Preview locally

Run a local preview of your Mintlify documentation site with live reload, full-text search, and AI assistant support using mint dev.

Prerequisites

The Mintlify CLI installed globally, or run commands with npx mint.
A documentation directory with a valid docs.json file.

Start the local preview

Navigate to your documentation directory containing your docs.json file and run:

mint dev

The local preview starts at http://localhost:3000. As you edit, changes appear in real time.

By default, the preview opens automatically in your browser. To prevent the browser from opening, use the --no-open flag:

mint dev --no-open

To generate a preview without installing the CLI globally, run:

npx mint dev

Log in for search and assistant

You must authenticate the CLI with your Mintlify account to enable search and the assistant.

mint login

After you authenticate with the mint login command, the CLI stores your credentials in ~/.config/mintlify/config.json so you stay logged in across sessions. The CLI also prompts you to select a default project, which commands like mint automations use.

Once logged in, run mint dev to start the local preview with search and the assistant enabled. The assistant uses the same indexed content as your deployed documentation site.

To check your authentication status, run:

mint status

To log out, run:

mint logout

Custom ports

By default, the CLI uses port 3000. To use a different port, use the --port flag:

mint dev --port 3333

If the port is already in use, the CLI automatically tries the next available port.

Skip OpenAPI processing

If you have many OpenAPI files, skip OpenAPI processing during local development to improve performance with the --disable-openapi flag:

mint dev --disable-openapi

By default, the local preview prefetches nearby pages to optimize page load speeds. For very large sites, this can slow down the page you are actively viewing if many pages compile in the background at the same time.

If you have thousands of pages and notice slow page loads during local preview, disable prefetching with the --disable-prefetch flag:

mint dev --disable-prefetch

With prefetching disabled, pages compile only when you navigate to them. Individual page loads take longer than a prefetched page, but the page you request is not competing with background compilation.

Preview as a specific group

If you use group-based access control, preview as a specific authentication group with the --groups flag:

mint dev --groups admin

See Authentication setup for more information on groups.