# Introduction

{% subtitle %}

Learn the main Limedocs concepts

{% endsubtitle %}

Documentation is a key part of your product/software. By having a great documentation, you can reduce
support, increase adoption and bring meaningful help to your users.

There are many documentation generators out there. Some are simple, maybe too simple, some others
are too complex. At the end, it really depends on your needs.

Limedocs gives you power to create great documentation websites, whatever your needs, simple or complex.

## Use cases 

### Creating a documentation using markdown files

This is the easiest and quickest way to use Limedocs. You'll be set in a minute using our [Getting started guide](quickstart/getting-started.md).

### Creating a documentation using another file format than markdown

### Creating a complex documentation using various sources (files, database)




{% alert type="info" %}

Want to quickly build a website ? Skip these concepts and read our [Getting Started guide](quickstart/getting-started.md).

{% endalert %}

```dot
digraph graphname {
  a -> b;
  b -> c;
  a -> c;
}
```

![Limedocs flow](static/img/flow.png)

## Sources

Limedocs allows you to generate static websites (documentation, FAQs, etc) from various sources using *source-plugins*.
For example if you'd like to generate a site from markdown files, you would use `@limedocs/source-filesystem` plugin to read markdown files
from your disk. Learn more on [Source plugins](plugins/source-plugins.md).

## Transformations

Limedocs will then use *transform plugins* to convert your source files from/to various content types.
So for the same use-case (generating a site from markdown files), you would use `@limedocs/transform-markdown` plugin to transform
your markdown files to HTML files. Learn more on [Transform plugins](plugins/transform-plugins.md).


## Output

Finally, Limedocs will output your site, usually to your disk. This is done thanks to *output plugins* like `@limedocs/output-filesystem`.