Output Layout

The output directory is deleted and recreated for every build. The resulting tree is deterministic for a given source and ThornForge asset set.

Typical output

site/
|-- .nojekyll
|-- index.html
|-- readme.html
|-- changelog.html
|-- site-nav.json
|-- assets/
|   |-- scripts/
|   |-- style/
|   `-- templates/
`-- docs/
    |-- index.html
    |-- latest -> <latest-version>
    |-- versions.json
    |-- _builds/
    |   `-- <digest>/
    `-- <version> -> _builds/<digest>

Documentation paths

Each public version path under docs/ is a symlink to a canonical build under docs/_builds. The canonical directory name is a short content digest derived from the source documentation inputs, project metadata, and ThornForge’s shared assets.

If multiple versions produce the same digest, their public version paths reuse the same canonical build output.

Runtime metadata

site-nav.json

Lists root-level pages and the latest documentation target for the top navigation script.

docs/versions.json

Lists available documentation versions, the latest version, and the digest backing each version path.

Both payloads are embedded into generated HTML pages so navigation and version menus can work without relying on extra network requests.

Shared assets

ThornForge copies its bundled thornforge/assets/ tree to the site root and to each canonical documentation build. Generated docs pages are post-processed to reference the shared CSS and JavaScript assets exactly once.