Upgraders, please check the release notes.

jsdoc-api

A programmatic interface for jsdoc3 with a few features:

• Asynchronous 'explain' and 'render documentation' methods (the two main jsdoc operations).
• Input (source code) can supplied as a string or set of file names and/or globs.
• Optional caching, dramatically speeding up future invocations with the same input.

Synopsis

To output an array of json objects, each representing a doclet, use .explain(). Pass in an array of file names and/or glob expressions. Use the cache: true flag for a faster, more efficient invocation (cached output from a prior invocation will be returned if the input has not changed).

importjsdocfrom'jsdoc-api'constdata=awaitjsdoc.explain({files: ['index.js','lib/*.js'],cache: true})console.log(data)

Typical output (truncated):

[{comment: '/**\n'+' * The [cache-point](https://github.com/75lb/cache-point) instance used when `cache: true` is specified on `.explain()`.\n'+' * @type {external:cache-point}\n'+' */',meta: {range: [491,554],filename: 'index.js',lineno: 21,columnno: 6,path: '/Users/lloyd/Documents/jsdoc2md/jsdoc-api',code: {id: 'astnode100000027',name: 'cache',type: 'NewExpression',value: ''}},description: 'The [cache-point](https://github.com/75lb/cache-point) instance used when `cache: true` is specified on `.explain()`.',type: {names: ['external:cache-point']},name: 'cache',longname: 'module:jsdoc-api~cache',kind: 'constant',scope: 'inner',memberof: 'module:jsdoc-api',params: []},// etc// etc]

As an alternative to passing in file names/globs (above), you can pass in one or more source code strings.

importjsdocfrom'jsdoc-api'constdata=awaitjsdoc.explain({source: '/** example doclet */ \n var example = true'})console.log(data)

Output:

[{comment: '/** example doclet */',meta: {range: [28,42],filename: '934b1fbe2810.js',lineno: 2,columnno: 5,path: '/var/folders/bt/jgn73jf50vsb5gj92dk00v3r0000gn/T/jsdoc-api-W854dk',code: {id: 'astnode100000003',name: 'example',type: 'Literal',value: true}},description: 'example doclet',name: 'example',longname: 'example',kind: 'member',scope: 'global',params: []},{kind: 'package',longname: 'package:undefined',files: ['/var/folders/bt/jgn73jf50vsb5gj92dk00v3r0000gn/T/jsdoc-api-W854dk/934b1fbe2810.js']}]

Finally, use the render() method to invocate jsdoc directly, generating your documentation.

importjsdocfrom'jsdoc-api'awaitjsdoc.render({files: ['index.js','lib/something.js'],destination: 'jsdoc-output'})

If you need to use a specific jsdoc version or fork, specify its path via JSDOC_PATH and jsdoc-api will use it instead of the default.

$ export JSDOC_PATH=./node_modules/.bin/jsdoc # An alternative jsdoc version you installed
$ node my-jsdoc-api-script.js # Run your jsdoc-api app as usual

See the API documentation for further details. See the example folder for code examples.

---

© 2015-2026 Lloyd Brookes <opensource@75lb.com>.

Documented by jsdoc-to-markdown.