I am happy to announce that Vellum is now an official partner contributed template on CloudCannon! Thanks to the everyone at the CloudCannon team involved in making this happen, and their patience.
For details and a demo check that out here:
Vellum | CloudCannon
Original Community post:
Vellum: A Simple Documentation Template
What is Vellum?
vel·lum
noun
fine parchment made originally from the skin of a calf
For anyone who missed the original post, and all the new members, Vellum is a documentation template built with 11ty. I created Vellum with both developers and non-developers in mind.
There is no shortage of documentation templates out there. Pretty much every big name template will be more feature complete or have extensive customizability options. The same thing that makes those templates great is their primary downside. Heavy customization and numerous features can be a burden when looking for something that is ready to go. Vellum purposefully follows the 80-20 rule. It has 20% of customization and feature that gives you the 80% of what you need. For most people and projects the 20% is usually all that is needed.
This means that Vellum, most likely, won’t be replacing your existing enterprise documentation system, but it will probably have more more features and customizations than your basic starter documentation template.
For the Developer
If you are looking for a documentation template that is ready to go with minimal or even zero config, Vellum is a good choice. Everything is written using a markdown like syntax, even the richer components! This means than you can create all of your documentation and rich components with a basic syntax without having to write out complicated JSX.
In the age of AI, any LLM can quickly pick up on the syntax and help you create rich documentation in moments.
What about the Non-developer then?
For the Non-Developer
Someone who isn’t technical can create documentation using CloudCannon’s visual editor! Vellum makes use of bookshop components (specifically the version that allows inline text editing). What this means is that you can intuitively edit text directly in the editor without having to drill into each component to fix a spelling mistake. All components were designed to be nestable!
Vellum is technically a Documentation template, but as long as your primary content is text based, Vellum is likely a good fit! Most large organizations have SOPS and polices, but these documents usually exist as PDF’s which could lead to different people having different versions of the same procedure! A password protected CloudCannon site using Vellum can become the source of truth for all boring, but necessary documents. That is just one example, but there are more similar use cases, including those where the information can be public.
Feel free share your comments or concerns, I’m interested in hearing them!
templates.