Doku - Software Documentation & Knowledge Base WordPress Theme

Documentation sites deserve better than a repurposed blog theme. Doku is a WordPress documentation theme built for software docs, developer portals, API references and internal knowledge bases. The three-column layout, instant search, code blocks and Markdown importer are the product, not add-ons.

Made for:

• Product and SaaS documentation
• API references and developer portals
• Open-source project docs moving off GitBook or a static site generator
• Help centers and internal knowledge bases

Why Doku

Your content is never held hostage

A documentation theme that registers its own post type ties your content to it: switch themes and the documentation disappears from the admin.

Doku doesn’t. The doc post type, taxonomies, blocks and importer all live in Doku Core, a companion plugin bundled with the theme and installed from an admin prompt. Change your mind about the design in two years and your documentation is still where you left it.

You can take it out again, too. Each documentation page exports back to Markdown, one page at a time, with its callouts, tabs, tabbed code, steppers, accordions, parameter tables and diagrams written in the same syntax the importer reads. Import a GitBook export on Monday, export a page on Friday, and you get that page back as Markdown, not a wall of HTML. View as Markdown and Copy as Markdown in the page actions menu give you and your readers that export, ready to save or to paste into an AI assistant.

Nothing phones home

No Google Fonts. No CDN. No Algolia subscription. No external analytics.

Fonts, icons, search, diagrams and math rendering are bundled and served from your own domain. Doku itself makes zero third-party HTTP requests, which means faster pages, no CDN outages and one less GDPR question from your legal team. The one exception is WordPress’s own comment avatars, which come from Gravatar, and a single setting turns them off.

Two optional links, Open in Claude and Open in ChatGPT, let readers ask an assistant about a page. They stay off until you switch them on (the demo import switches them on, to match the live demo), and they are ordinary links a reader chooses to click.

Search that feels instant

Doku searches the full text of your documentation with FlexSearch. Press Ctrl+K (or ⌘K) anywhere and start typing. Results arrive as you type, with no request to the server per keystroke. The search library loads only the first time a reader opens search, so it costs nothing on pages where nobody searches.

Built for technical content

Syntax highlighting done properly

Doku highlights code with Shiki, which reads the same TextMate grammars as VS Code. You get the real grammar instead of a regex approximation, with the colors your readers see in their own editor, across more than 200 languages.

The highlighting is generated once, in the editor, and stored in the block. Visitors never download a highlighter, code never flashes unstyled, and it switches between light and dark themes with the rest of the page.

Eight blocks that documentation actually needs

• Doku Enhanced Code: Shiki highlighting, a copy button, a filename label, line numbers and optional wrapping
• Doku Tabbed Code: language tabs that sync across the page, so a reader who picks Python once sees Python in every block
• Doku Tabs: any content in tabs, such as install steps per operating system or settings per plan, synced by label the same way
• Doku Callout: Note, Tip, Warning, Danger and Info admonitions
• Doku Step Procedure: numbered walkthroughs that accept any block inside each step
• Doku API Parameter Table: Parameter / Type / Required / Default / Description
• Doku Card Grid: link cards with an emoji icon, in one to four columns
• Doku Mermaid Diagram: flowcharts, sequence and state diagrams from plain text, recolored to match light or dark mode

Keyboard shortcuts such as Ctrl + K render as physical keys through WordPress’s own Keyboard input format, styled for light and dark mode.

Every WordPress core block is styled to match, so tables, quotes, lists and images look like they belong. The block color palette uses the theme’s own colors, so a box you color from it follows dark mode and your accent color instead of glaring white on a dark page. Accordions are WordPress’s own Details block (native <details> and <summary>, accessible by default), drawn in the same style.

Bring your existing documentation with you

The built-in importer turns Markdown into real WordPress blocks, not a wall of HTML in a Classic block. Upload a single .md file or a .zip of a whole documentation folder.

• CommonMark and GitHub Flavored Markdown: tables, task lists, strikethrough, footnotes, autolinks, alert callouts and emoji shortcodes
• GitBook exports: {% hint %}, {% tabs %}, {% stepper %}, {% columns %}, {% code %}, content refs, expandable sections, card tables, drawings and $$math$$ all map onto the matching Doku block
• Front matter: title, slug, description and tags map to the post’s title, slug, excerpt and tags
• Links between pages keep working: [Setup](guides/setup.md) points at the imported Setup page, in whatever order the files arrive, and follows it through later slug and category changes
• Each file’s folder becomes its documentation category, and a whole upload can be assigned a release version in one step. A revised single file can be imported over its existing page, which stays published and keeps any Media Library image you put in place of one of the file’s own, matched by file name. A .zip always arrives as new drafts
• One long file, many pages: split a README or guide at each H1, or at each H1 and H2, into pages in file order, with links between its sections still pointing at the right page. Import it again after an edit with Overwrite matching posts ticked, and only the pages that changed are rewritten

The reading experience

• Hierarchical sidebar that opens to the page a reader is on and collapses the rest. Group it under your own section headings: give a top-level menu item the link # and it becomes the uppercase label over the links beneath it. The automatic category tree uses the same shape and also nests each doc under its parent doc
• Sticky table of contents that follows the reader’s position through the page as they scroll, and slides in from the side on phones

• Dark mode with a three-way header toggle: light, dark, or follow the operating system. System keeps following the OS as the reader changes it, their choice is remembered, and the page never flashes white on load
• Breadcrumbs on docs and blog posts alike, from Yoast or Rank Math when installed and from a built-in fallback when they aren’t
• Previous / next navigation through each category, in your chosen order
• Tags at the end of each doc, each opening a page of every doc that shares it
• Browsing from every listing page: the docs index, each category, version, product and tag page, search results and the 404 page list your categories, versions, tags and products beside the docs, with counts, so readers move between them without setup. Once the Blog Sidebar has widgets, search results and the 404 page show those there instead, unless you switch that off in the Customizer
• Copy-to-clipboard anchor links on every heading
• Version dropdown for sites documenting several releases, in the header on desktop and in the navigation drawer on phones and tablets, with an index page for each version. It is styled to match the rest of the header in light and dark mode rather than falling back to the browser’s own control
• Three-level header menus that open on hover, on tap and from the keyboard. Every parent has its own chevron button, so the dropdowns work on a touchscreen laptop as well as with a mouse, and a drawer keeps every link reachable on small screens
• A columned mega menu, built from the menu itself. Nest a branch three deep and it opens as a panel of columns: each second-level item heads its own links, each link can carry a second line of description, and a full-width link runs across the foot. Shallower branches keep the ordinary dropdown, one Customizer switch turns the whole thing off, and a Menu style setting on each top-level item overrides both, so you can hold one branch to plain dropdowns or make a two-level branch a panel whose links carry descriptions too
• “Was this page helpful?” thumbs up / down on every doc, with the results in the admin’s Documentation list
• Mermaid diagrams and KaTeX math, loaded only on the pages that contain them
• A blog in the same frame as your docs. Set a posts page, with a few words of your own above it, and your announcements, release notes and tutorials appear as a list of articles with featured images, categories, dates and excerpts. Sticky posts lead at full width and category chips take readers straight to a topic, while the documentation archives keep their card grid. Posts read like documentation, with the blog’s categories down the left (built automatically) and the post’s table of contents on the right, and each post links to the one before and after it by date
• Print stylesheet, so a page printed to PDF looks deliberate
• Responsive from three columns on desktop down to a single column on phones

Made to be customized

Everything below is set in Appearance > Customize, with a live preview and no code:

• Your brand color: one picker for light mode, one for dark. Links, active states, tags and callout tints all derive from it.
• The starting color scheme: light, dark, or whatever the visitor’s system asks for.
• Your logo, SVG included and sanitized on upload. Add a second version for dark mode, or have Doku paint a single-color mark in your accent so it follows the theme on its own.
• Content width: one setting for documentation, posts and search results, while a page’s article fills whatever its side columns leave. The sidebar, table of contents and header bar move with it, and the block editor matches whichever width applies to what you’re editing.
• Widget columns on either side of your pages and beside the blog, each with its own widgets. A page spans the full width until you add widgets to a column, and gives up only the room that column needs. WordPress’s own widgets are styled to match in light and dark, in the footer and inside an article too, so a calendar or a tag cloud never lands as the washed-out default.
• Header and page elements: a header that lines up with your content or runs the full width; the search bar, version dropdown, breadcrumbs, previous/next links, tags and rating widget, each switched on or off; any page as the welcome above your documentation index; how many heading levels the table of contents lists; and your own footer text, with a row of footer links beside it.

Any of it can differ on a single page. Almost every Customizer setting is also available per entry, in a box on the editor screen. That covers Doku’s own options and also your site title, your logo, which menu the header shows, or a block of CSS meant for that page alone. One landing page can run the header full width, and one doc can drop its previous/next links, without the rest of the site following.

One button resets the Customizer. Reset puts every Doku option there back to the theme’s defaults, previewed first and written only when you publish. Per-page overrides stay as they are.

Everything deeper is a CSS custom property. There are no Sass sources to compile and no build step to fight: override a variable in a child theme and you’re done. The tokens are grouped so that the changes people actually want are small ones. Every corner radius comes from three tokens, the gap between most blocks in an article from one, every type size from a single set of size tokens, and both typefaces from two. Squaring off the whole theme, opening up the page, setting the interface a point larger or putting the site in your brand’s font takes a handful of lines, not a hunt through a stylesheet.

What’s included

• The Doku theme
• The Doku Core companion plugin, bundled with the theme and installed from an admin prompt
• One-click demo import that rebuilds the live demo on your site (documentation, pages, blog posts, images, menus, widgets and Customizer settings) through the free One Click Demo Import plugin
• Complete end-user documentation covering installation, every block, the importer and troubleshooting, online and itself built with Doku
• A maintained changelog, so you can see what each update changes before you install it
• Translation-ready .pot files for both packages
• Child theme friendly, multisite compatible

Requirements

• WordPress 7.0 or higher
• PHP 7.4 or higher

No page builder required. No subscription. No external service.

Accessibility

Doku is built to WCAG 2.1 AA, with accessibility treated as a constraint from the start: semantic landmarks, a skip link, ARIA labels on interactive controls, full keyboard navigation, visible focus states, comfortable target sizes on every control, color tokens chosen for contrast in light and dark mode, and motion that stops for readers whose system asks it to.

Frequently asked questions

Can I move my GitBook documentation to WordPress with Doku?

Yes. Zip the Markdown files of your GitBook space and upload them under Documentation > Import Markdown. Hints, tabs, steppers, code blocks, expandable sections, card tables and math become Doku blocks, each folder becomes a category, and links between pages keep working. The pages arrive as drafts for you to review before publishing.

What happens to my documentation if I switch themes?

It stays. The doc post type, taxonomies, blocks and importer belong to the Doku Core plugin, so your documentation remains in the WordPress admin under any theme, and Doku Core can still export each page as Markdown.

Does Doku need Algolia or another external service?

No. Search runs in the reader’s browser with FlexSearch, and fonts, icons, diagrams and math are served from your own domain. Doku makes no third-party requests.

Can I document several versions of my software?

Yes. Assign each doc to one or more versions, and readers switch between them from the version dropdown, with an index page for each version.

Can I use Doku as a knowledge base or help center?

Yes. Categories, tags, products and versions organize the articles, readers find answers through Ctrl+K search and the browse column on every listing page, and the “Was this page helpful?” rating records votes for each doc in the admin’s Documentation list.

Is Doku translation-ready?

Yes. The theme and Doku Core each ship a .pot file, so their interface strings can be translated into any language.

Licensing

The theme and plugin code is released under the GNU General Public License v2 or later. Your purchase is covered by the Envato Regular or Extended License, depending on the option chosen at checkout. See https://themeforest.net/licenses for the full terms.

Doku bundles open-source components, among them Shiki, Mermaid, KaTeX, FlexSearch, Lucide, Font Awesome Free and the DM Sans and DM Mono fonts. Each is credited with its license in the documentation’s Credits and Licenses chapter.

Support

Documentation, setup guidance and bug fixes are included. Questions and bug reports go through the item’s Support tab, with replies typically within one business day, and feature requests do shape the roadmap.

Changelog

1.0.0 (October 22, 2026): initial release.

Full changelog: https://doku.bitorbit.biz/docs/changelog/