# What Is Jekyll VitePress Theme?

[Jekyll](https://jekyllrb.com/) is a static site generator written in [Ruby](https://www.ruby-lang.org/). It turns [Markdown](https://www.markdownguide.org/), [Liquid](https://shopify.github.io/liquid/) templates, and [data files](https://jekyllrb.com/docs/datafiles/) into static HTML you can deploy almost anywhere. There is no application server and no database, just files on a CDN.

Jekyll powers a huge number of documentation sites and blogs, particularly in the Ruby ecosystem and [GitHub Pages](https://pages.github.com/) workflows. If you've ever pushed a `docs/` folder to GitHub and had a site appear, you've likely used Jekyll.

## What this theme is




[Jekyll VitePress Theme](https://github.com/crmne/jekyll-vitepress-theme) is a Jekyll theme **and** plugin gem that recreates the [VitePress](https://vitepress.dev/) documentation experience inside a Ruby project, then adds Jekyll-first features beyond baseline VitePress. See [VitePress Parity](/vitepress-parity/) for what is mirrored and [Extensions to VitePress](/extensions-to-vitepress/) for what is added on top:

- **Top navigation** with mobile nav screen, social links, and optional GitHub star count
- **Left sidebar** driven by your Jekyll collections and data files
- **Right "On this page" outline** that tracks your scroll position
- **Turbo Frame page navigation** that swaps doc content while keeping the shell in place
- **Code blocks** with copy buttons, language labels, and file-title bars with icons
- **Custom blocks** for tips, warnings, and callouts that match VitePress containers
- **Home layout** with hero section and feature cards
- **Doc footer** with edit link, previous/next pager, and automatic last-updated timestamps
- **Built-in local search** triggered with `/` or `Ctrl/Cmd+K`
- **Dark mode** with an appearance toggle that respects system preference
- **Markdown enhancements:** header anchors, external link icons, styled tables, and automatic title injection

Everything is configured through `_config.yml` and `_data/*.yml` files. There is no Vite app to maintain, no JavaScript bundle step, and no second documentation stack sitting beside your Ruby app or gem.

## Why this exists

[VitePress](https://vitepress.dev/) has one of the best documentation experiences available today, but it comes from the Node.js and Vite ecosystem. That is a good fit for JavaScript projects. It can feel like the wrong trade-off when the rest of your project is Ruby.

This theme brings that visual and interaction model to Jekyll while adding Ruby/Jekyll-specific conveniences. You write Markdown, configure YAML, render static HTML, and still get fast page changes through Turbo Frames.