Auto Document with Storybook

Automatically Document Your Components with Storybook Autodocs

When building a component library, effective documentation is key to ensuring that other developers can quickly understand and utilize your components. However, writing and maintaining documentation can be a time-consuming task. Storybook Autodocs offers a solution by automatically generating documentation for your components, helping you maintain accurate, up-to-date docs with minimal effort.

What is Storybook Autodocs?

Storybook Autodocs is a feature that allows you to automatically generate documentation for your UI components directly from your stories. It transforms your component stories into living documentation, enriched with metadata such as args, argTypes, and parameters. This documentation can be further customized using MDX and Storybook's Doc Blocks to provide a comprehensive understanding of your components.

How Autodocs Works

Storybook Autodocs generates documentation by inferring metadata from your component stories. The generated documentation is positioned at the root level of your component tree in the Storybook sidebar, making it easily accessible.

Setting Up Autodocs

To enable Autodocs in your Storybook project, you need to configure it through tags. You can enable automatic documentation globally or for individual components or stories.

Global Setup: In your .storybook/preview.js|ts file, add the autodocs tag to enable documentation for all stories:

// .storybook/preview.ts
import type { Preview } from '@storybook/react';

const preview: Preview = {
  tags: ['autodocs'],
};

export default preview;

Component or Story-Level Setup: Alternatively, you can enable or disable Autodocs at the component or story level:

// Button.stories.ts
import type { Meta } from '@storybook/react';
import { Button } from './Button';

const meta: Meta<typeof Button> = {
  component: Button,
  tags: ['autodocs'], // Enables autodocs for this component
};
export default meta;

You can also exclude specific stories or components from the documentation by using the !autodocs tag.

Customizing Your Documentation

Storybook Autodocs provides several customization options to tailor your documentation to your needs. You can:

• Rename the documentation page: Use the defaultName option in your Storybook configuration.
• Customize the documentation template: Override the default template with a custom one using the docs.page parameter.
• Generate a Table of Contents (ToC): Enable a ToC for easy navigation through long documentation pages.

For example, you can customize the template by defining a docs.page function in your .storybook/preview.ts file:

// .storybook/preview.tsx
import { Preview } from '@storybook/react';
import { Title, Subtitle, Description, Primary, Controls, Stories } from '@storybook/blocks';

const preview: Preview = {
  parameters: {
    docs: {
      page: () => (
        <>
          <Title />
          <Subtitle />
          <Description />
          <Primary />
          <Controls />
          <Stories />
        </>
      ),
    },
  },
};

export default preview;

Advanced Configuration

For more complex documentation needs, Autodocs allows you to:

• Document multiple components together: Useful for related components like ButtonGroup and Button.
• Customize the Docs Container: Replace the default Docs Container with your own component.
• Override the theme: Customize the documentation theme to match your project’s design.

Troubleshooting

Storybook Autodocs is designed to be straightforward, but you might encounter some challenges, especially in more complex setups like monorepos. Some common issues include:

• Documentation not appearing in monorepos: Ensure correct import paths and Storybook configuration.
• Controls not updating: This could happen if inline rendering is disabled.

Conclusion

Storybook Autodocs streamlines the process of documenting your UI components, ensuring that your documentation stays current with minimal manual effort. With its powerful customization options and ease of setup, Autodocs is an essential tool for maintaining high-quality, usable component libraries.