Spaces & navigation

Navigation is one of the highest-leverage parts of a documentation system. If the structure is clear, readers find the right answer faster, search performs better, and the site remains maintainable as the content set grows. If the structure is weak, even strong individual pages feel difficult to use.

In Doxbrix, navigation has two main layers:

• spaces in the top navigation
• a sidebar built from groups, labels, and pages within each space

Authors manage that structure in the content tree.

Spaces

A space is the top-level organizational unit inside a project. Each space appears in the top navigation and has its own sidebar context. Use spaces for major reader journeys or content domains, not for small topic collections.

Good uses for spaces include:

• Documentation
• Guides
• API Reference
• Admin
• Release Notes

If a section does not deserve top-level navigation, it should usually be a group inside a space rather than a space of its own.

The content tree

The content tree is the main control surface for information architecture. It shows spaces, nested groups, labels, and pages in one place so you can shape the site without leaving the editor.

Use it to:

• create new structural elements
• reorder content
• move pages between sections
• rename items
• hide or reveal items in navigation
• submit or publish sections in bulk where supported

Hover a space, group, or page to reveal its + and ⋯ actions. For larger sites, this panel becomes the fastest way to reason about the documentation as a system instead of as one page at a time.

Add an item

When you click the + button on a space, Doxbrix shows the following actions:

The + menu on a group offers the scoped actions that make sense inside that group, such as Add page, Add group, Add label, and Add API reference.

Reorder, nest, rename, and more

The content tree is not only for creation. It is also where most structural maintenance happens:

• Reorder items by dragging them to a new position
• Nest a page or group inside another group when the information model needs another level
• Rename an item inline or through Rename
• monitor publication state through the page status indicators

This is especially useful during restructuring work, when the content is mostly correct but the way it is grouped no longer matches how readers think.

Page and group menus

The ⋯ menu exposes the actions that change how a navigation item behaves.

Page actions

For pages, Doxbrix surfaces these labels:

Group actions

For groups, Doxbrix adds structure-level actions such as:

• Duplicate group
• Move to…
• Submit section for review
• Publish section
• Hide from nav or Show in nav
• Delete group

When you delete a group, Doxbrix asks whether to Move pages up or Delete everything. That distinction is useful when you want to simplify the navigation without losing the underlying page content.

Space actions

At the space level, Doxbrix supports actions such as renaming, workflow operations, and deleting the space entirely. Since a space is a top-level reader surface, changes here should usually be more deliberate than routine page edits.

Navigation node types

The sidebar is assembled from a small set of node types. Each one solves a different navigation need:

In app-driven authoring, this set is enough for most documentation sites without introducing unnecessary complexity.

Use groups to make long sidebars readable

Groups are one of the most important tools for keeping a site readable. They allow you to turn a flat list of pages into a navigable section model.

Good groups are reader-oriented, not author-oriented. For example, Authentication, Quickstart, and Troubleshooting are stronger than internal labels such as Phase 1 or Team A unless those are meaningful to readers.

Think about the published site while you organize

The content tree maps directly to the published site:

• spaces shape the top navigation
• groups and labels shape the sidebar
• pages become the documents readers open

That means every structure change is also a reader-experience change. When reorganizing a site, ask:

• can a new reader predict where to find this topic?
• are similar topics grouped consistently?
• is the sidebar too deep, too flat, or too repetitive?
• are we naming sections from the reader’s perspective?

Editing navigation as code

Navigation is stored in your project's docs.json manifest. If you work docs-as-code, you can manage it from the CLI:

dxb space create "Guides" --slug guides

See Manage navigation for the full authoring workflow.

Next steps