Configuration overview

Fern documentation is configured at two levels: site-level settings in docs.yml that apply globally, and page-level settings in frontmatter that control individual pages. Where both set the same property, such as a title, slug, or layout, the page’s frontmatter wins.

docs.yml covers two concerns. Site-level settings determine how the site looks and behaves — branding, layout, navbar links, and analytics. Navigation determines what the site contains: which files become pages, how they group into sections, and what URL each one gets. Navigation is where most structural decisions land, so it spans several pages of its own.