Zig Documentation Fetching

Instructions

• Use raw GitHub sources for std lib documentation (most reliable)
• Use pandoc for language reference from ziglang.org (works for prose content)
• The std lib HTML docs at ziglang.org are JavaScript-rendered and return empty content; avoid them
• Zig source files contain doc comments (//! for module docs, /// for item docs) that serve as authoritative documentation

Quick Reference

Fetch Standard Library Source (Recommended)

Standard library modules are self-documenting. Fetch source directly:

bash
# Module source with doc comments
curl -sL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ziglang/zig/master/lib/std/<module>.zig"

# Common modules:
curl -sL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ziglang/zig/master/lib/std/log.zig"
curl -sL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ziglang/zig/master/lib/std/mem.zig"
curl -sL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ziglang/zig/master/lib/std/fs.zig"
curl -sL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ziglang/zig/master/lib/std/heap.zig"
curl -sL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ziglang/zig/master/lib/std/debug.zig"
curl -sL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ziglang/zig/master/lib/std/testing.zig"

Fetch Allocator Interface

bash
curl -sL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ziglang/zig/master/lib/std/mem/Allocator.zig"

Fetch Language Reference (Prose)

bash
# Full language reference (large, ~500KB of text)
pandoc -f html -t plain "https://ziglang.org/documentation/master/"

# Pipe to head for specific sections
pandoc -f html -t plain "https://ziglang.org/documentation/master/" | head -200

List Standard Library Contents

bash
# List all std lib modules via GitHub API
curl -sL "https://api.github.com/repos/ziglang/zig/contents/lib/std" | jq -r '.[].name'

# List subdirectory contents
curl -sL "https://api.github.com/repos/ziglang/zig/contents/lib/std/mem" | jq -r '.[].name'

Fetch zig.guide Content

bash
# Landing page and navigation
pandoc -f html -t plain "https://zig.guide/"

Documentation Sources

| Source | URL Pattern | Notes | |--------|-------------|-------| | Std lib source | raw.githubusercontent.com/ziglang/zig/master/lib/std/<path> | Most reliable; includes doc comments | | Language reference | ziglang.org/documentation/master/ | Use pandoc; prose content | | zig.guide | zig.guide/ | Beginner-friendly; use pandoc | | GitHub API | api.github.com/repos/ziglang/zig/contents/lib/std | List directory contents |

Common Module Paths

| Module | Path | |--------|------| | Allocator | lib/std/mem/Allocator.zig | | ArrayList | lib/std/array_list.zig | | HashMap | lib/std/hash_map.zig | | StringHashMap | lib/std/hash/map.zig | | File System | lib/std/fs.zig | | File | lib/std/fs/File.zig | | IO | lib/std/Io.zig | | Logging | lib/std/log.zig | | Testing | lib/std/testing.zig | | Debug | lib/std/debug.zig | | Heap | lib/std/heap.zig | | Build System | lib/std/Build.zig | | JSON | lib/std/json.zig | | HTTP | lib/std/http.zig | | Thread | lib/std/Thread.zig | | Process | lib/std/process.zig |

Version-Specific Documentation

Replace master with version tag for stable releases:

bash
# 0.14.0 release
curl -sL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ziglang/zig/0.14.0/lib/std/log.zig"

# Language reference for specific version
pandoc -f html -t plain "https://ziglang.org/documentation/0.14.0/"

Searching Documentation

Search for specific function/type in std lib

bash
# Search for function name across std lib
curl -sL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ziglang/zig/master/lib/std/<module>.zig" | grep -A5 "pub fn <name>"

# Example: find allocator.create
curl -sL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ziglang/zig/master/lib/std/mem/Allocator.zig" | grep -A10 "pub fn create"

Extract doc comments

bash
# Module-level docs (//!)
curl -sL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ziglang/zig/master/lib/std/log.zig" | grep "^//!"

# Function/type docs (///)
curl -sL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ziglang/zig/master/lib/std/mem/Allocator.zig" | grep -B1 "pub fn" | grep "///"

Troubleshooting

Empty content from ziglang.org/documentation/master/std/:

• The std lib HTML docs are JavaScript-rendered; use raw GitHub instead

pandoc fails:

• Some pages require JavaScript; fall back to curl + raw GitHub
• Check URL is correct (no trailing slash issues)

Rate limiting on GitHub API:

• Use raw.githubusercontent.com URLs directly instead of API
• Cache frequently accessed content locally

References

• Language Reference: https://ziglang.org/documentation/master/
• Standard Library Source: https://github.com/ziglang/zig/tree/master/lib/std
• Zig Guide: https://zig.guide/
• Release Tags: https://github.com/ziglang/zig/tags