vitepress@1.6.4

Vite & Vue powered static site generator (vuejs/vitepress). Source of truth in this Skill is the prepared package source; line citations are relative to the package root (for example dist/node/index.d.ts:2382).

Version facts

• Version 1.6.4, MIT (package.json:3).
• Bundles Vue ^3.5.13, Vite ^5.4.14, shiki ^2.1.0, minisearch ^7 (package.json:59-78).
• Requires Node.js 18+ (https://vitepress.dev/guide/getting-started).
• VitePress v1 is not compatible with rolldown-vite; the dev server prints an error and directs to VitePress v2 (dist/node/cli.js:438-444).
• Optional peers: markdown-it-mathjax3 (for markdown.math), postcss (package.json:155-166).

Entry points

Defined by the export map in package.json:18-37:

CLI binary: vitepress → bin/vitepress.js.

Setup and commands

npm add -D vitepress
npx vitepress init
npx vitepress dev
npx vitepress build
npx vitepress preview

dev may be omitted when using the current directory (vitepress alone). serve is an alias of preview. Full flags and dev shortcuts: cli.md

Common tasks

Site config (.vitepress/config.ts)

import { defineConfig } from 'vitepress'

export default defineConfig({
  title: 'My App',
  description: 'A VitePress site',
  themeConfig: {
    nav: [{ text: 'Guide', link: '/guide/' }],
    sidebar: [{ text: 'Guide', items: [{ text: 'Intro', link: '/guide/intro' }] }]
  }
})

defineConfig is typed for the default theme; use defineConfigWithTheme<CustomThemeConfig> for a custom theme (dist/node/index.d.ts:2382-2386). Every option: site-config.md

Client runtime API

<script setup>
import { useData, useRouter, withBase } from 'vitepress'
const { page, frontmatter, isDark, hash } = useData()
const router = useRouter()
</script>

Full export list and signatures: api.md

Build-time data loading

// posts.data.js
import { createContentLoader } from 'vitepress'
export default createContentLoader('posts/*.md', { excerpt: true })

Import as import { data } from './posts.data.js'. Runs in Node only; the result ships as JSON in the client bundle.

Browser-only components

<script setup>
import { defineClientComponent } from 'vitepress'
const Chart = defineClientComponent(() => import('./Chart.vue'))
</script>

Prevents SSG build failures when a library touches window/document on import (https://vitepress.dev/guide/ssr-compat).

Best practices

• Use createContentLoader for archive and index pages instead of hand-rolled loaders; it caches by file mtime and keeps the client JSON small (dist/node/index.d.ts:2466-2473, https://vitepress.dev/guide/data-loading).
• Wrap browser-only components with defineClientComponent (https://vitepress.dev/guide/ssr-compat).
• Keep image and asset URLs relative in Markdown so Vite hashes and inlines them; use withBase() for dynamic paths in theme components (https://vitepress.dev/guide/asset-handling).
• Enable cleanUrls: true only when the host can map /foo to /foo.html (https://vitepress.dev/guide/routing#clean-urls).
• With rewrites, relative links must target the rewritten URL structure, not the source file structure (https://vitepress.dev/guide/routing#route-rewrites).
• In dynamic route paths.js loaders, pass large payloads via content, not params, to keep client JS small (https://vitepress.dev/guide/routing#dynamic-routes).
• In MPA mode (mpa: true), use <script client> for interactivity; plain <script setup> is server-side templating only (https://vitepress.dev/guide/mpa-mode).
• Exclude pages from local search with the _render hook (types/default-theme.d.ts:451-455).

Deeper references

• api.md: every export from vitepress, vitepress/client, vitepress/theme, data loader types, theme interface.
• site-config.md: UserConfig fields, build hooks, SiteConfig, mergeConfig.
• default-theme.md: DefaultTheme.Config, nav, sidebar, search (local and algolia), theme extension.
• markdown.md: markdown options, shiki setup, containers, math, createMarkdownRenderer.
• cli.md: commands, flags, dev shortcuts, scaffolding.
• migration.md: v0 → v1 breaking changes and deprecations still visible in 1.6.4.

Version-specific changes

Prioritize these when touching old configs; details and citations in migration.md:

• BREAKING (v1.0.0-rc.9): pathname:// protocol removed; use target="_self" or target="_blank" (https://github.com/vuejs/vitepress/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md).
• BREAKING (v1.0.0): sidebar children renamed to items; top-level items no longer accept link (https://vitepress.dev/guide/migration-from-vitepress-0).
• BREAKING (v1.0.0-alpha.44): collapsible replaced by collapsed: boolean (CHANGELOG).
• BREAKING (v1.0.0-alpha.57): markdown.headers disabled by default; PageData.headers is empty unless enabled (CHANGELOG).
• When markdown.headers is enabled, extraction levels default to [2, 3] (dist/node/index.d.ts:1769-1786).
• NEW (v1.1.0): useData().hash reactive URL hash (dist/client/index.d.ts:79-83).
• NEW (v1.4.0): onAfterPageLoad router hook (dist/client/index.d.ts:36-38).
• NEW (v1.3.0): appearance: 'force-auto' (types/shared.d.ts:119-124).
• Deprecated in 1.6.4: Theme.setup, Theme.NotFound (dist/client/index.d.ts:96-103), outlineTitle, lastUpdatedText, algolia theme options (types/default-theme.d.ts:36-77,139-141).