From repo to published docs in 5 minutes (an honest walkthrough)

Most sales decks claim some version of “generate docs in seconds”. In practice, the time from “connected my repo” to “have a polished, useful documentation site” is rarely seconds. It is more like five minutes — and that is when things go well.

This is a walkthrough of what actually happens when you connect GitDocAI to a real GitHub repo. No best-case demos, no time-skips. Just the typical first run.

What you need first

• A GitHub repository you have admin access to. Public or private both work; private requires the GitDocAI GitHub App installation.
• An email address. That is the whole signup form.
• About five minutes.

Step 1 — Sign up (30 seconds)

Email, password, done. No credit card. You land in the dashboard with a “Welcome to GitDocAI” setup wizard.

The wizard asks: “Pick how you want to get started.” You see five options. Click Sync with GitHub.

Step 2 — Install the GitHub App (1 minute)

You are redirected to GitHub to install the GitDocAI App. Select the organization and either “All repositories” or a specific repo subset. You probably want the subset for the first try.

Back in the GitDocAI wizard, your repos are now listed. Pick one. Pick the branch (defaults to main). Optionally limit to a folder if your codebase is huge and the docs should only cover one subdirectory.

Click Generate docs.

Step 3 — Generation (1 to 3 minutes, depending on repo size)

You see a progress panel with four phases:

1. Analyzing resources — GitDocAI reads the file tree, finds README files, looks at code structure.
2. Building pages — Decides the doc structure: sections, pages, navigation.
3. Writing content — Drafts each page using an LLM grounded in the actual code.
4. Finalizing — Renders the site, sets up the publish pipeline.

For a small repo (a single service, ~50 files), this takes about a minute. For a larger repo (10K+ files, multiple services), expect 2-3 minutes. You can leave the tab; an email arrives when it is done.

Step 4 — Review what got generated (1 to 2 minutes)

This is the part the sales decks gloss over. The first draft is solid but not perfect. Common things you will tweak:

• Page titles — sometimes the LLM picks slightly off names. Rename in the visual editor.
• Section order — the auto-generated navigation may not match your preferred narrative.
• Missing context — the AI knows the code, not your “this product is for X audience” framing. Add a quickstart or overview page manually if needed.

The visual editor handles all of this without leaving the dashboard. No MDX, no Git pushes — just edit and save.

Step 5 — Publish (10 seconds)

Click Publish in the top right. Pick a subdomain (yourdoc.gitdoc.ai) or a custom domain if you are on the Essential plan or above.

That is it. Your docs are live.

What you actually have at the 5-minute mark

A documentation site with:

• A polished default theme that you can customise (colors, fonts, logo) later.
• An auto-generated structure with sections, pages, and code examples extracted from your repo.
• AI search enabled by default — visitors can ask questions in natural language.
• The MCP server live and exposing your docs to Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT — no extra setup.
• A backup repo (if you turn it on) snapshotting every change to a Git repo you own.

The site is not “the perfect representation of your product” yet. It is a solid 70-80% draft that your team can polish in another 30-60 minutes. The difference compared to starting from a blank Mintlify / GitBook / Docusaurus install: those start at 0%. You spend that 30-60 minutes anyway, just on the polish, not on the skeleton.

What auto-sync does after the first publish

Every push to the connected branch triggers a diff against the current docs. If GitDocAI detects something that would change a documented page (a new endpoint, a renamed function, an updated parameter), it drafts the update and surfaces it as a pending change in the dashboard.

You review, accept (or edit), publish. The docs stay current without anyone manually re-writing pages.

That is the actual lifecycle savings. The five-minute setup is the warmup; the auto-sync is what compounds.

Start your first repo connection here on the Free plan.