What is Bark?

Bark is a .NET documentation server. It serves a folder of Markdown as a site with navigation, table of contents, breadcrumbs and search, from a single process.

Static site generators require a build step and a deploy of the output. Bark renders in memory at startup and re-renders when a file changes. There is no build step; the only deployable is Bark itself.

How it compares ​

Wikis. Confluence stores pages in a database and edits them through a web form, with no review step before publishing. Bark content is Markdown in a folder; in git, docs follow the same pull request review as code.

Static site generators. Hugo, MkDocs and VitePress fit static hosting with a build step. Bark fits teams already running .NET.

Performance ​

Pages are held in memory. Requests do not read from disk.

• File changes are debounced; a burst of saves triggers one rebuild.
• Responses carry an ETag; repeat requests receive 304 Not Modified.

Ready to try it out? ​

If you are, the head over to getting started to continue.