enabled)

Publish just the header to customise it:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=pergament-header

This publishes resources/views/vendor/pergament/components/header.blade.php into your application. Laravel's view resolution automatically prefers the published file over the package default.

Footer (`<x-pergament::footer />`)

The footer component renders the bottom bar containing the copyright notice.

Publish just the footer to customise it:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=pergament-footer

This publishes resources/views/vendor/pergament/components/footer.blade.php into your application.

Both components are also included when you run php artisan vendor:publish --tag=pergament-views.

Artisan Commands

Create a documentation page

We have an interactive docs creation command. All arguments are optional, you will be guided through all necessary things.

php artisan pergament:make:doc

# Or with arguments
php artisan pergament:make:doc --chapter=getting-started --title="Installation Guide" --order=02

Create a blog post

php artisan pergament:make:post

# Or with arguments
php artisan pergament:make:post \
    --title="My First Post" \
    --category="Tutorials" \
    --tags="laravel, php" \
    --author="Jane Doe" \
    --date=2024-06-15

Both commands prompt for any missing arguments interactively.

Routes

All routes are nested under the configured prefix. With the default / prefix:

Route	Description
`/`	Homepage
`/docs`	Documentation index (redirects to first page)
`/docs/{chapter}/{page}`	Documentation page
`/blog`	Blog index
`/blog/{slug}`	Blog post
`/blog/category/{category}`	Posts by category
`/blog/tag/{tag}`	Posts by tag
`/blog/author/{author}`	Posts by author
`/blog/feed`	RSS/Atom feed
`/search?q=query`	Search
`/{slug}`	Standalone page
`/sitemap.xml`	XML sitemap
`/robots.txt`	Robots.txt
`/llms.txt`	LLMs.txt

With prefix set to docs, all routes become /docs/..., /docs/blog/..., etc.

Analytics

Pergament includes a privacy-first, server-side analytics system. It records only the URL path, a timestamp, and whether the request came from a bot — no IP addresses, no cookies, no personal data, no third-party services. No cookie banner required.

Data is written as newline-delimited JSON (NDJSON) to one file per day:

storage/pergament/analytics/YYYY-MM-DD.ndjson

Each line is a JSON object:

{"url":"/blog/my-post","timestamp":"2026-03-29T10:23:45+00:00","is_bot":false}

Enabling analytics

Analytics is disabled by default. Enable it in your published config:

'analytics' => [
    'enabled' => true,
    'storage_path' => null,  // defaults to storage/pergament/analytics
],

Viewing analytics locally

# Today's page views (URL + type + count)
php artisan pergament:analytics

# A specific date
php artisan pergament:analytics --date=2026-03-01

# Multi-day summary
php artisan pergament:analytics --summary

# Configurable window
php artisan pergament:analytics --summary --days=7

Both modes display a Users and Bots breakdown. Bots are identified by their user-agent and always recorded — never silently dropped.

Remote download endpoint

For production environments without shell access, you can expose a secure download URL that streams the raw NDJSON log for a given date.

The endpoint is disabled by default. A developer must explicitly enable it and set a secret token:

'analytics' => [
    'enabled' => true,
    'download' => [
        'enabled' => true,
        'token'   => env('PERGAMENT_ANALYTICS_TOKEN'),
    ],
],

Generate a token:

php -r "echo bin2hex(random_bytes(32));"

Once enabled, the endpoint is available at:

GET {prefix}/analytics/download?date=YYYY-MM-DD&token=<your-token>

The date parameter defaults to today if omitted. The response is an application/x-ndjson file download.

Response	Condition
`404`	Download not enabled in config
`403`	Token missing, wrong, or not configured
`400`	Invalid date format
`404`	No data recorded for that date
`200`	NDJSON file download

Fetching analytics from a remote site

The pergament:analytics command can pull data from a remote site's download endpoint and display it locally — useful when you cannot SSH into production:

# Today's detail from remote
php artisan pergament:analytics \
    --remote=https://mysite.com \
    --token=<your-token>

# Specific date
php artisan pergament:analytics \
    --remote=https://mysite.com \
    --token=<your-token> \
    --date=2026-03-15

# 7-day summary from remote
php artisan pergament:analytics \
    --remote=https://mysite.com \
    --token=<your-token> \
    --summary \
    --days=7

The command fetches the NDJSON files from the remote endpoint and renders the same tables as local mode.

Syncing remote data to local storage

If your production environment has no persistent file storage (ephemeral/serverless deployments), analytics data is lost on every deploy. Use --sync to download all recorded dates from the remote and merge them into your local storage before they disappear:

php artisan pergament:analytics \
    --remote=https://mysite.com \
    --token=<your-token> \
    --sync

The command:

Calls GET /analytics/dates?token=… to discover which dates have data on the remote
Downloads each date's NDJSON file
Merges entries into local storage — duplicates are skipped (matched by url + timestamp), so running --sync multiple times is safe
Displays today's stats from the now-merged local data

Combine with --summary or --date to control what is displayed after the sync:

# Sync everything, then show a 7-day summary
php artisan pergament:analytics \
    --remote=https://mysite.com \
    --token=<your-token> \
    --sync \
    --summary \
    --days=7

Typical workflow for ephemeral environments:

# 1. Before deploying a new version, sync production data locally
php artisan pergament:analytics --remote=https://mysite.com --token=… --sync

# 2. Deploy — production storage is wiped

# 3. View historical stats locally at any time (no remote needed)
php artisan pergament:analytics --summary --days=90

Markdown Responses for AI & LLMs

All content pages (documentation, blog posts, standalone pages, and the homepage) can be served as plain Markdown instead of HTML. This is configurable in the exports section of the configuration.

A markdown response is returned when any of the following is true:

Trigger	Example
`Accept: text/markdown` request header	`curl -H "Accept: text/markdown" /docs/getting-started/installation`
Known AI / LLM user-agent	Requests from ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, etc.
`.md` URL suffix	`/blog/my-post.md`

Media files, feeds, sitemaps, and search results are excluded — only rendered HTML content pages are converted.

Features

File-based content — Markdown + YAML front matter, no database
Documentation — Numbered chapters/pages, sidebar navigation, TOC scrollspy, heading anchor links, themed images
Blog — Categories, tags, multiple authors, date-prefixed directories, pagination
RSS/Atom feeds — Configurable feed type and limits
SEO — Meta tags, Open Graph, Twitter Cards, per-page overrides via dot notation
Sitemap — Auto-generated XML sitemap
robots.txt / llms.txt — Auto-generated or custom content
Markdown responses — All content pages served as plain Markdown via Accept: text/markdown, .md suffix, or known AI user-agents (powered by spatie/laravel-markdown-response)
Command palette search — Cmd+K/Ctrl+K opens a live search dialog across docs, posts, and pages; keyboard navigable; no-JS form fallback
PWA — Optional manifest.json and service worker
GitHub-style alerts — > [!NOTE], > [!TIP], > [!IMPORTANT], > [!WARNING], > [!CAUTION] blocks with icons and color coding; dark mode included
Footnotes — Inline [^ref] syntax with superscript links and back-references; opt-in via config
Downloads — Relative file links in blog posts and docs are auto-rewritten to media URLs; :::download block directive adds the HTML download attribute to prompt browser saves
Landing pages — Block-based content with :::directive syntax
Dark mode — Class-based toggle with system preference detection; dark-mode syntax highlighting
Syntax highlighting — Server-side via tempest/highlight, light and dark themes included
Theming — Configure colors.primary and colors.background; the entire UI (nav, links, badges, scrollbars, focus rings, text selection) derives from these two values via CSS custom properties
Zoomable images — Click any image to enlarge it in a lightbox; Escape or click outside to close
Copy code — Hover a code block to reveal a Copy button; switches to "Copied" on success
Text-to-speech — Optional play/pause button that reads content aloud using the browser Speech Synthesis API; configurable per content type, with selectable voice and speech rate
Analytics — Privacy-first page view tracking (URL + timestamp + bot flag), NDJSON storage, Artisan command with local and remote display, optional token-protected download endpoint
Configurable prefix — Mount the CMS at any URL path

Testing

composer test

Changelog

Please see CHANGELOG for more information on what has changed recently.

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING for details.

Security Vulnerabilities

Please review our security policy on how to report security vulnerabilities.

Credits

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
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.github		.github
dist		dist
resources		resources
routes		routes
src		src
tests		tests
.editorconfig		.editorconfig
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
.gitignore		.gitignore
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
CLAUDE.md		CLAUDE.md
LICENSE.md		LICENSE.md
README.md		README.md
composer.json		composer.json
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
phpunit.xml		phpunit.xml
vite.config.js		vite.config.js

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Laravel Pergament

Installation

Configuration

Base URL Prefix

Content Path

Homepage

Documentation

Blog

Colors & Theming

Site & SEO

Text-to-Speech

Content Structure

Documentation

Blog Posts

Standalone Pages

Front Matter

Documentation Front Matter

Blog Post Front Matter

Page Front Matter

SEO Overrides

GitHub-Style Alerts

Syntax

Alert Types

Configuration

Downloads

Relative download links

:::download block directive

Footnotes

Syntax

Configuration

Block-Based Landing Pages

Syntax

Built-in Block Types

Styling Blocks

Full Landing Page Example

Dark Mode

Themed Images

Command Palette Search

Blade Components

Header (<x-pergament::header />)

Footer (<x-pergament::footer />)

Artisan Commands

Create a documentation page

Create a blog post

Routes

Analytics

Enabling analytics

Viewing analytics locally

Remote download endpoint

Fetching analytics from a remote site

Syncing remote data to local storage

Markdown Responses for AI & LLMs

Features

Testing

Changelog

Contributing

Security Vulnerabilities

Credits

License

About

Resources

License

Contributing

Security policy

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Stars

Watchers

Forks

Releases 12

Sponsor this project

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Packages 0

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Contributors

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`:::download` block directive

Header (`<x-pergament::header />`)

Footer (`<x-pergament::footer />`)

Packages