HibbittsDesign.org
Open Source MIT Licensed No Database Required

Your Markdown, Published Your Way

Pick your level of publishing capability – no build step, full portability – powered by Docsify (31.5k ★s) or Grav (15.7k ★s): publish instantly with Docsify-This, launch a site on GitHub Pages with a Docsify Starter Kit, or level up to Grav for a full CMS. Everything here is free and open-source, including the Grav Helios skeletons, which require the paid Premium Helios theme. Built by Paul Hibbitts, drawing on over 25 years of software interaction design, UX consulting, and university teaching experience.

Jump to: Three Levels of Capability · Projects in Detail

yoursite.md → published

guide.mdNew to Markdown?

# Docsify‑This

Turn any Markdown file into a
**shareable, styled web page** – instantly.

- No signup, no install
- Embeds in Canvas, Moodle, WordPress, or any page
- Point-and-click page builder

[Try it live →](https://docsify-this.net)

Published page

Docsify‑This

Turn any Markdown file into a shareable, styled web page – instantly.

  • No signup, no install
  • Embeds in Canvas, Moodle, WordPress, or any page
  • Point-and-click page builder

Try it live →

The same Markdown file, before and after – this is what every project below does, at a different scale.

One idea, three levels of capability

Start with Docsify-This to publish instantly, no setup required. Move to a Docsify Starter Kit when you want your own domain or custom CSS. Graduate to Grav Helios – Course Hub or Open Reader, depending on what you're publishing – when you want a full CMS with an admin panel. Your content stays as plain Markdown files you control, portable across every option below.

Instant · Docsify

Docsify-This

Point at a file, published instantly, nothing installed

Static Site · Docsify

Docsify Starter Kits

A whole repository, your own domain and CSS, zero build step

Full CMS · Grav Helios

Course Hub & Open Reader

A flat-file CMS (Grav) with a full admin panel, no database required

Which one do I need?

I want to publish a page – or several – right now, with no setup and nothing to install.

Docsify‑This

I want my own domain or custom CSS, with a whole site living in my own GitHub repository (no coding needed), deployed to GitHub Pages for free.

Docsify Starter Kits

I'm building a single or multiple course site and want a modern course home for my students, with a full admin panel, no database required.

Grav Helios Course Hub

I'm publishing an open textbook or other long-form OER and want a web-first reader experience, with a full admin panel, no database required.

Grav Helios Open Reader

Projects

Instant · Docsify
147 Award Finalist

Docsify‑This v2.0 · Docsify v5

Turn any online Markdown file into a shareable, styled web page or embeddable widget – instantly, with no signup and no build step, and well suited to OER and other open publishing workflows. Point it at a file on GitHub, Codeberg, or anywhere public, and it's a live page; point it at several, and it's a full multi-page site with sidebar navigation built in. Edit on GitHub's website, or sync local edits automatically with the free GitHub Desktop app – either way, the live page updates as soon as you save. Open Infrastructure Finalist, 2024 Open Education Awards for Excellence.

  • No signup, no install
  • Embeds in Canvas, Moodle, WordPress, or any page
  • Point-and-click page builder
  • Free Cartridge Converter imports Canvas, Moodle & Brightspace courses (beta)
  • Full-text search across multi-page sites
  • Rich content: H5P, LaTeX, Mermaid diagrams & more

Learn more about Docsify‑This →

→ Try it live View on GitHub
Static Site · Docsify

Docsify Starter Kits Docsify v5

Ready-to-use templates for building a full Markdown-based site on GitHub Pages (free hosting), with room for your own domain and full control over the CSS – no build tooling, edit pages directly on GitHub.

  • Your own domain & CSS support
  • Pre-styled cards, accordions, badges, banners & video embeds included
  • Embeds in Canvas, Moodle, Microsoft Teams, or any page
  • Free Cartridge Converter imports Canvas, Moodle & Brightspace courses (beta)
  • Edit-on-GitHub workflow, or sync local edits with GitHub Desktop – no coding required, just text files

Learn more about Docsify Starter Kits →

Open Course Kit

51

Hidden navigation for pages framed inside a course.

→ Demo GitHub

Open MultiCourse Kit

13

The Open Course Kit plus a course-selection layer, for managing several courses from one site.

→ Demo GitHub

Open Publishing Kit

61

Suits articles, tutorials, and documentation.

→ Demo GitHub

More Examples: Customized Variations

Beyond the three kits above, these demos show further customization on the same foundation – and each is itself a ready-to-use starting template, not just an example to look at.

Open Publishing Kit – Blog Layout

A blog-style variation of the Open Publishing Starter Kit, suited to chronological, article-style content.

→ Demo GitHub

Open Publishing Kit – Multi-Language

A multilingual variation of the Open Publishing Starter Kit, for content and navigation in more than one language.

→ Demo GitHub

Open MultiCourse Kit – Card Layout

A card-based visual variation of the Open MultiCourse Starter Kit.

→ Demo GitHub
Beta

Docsify Cartridge Converter

Imports a Canvas, Moodle, or Brightspace Common Cartridge export into a ready-to-edit Docsify site, for use with either Docsify‑This above or the Docsify Starter Kits. It's a free, ongoing beta project – not a finished product, and likely to stay that way – but it handles the common cases well; treat the result as a strong starting point to review, not a guaranteed complete migration.

→ Try it GitHub
Full CMS · Grav Helios
6 Made Possible by Premium Helios
Screenshot of a Grav Helios Course Hub course home page, showing upcoming due dates and required reading

Grav Helios Course Hub

A single- or multi-course hub skeleton for the Grav Premium Helios theme ($50), for educators who want a real course platform without a database. Includes example course content, the Helios Course Hub plugin, and an admin panel for managing everything through the browser.

  • Single or multi-course, with course cards, instructor names & status badges
  • Course-aware search and an auto-generated topics index
  • Embeds directly in Canvas, Moodle & Brightspace – no special integration needed
  • Free Cartridge Converter imports Canvas, Moodle & Brightspace courses (beta)
  • Built on Grav 2 CMS – no database required, runs on almost any standard web host with PHP 8.3+
  • Git Sync keeps your local files and live site matched automatically, plus a browser-based admin panel

Learn more about Grav Helios Course Hub →

→ See the demo Download View on GitHub
Full CMS · Grav Helios
Made Possible by Premium Helios
Screenshot of a Grav Helios Open Reader page, showing a section overview with a callout box and sidebar table of contents

Grav Helios Open Reader

A web-first reader skeleton for open textbooks and other long-form OER, built on the database-free Grav CMS and the Grav Premium Helios theme ($50). Includes example reader content, the Helios Open Reader plugin, and a full admin panel – content still lives as ordinary Markdown files, not database rows.

  • "Keep My Place" reading position, a progress bar & a table of contents that highlights where you are
  • Full-text search, no-code callout blocks like Key Takeaways, plus an optional plain-text version for AI tools to read
  • Embeds directly in Canvas, Moodle & Brightspace – no special integration needed
  • Free Pressbooks Converter imports your existing content (beta)
  • Built on Grav 2 CMS – no database required, runs on almost any standard web host with PHP 8.3+
  • Git Sync keeps your local files and live site matched automatically, plus a browser-based admin panel

Learn more about Grav Helios Open Reader →

→ See the demo Download View on GitHub

See what educators and users are saying →

Beta

Grav Helios Import Converters

Free tools that handle the common cases well, but course and book content varies enough that the result is a strong starting point to review and finish by hand, not a guaranteed one‑click migration. Both are ongoing beta projects – not finished products, and likely to stay that way.

Grav Helios Cartridge Converter

The same Common Cartridge import as the Docsify converter above, built for Course Hub.

→ Try it GitHub

Grav Helios Pressbooks Converter

Imports existing Pressbooks content into Open Reader.

→ Try it GitHub
Free & Open Source

A Cost-Free Way to Use Grav CMS

Course Hub and Open Reader both build on the paid Grav Premium Helios theme – a purchase that directly funds continued development of the open-source Grav CMS itself.

If you're looking for a completely free way to use Grav instead, these skeletons share the same Markdown-and-Git-Sync workflow and browser-based admin panel. They come with example content already in place, so you're editing rather than starting from a blank site. All four are built on free, open-source themes and the newly released Grav 2, which needs a web host running PHP 8.3+. There's also one more free plugin that pairs with any Grav site, skeleton or not. The two course hub skeletons below also have an upgrade path into the paid Course Hub above, if you outgrow them:

Learn more about Cost-Free Grav Projects →