Why is my Docsify site blank when I open index.html?

Because Docsify has no build step — the page fetches your markdown files at runtime, and browsers block `fetch` from `file://` origins. Nothing is broken; there is just no server to answer the request.

Do I have to run docsify serve to share it?

That is the usual advice, and it only helps people who can reach your machine. Publishing the folder gives the same result over a URL, with the markdown files travelling as assets.

Does the sidebar and search still work?

Yes. Report HTML renders with scripts enabled inside a sandboxed iframe, and the `.md` files upload alongside it with their references rewritten, so navigation and the full-text search index behave.

What about the Docsify plugins?

Plugins loaded from a CDN or from the folder work the same way they do locally. A plugin that calls an external API at runtime is the exception — that depends on the API, not on the host.

Can reviewers comment on a page?

Yes. Threads anchor to the rendered content, so a note on a paragraph stays on that paragraph across later publishes.

Share a Docsify site

Docsify's selling point is that there is no build: point it at a folder of markdown, open the page, and it renders. The cost of that is hidden until the first time you try to send someone the result — index.html opened from disk shows a blank page, or a spinner that never resolves.

That isn't a bug. Docsify fetches README.md and your sidebar at runtime, and file:// origins cannot fetch.

Why `docsify serve` isn't the answer

The documented fix is docsify serve docs, which starts a local server on port 3000. That solves it for you. It does not solve it for the reviewer, the contractor, or the support engineer who needs to read the page and has never installed Node.

Publish the folder

Drag your docs/ directory (or a zip of it) into the app:

index.html becomes the report body.
README.md, _sidebar.md, _navbar.md and every other markdown file upload as assets, with their references rewritten to the uploaded copies.
Scripts run inside a sandboxed iframe (allow-scripts, no allow-same-origin), so routing, the sidebar and the search index work.

From CI:

curl -fsS -X PATCH "https://commareports.com/api/v1/reports/$REPORT_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $COMMA_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "$(jq -n --rawfile html docs/index.html \
        --arg title "Docs — $GITHUB_HEAD_REF" '{title: $title, html: $html}')"

One report id per branch gives you a docs preview per pull request with nothing to deploy and nothing to tear down.

Docs review happens on the rendered page

A markdown diff hides the things copy review is for: the heading hierarchy, the code sample in context, the sentence that reads fine alone and badly after the one above it.

Anchored threads on the paragraph. See commenting on HTML.
Revisions, so the edit round-trip is verifiable.
Access per report — private, team, domain-gated, or named reviewers. See the sharing model.

Limits

Entry HTML: 5 MB. Assets: 25 MB per file, 250 MB and 500 files total. A large docs tree can approach the 500-file cap — publish the section under review rather than the whole site.
60 requests/minute per token.

Try it

Comma is free — unlimited reports, unlimited commenters, unlimited revision history.

Publish a docs preview →