gomddoc vs mdBook

mdBook is a Rust tool that turns Markdown into an online book, best known as the engine behind The Rust Programming Language. It is excellent at long-form, chapter-ordered reading. gomddoc targets documentation sites instead: navigation comes from the directory tree, pages are served live, and the same content is available to MCP clients.

At a glance

	gomddoc	mdBook
Runtime	Single Go binary	Single Rust binary
Model	HTTP server, plus `gomddoc build` for static output	Static generator, plus `mdbook serve` for development
Build before publishing	Not needed with `serve`	`mdbook build`
Navigation	Generated from the directory tree	Defined by hand in `SUMMARY.md`
Config file	Optional (`.gomddoc/config.yml`)	`book.toml`, created by `mdbook init`
Serve a Git URL	Built in, with `#branch:subdir`	Files must be on disk
MCP server	Built in: stdio and HTTP at `/_mcp/`	Not built in
Markdown via `Accept` header	Built in	Not built in
Search	Server-side TF-IDF with `tag:` filters	Client-side (elasticlunr.js), works on static hosts
Themes	8 distinct layouts, each with light and dark mode	One layout with five colour schemes
Syntax highlighting	Server-side (Chroma)	Client-side (highlight.js)
Math and diagrams	KaTeX and Mermaid built in	MathJax opt-in; Mermaid via preprocessor
Multiple languages	Language directories detected automatically	Third-party tooling (`mdbook-i18n-helpers`)
SEO output	Sitemap, robots.txt, Atom feed, Open Graph, JSON-LD	No built-in sitemap
Metrics and health checks	Prometheus `/metrics`, `/health/live`, `/health/ready`	Left to your web server
Licence	PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0 + commercial licence (per deployment)	MPL-2.0

mdBook is free for any use. gomddoc is free for noncommercial use and needs a commercial licence for business use; see licensing.

Where gomddoc differs

mdBook builds its sidebar from SUMMARY.md, and a chapter missing from that file is not rendered. That gives authors precise control over reading order, and it means every new page needs a second edit. gomddoc builds navigation from the directory tree, so adding a file adds a page.

The server is the deployment

mdBook writes HTML to book/, which you then host. gomddoc's serve command runs in production, with gzip, ETags, security headers and optional Basic Auth against a bcrypt htpasswd file:

gomddoc serve ./docs --basic-auth-file ./.htpasswd

Page edits show on the next request. New pages join the navigation and search index when the server restarts.

Eight themes

mdBook offers one layout in five colour schemes. gomddoc has eight themes with their own typography and layout: default is compiled into the binary, and academic, gitbook, material, midnight, minimal, nord and ocean come from the gomddoc-themes repository. Every theme supports light and dark mode, a table of contents, breadcrumbs, admonitions, KaTeX and Mermaid.

Your docs are available to MCP clients

gomddoc includes an MCP server with six tools, four resources and three prompts. Clients can search, read a page or a single section, list pages, get a table of contents and find related pages. Local clients launch gomddoc mcp ./docs over stdio; remote clients connect to /_mcp/ on a running server.

Any page URL also answers in Markdown, with a generated frontmatter block holding the page's metadata, related pages and previous/next links:

curl -H "Accept: text/markdown" https://docs.example.com/ch01/intro

Search accepts tag: filters, such as tag:rust tag:async, in the search dialog, at /api/search and in the search_docs MCP tool.

When mdBook is the better choice

You are writing a book with a deliberate chapter order and want SUMMARY.md to control it.
You like the reading experience of the Rust book and want exactly that layout.
You depend on mdBook preprocessors or renderers, such as PDF or EPUB output through third-party backends.
You publish to a static host and want search to work there. mdBook's search runs in the browser; gomddoc's build output has no search backend, content negotiation, MCP endpoint or metrics, because those need the server.
You need a permissive licence for commercial use at no cost. mdBook is MPL-2.0.

Get started

brew install monolithiclab/tap/gomddoc
gomddoc preview --open ./docs

The getting started guide covers the other install options and the first configuration steps.