January 13, 2026
Ctrl+F vs Chatbot: choose your fighter
We rolled our own documentation site
Text-only docs ignite a brawl: AI helpers vs Ctrl+F
TLDR: Tangled launched a simple, text-only docs site using pandoc and a Google-powered search bar. Comments erupted into a showdown between minimalist “no-JS, use Ctrl+F” fans and folks demanding AI chat, fancy search, and third‑party tooling, highlighting a bigger fight over how docs should evolve.
Tangled just dropped a proudly text-only documentation site at docs.tangled.org, built with pandoc and a big dose of “keep it simple.” No JavaScript, a Google-powered search bar, and a mobile-friendly table of contents using a modern browser feature—this minimalist vibe lit up the comments like a tech reality show. The strongest reactions? A split between Team Minimalism cheering the “no-JS, just text” purity and Team AI insisting modern docs need chatbots, smart search, and integrations.
One commenter fired off the hottest take: Mintlify (a docs platform) is “really good,” and without AI chat or easy integrations, why bother? Meanwhile, ReadMe’s founder stepped in with a pragmatic warning: v1 is easy; keeping docs updated is the real boss fight. Classic drama energy. Others celebrated the throwback move—“single page + Ctrl+F” became the unofficial meme, with jokes about “Ctrl+F supremacy” and “JS detox.” A curious sideline: a suggestion to use lunr.js for static search, which triggered a “but we said no JavaScript” eyebrow raise.
Also, a reality check: Tangled is a decentralized Git hosting platform, not a “literate programming” tool—yes, some folks mixed that up. Verdict: minimalism vs AI bells-and-whistles, with the community gleefully picking sides and tossing popcorn-worthy quips.
Key Points
- •The documentation site at docs.tangled.org was built using pandoc to create a static, no-JS experience.
- •Tooling was evaluated (Mintlify, Docusaurus, MkDocs, MdBook), with pandoc chosen for simplicity and control.
- •Pandoc’s chunkedhtml output and a customized template produce multi-page docs with a sidebar TOC.
- •A mobile-friendly, collapsible TOC is implemented via the HTML Popover API to avoid JavaScript.
- •Search is handled by redirecting queries to Google, and a single-page export supports in-page Ctrl+F.