Preview changes locally
View and share updates to your documentation
Fern offers two ways to preview changes to your documentation: a local development environment and unique preview links.
Fern enables you to view changes to your documentation in a locally hosted environment.
Follow these steps to install and run the Fern CLI:
Step 1: Install the Fern CLI:
Step 2: Navigate to the docs directory (where the fern folder is located) and execute the following command:
A local preview of your documentation will be available at http://localhost:3000. The functionality is available offline if you have run local development mode online at least once.
Some features (e.g. search) are disabled in the local development environment, including:
By default, Fern uses port 3000. You can customize the port on which Fern runs by using the --port flag. For example, to run Fern on port 3002, use this command:
If you attempt to run Fern on a port that’s already in use, it will use the next available port:
Fern allows you to generate a shareable preview link that displays the current state of your docs. Each preview link is appended with a UUID and is not indexed. Currently, these links do not expire (this behavior is subject to change in the future).
Usage:
Example: