# Installing Retype

Our documentation is powered by Retype, a Javascript-based documentation generator. In this page, you will install Node Version Manager (nvm), NodeJS and NPM, and finally Retype.

• A desire to write great documentation!
• A computer running MacOS or Ubuntu Linux

We use a Javascript package called Retype to generate our documentation from markdown files located in the docs folder. In order to install Retype, we need to install nvm and NPM first.

Because NPM can be... tricky at best, we use nvm (Node Version Manager) to help us wrangle NodeJS and NPM. Install it with the following command:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.1/install.sh | bash

Note: This may be out of date. Verify that this is the current version here.

Restart your shell so we can use the new changes:

exec $SHELL

Verify that nvm is available and can be called:

nvm --version

You should see something like the following:

❯ nvm --version
0.39.1

Now that nvm is installed and accessible, install the latest version of NodeJS by running the following command:

nvm install node

Congrats! 🎉 NodeJS is now installed and we're ready to install and use Retype.

To install Retype, run the following command:

npm install -g retypeapp

After this completes, it should be immediately available for use. Verify by checking the version:

retype --version

You should see something like this:

❯ retype --version
2.2.0

Now that Retype is installed, you can run the Retype local server to compile the documentation and test it locally so that you can check your changes in real time:

make docs

The compiled and hosted documentation is available at http://localhost:5000/Alexandria/. The page will automatically reload when you save any .md file in the docs folder.