# Generate Output Formats

URL: /docs/about/concepts/output-formats/
Section: concepts
Tags: output formats, json, llm, api

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Bengal can generate multiple output formats for your content, enabling search functionality, AI discovery, and programmatic access. Available Formats Per-Page Formats Generated for every page in your site: JSON (index.json): Structured data including metadata, HTML content, and plain text. LLM Text (index.txt): AI-friendly plain text format optimized for RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) and LLM consumption. RAG allows AI models to "read" your documentation to answer questions accurately. Site-Wide Formats Generated at the site root: Site Index (index.json): A searchable index of all pages (useful for client-side search). Full LLM Text (llm-full.txt): The complete content of your site in a single plain text file. Configuration Enable output formats in bengal.toml: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11[output_formats] enabled = true per_page = ["json", "llm_txt"] # Formats for individual pages site_wide = ["index_json", "llm_full"] # Formats for the whole site [output_formats.options] include_html_content = true # Include full HTML in JSON include_plain_text = true # Include plain text in JSON excerpt_length = 200 # Excerpt length for site index json_indent = 2 # Pretty-print JSON (use null for compact) # exclude_sections = ["private"] # Sections to exclude from output formats Note Note Visibility: Output formats currently expose all rendered pages unless specifically excluded via exclude_sections or exclude_patterns. Drafts are handled by the main build configuration (excluded by default unless --drafts is used). Use Cases 1. Client-Side Search Fetch the site index to implement fast, client-side search without a backend. Note Note For larger sites, enable the Pre-built Lunr Index to improve performance. This requires the search optional dependency: pip install bengal[search] This generates search-index.json (a pre-serialized index) instead of just index.json, which loads 50% faster in the browser. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45<!-- Simple search UI --> <input type="text" id="search-input" placeholder="Search..."> <ul id="search-results"></ul> <script> // If using pre-built index (requires lunr.js): // fetch('/search-index.json') // .then(res => res.json()) // .then(data => { searchIndex = lunr.Index.load(data); }); // Standard JSON index (no dependency): const searchInput = document.getElementById('search-input'); const resultsList = document.getElementById('search-results'); let searchIndex = []; // Fetch index once fetch('/index.json') .then(response => response.json()) .then(data => { searchIndex = data.pages; }); // Filter and display results searchInput.addEventListener('input', (e) => { const query = e.target.value.toLowerCase(); if (query.length < 2) { resultsList.innerHTML = ''; return; } const results = searchIndex.filter(page => (page.title && page.title.toLowerCase().includes(query)) || (page.excerpt && page.excerpt.toLowerCase().includes(query)) ).slice(0, 10); // Limit to 10 results resultsList.innerHTML = results.map(page => ` <li> <a href="${page.url}"> <strong>${page.title}</strong> <p>${page.excerpt}</p> </a> </li> `).join(''); }); </script> 2. AI & LLM Discovery Provide llm-full.txt to LLMs to allow them to ingest your entire documentation site efficiently. curl https://mysite.com/llm-full.txt 3. Static API Use your static site as a read-only API for other applications. 1 2 3 4 5 6import requests # Get page data data = requests.get('https://mysite.com/docs/intro/index.json').json() print(data['title']) print(data['word_count'])

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- Author: lbliii
- Word Count: 496
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