zel detect
Say what tool a documentation folder was written for, and how sure it is.
zel detect ./docsmkdocs MkDocs — mkdocs.yml with a nav tree (certain)
Why a separate command
Because the answer changes what you do next, and you want it before you
commit to anything. detect reads a folder and writes nothing — no output
directory, no temporary files, no changes to the source. It is safe to run on
someone else's repository, on a folder you do not own, and on something you are
only considering migrating.
It is also the first step of zel migrate, so running it alone
tells you what that command is about to do.
The three answers
| What it means | What to do | |
|---|---|---|
| A format, certain | The tool's own configuration file is present and readable | zel convert |
| A format, likely | The folder matches a default layout, but nothing confirms it | Convert, and read the report closely |
| Nothing recognised | No machine-readable structure | The AI route |
Certainty is not politeness. A folder containing mkdocs.yml is certain: the
file names the format and carries the navigation. A folder that merely looks
like docs/ with some Markdown in it is a guess, and Zellij will not make a
confident one — a wrong guess between two plausible formats produces a
conversion that is wrong in ways nobody notices for a month.
An ambiguous tree asks rather than choosing.
When nothing is recognised
Nothing here looks like a documentation tool this build knows.
If the folder is plain Markdown with no configuration, there is no
structure to convert from. Write the reference with `zel context` and
ask an AI agent to author the folder instead.
This is the honest answer, not a failure to work around. A folder of loose Markdown has no order, no grouping, and no titles beyond each file's first heading. There is nothing to convert from — and a converter that invented an order would produce something that looks finished, reads plausibly, and is not what anyone wanted.
The alternative route is real and works well: zel context
writes the whole content model as one file, an agent does the structuring, and
zel check holds it to account.
What it looks at
| Format | Decides on | Reads |
|---|---|---|
| MkDocs | mkdocs.yml at the root | nav, site_name, site_description, docs_dir |
| Docusaurus | sidebars.js beside a docs/ folder | Categories, doc entries, links, nesting |
What your binary can detect is what zel list formats prints.
Converters are compiled in, so the answer is specific to the build you have
rather than to this page.
Options
<dir> | Required. The folder to inspect | — |
No --force, no --out, nothing that writes. That is the point of it.
See also
zel convert— act on the answerzel migrate— detect, convert and check in one stepzel context— when there is nothing to detect