Pith - AI-powered documentation

CLI

Run Pith locally with your own Anthropic API key.

Installation

Install globally:

npm install -g pith

Or as a dev dependency:

npm install -D pith

Requires Node.js 20+ and a git repository.

Commands

Command	Description
`pith init`	Scaffold .pith.yml config and install git hooks (post-commit, post-merge)
`pith update`	Read recent git changes and update documentation
`pith preview`	Dry run - shows what would change without writing files
`pith ci <provider>`	Generate CI/CD config (github, gitlab)

pith update flags

Flag	Description
`--repo <path>`	Path to repo root (default: current directory)
`--since <ref>`	Update based on changes since a git ref (e.g. HEAD~5)
`--range <range>`	Update based on a git ref range (e.g. abc123..def456)
`--trigger <type>`	Trigger type: commit or merge (used by git hooks)
`--dry-run`	Preview changes without writing files

Output modes

Configured via output.mode in .pith.yml:

Mode	Behavior
`file-only`	Write files to disk. You stage and commit manually.
`commit`	Auto-commit doc changes after generation.
`pr`	Create a local branch with doc changes.

.pith.yml

Running pith init creates this default config:

.pith.yml

version: 1

ai:
  model: claude-sonnet-4-6
  # apiKey: ${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY}

docs:
  readme:
    enabled: true
    template: default
    output: README.md

  api:
    enabled: true
    template: default
    output: docs/API.md
    include:
      - "src/**/*.ts"
      - "src/**/*.js"

  architecture:
    enabled: true
    template: default
    output: docs/ARCHITECTURE.md

  changelog:
    enabled: true
    template: default
    output: CHANGELOG.md
    format: keepachangelog

output:
  mode: file-only
  commitMessage: "docs: auto-update documentation"
  prBranch: docs/auto-update

exclude:
  - "node_modules/**"
  - "dist/**"
  - "**/*.test.ts"
  - "**/*.spec.ts"

Config reference

Key	Description
`ai.model`	Which Claude model to use (default: claude-sonnet-4-6)
`ai.apiKey`	API key via env var reference ${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY}, or set the env var directly
`docs.*`	Enable/disable each doc type, set output paths, choose templates
`docs.api.include`	Glob patterns for source files (use ['auto'] to auto-detect)
`docs.changelog.format`	keepachangelog or conventional
`output.mode`	file-only, commit, or pr
`exclude`	Glob patterns to skip

The CLI calls the Anthropic API directly using your API key. It does not connect to the Pith server, use your Pith account, or count against your SaaS quota.

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