Configuration overview

Readsmith is convention over configuration. A directory of Markdown with no config file at all builds a working site: pages are discovered, titles come from headings, and navigation follows your folder structure. Configuration exists to take control, one key at a time.

The config file

Put one of these at your content directory's root:

File	Format
`docs.yaml` (or `docs.yml`)	Readsmith's native shape
`docs.json`	Accepted for migration, in the widely used `docs.json` shape

The smallest useful config is two lines:

docs.yamlyaml

site:
  name: My Project

site.name is the only required key anywhere. Everything else is optional and documented, key by key, in the settings reference.

When the config lives above the content

A repository that keeps prose in a subdirectory points at it with content.root:

docs.yamlyaml

site:
  name: My Project
content:
  root: docs

Run Readsmith at the repository root and it reads pages from docs/, which keeps paths in your config repository-relative and lets asset mounts reach sibling directories.

Where settings take effect

Configuration is read at build time and compiled into the site bundle. Changing docs.yaml and rebuilding is the whole deployment story: there is no settings dashboard state that can drift from the file in your repository.