WTFM

WTFM

Write the F***ing Manual.
A plugin for your coding agent that writes the user docs. Screenshots included.

[License: Apache 2.0] [Platforms: macOS and Linux] [Works with Claude Code and Codex]

Install · Quick start · Examples · CLI · Publish · FAQ · Docs · Website

[Claude Code writing an illustrated guide to adding a site in Plausible Analytics: the prompt, the writer's progress, and the finished article with screenshots]
_{Real output from plausible/analytics, replayed fast. A real run takes a few minutes.}

WTFM is a plugin for your coding agent that writes your user docs. Ask Claude Code or Codex for a guide and it reads your source, writes the steps in plain language, and shows every screen with a screenshot rendered from your real templates and CSS. No running app, no manual captures, no account.

Not API reference, not a README: docs for the people who will never read your code, like the customer who can't find the export button, or the admin inviting their team.

WTFM was formerly SupportPages Writer. The supportpages command still works as an alias for wtfm, and existing installations, settings and SUPPORTPAGES_* environment variables are unchanged.

Set it up once in your terminal, then just ask your agent:

curl -fsSL https://wtfm.sh/install | bash

wtfm setup          # once per computer

wtfm init           # once per project

You → Claude Code: Write an illustrated guide to inviting a teammate.

Features

• Written from your source. Routes, button labels and flows come from the code, not from a description you type, so the steps match what users actually see.
• Screenshots without running the app. Mockups are rebuilt from your own markup, styles and branding, then rendered to PNG in a local headless Chromium.
• Plain Markdown output. Each article is an index.md with its images beside it, ready to commit next to your code or drop into any docs site.
• Checked before it's saved. Every article passes structure, copy and screenshot checks first.
• Uses the agent you already have. Claude Code or Codex, with your own subscription and model settings.
• Local-first. Nothing is sent to SupportPages.io unless you choose to publish.

Examples

The same loop on other open-source codebases. Each image is one screenshot from a guide WTFM wrote from that repository's source; the apps were never run.

For a whole help centre, see WTFM's own docs: every article and screenshot there was written by WTFM from this repository.

Install

curl -fsSL https://wtfm.sh/install | bash

The installer downloads a checksum-verified release with its own Node.js, installs the wtfm command into ~/.local/bin (no sudo), and offers to add it to your PATH. It also installs supportpages as an alias for wtfm.

You'll need:

• macOS or Linux, on ARM64 or x64 (on Windows, use WSL)
• Claude Code or Codex, installed and signed in
• Git

Chromium for screenshots is downloaded the first time you run wtfm setup.

Updating: releases check for updates once a day and install them in the background. Run wtfm update to update now, or set SUPPORTPAGES_AUTO_UPDATE=0 to turn automatic updates off.

Install in Codex

WTFM is also a Codex plugin. You'll need Node.js 22.12 or later with npm on your PATH.

codex plugin marketplace add SupportPages-io/wtfmcodex plugin add wtfm@supportpages

Then start a new Codex session. The first time the plugin starts, it installs its npm packages (without running their install scripts) and downloads Chromium for screenshots in the background. Codex asks you to review the plugin's two hooks in /hooks before they run; WTFM works without them. To update, run codex plugin add wtfm@supportpages again.

Build from source

You'll need Node.js 22.12 or later, npm and Git.

git clone https://github.com/SupportPages-io/wtfm.gitcd wtfm./install-cli.sh

This builds your checkout and installs it as wtfm (with the supportpages alias). Run ./install-cli.sh again after pulling changes.

Quick start

Configure once in the terminal, then do everything else in your coding agent.

1. Set up your computer

wtfm setup

This connects Claude Code and/or Codex, adds the SupportPages.io writer to them and downloads the screenshot renderer. When it asks how you want to work, choose Save articles in my projects without an account.

2. Set up your project

cd path/to/your-productwtfm init

Pick where articles should be saved and which model to use. WTFM then studies the project's structure, styles and branding once, so every article starts from that analysis.

3. Ask your coding agent

Open Claude Code or Codex in your project (restart any session that was already open) and ask for an article in plain words:

Write an illustrated guide to inviting a teammate.

A few minutes later the article is in your project:

output/articles/how-to-invite-a-teammate/├── index.md├── block_open-settings.png├── block_invite-form.png└── block_send-invite.png

That's the whole loop. Some other things to ask:

What help articles do we have?

Write a troubleshooting article for when a sign-in link has expired.

CLI commands

You only need the terminal to set things up and keep them running. Writing happens in your coding agent.

Run wtfm --help for every option. status and doctor accept --json.

Your articles

• Where they go. output/articles/<slug>/ by default. To keep them in your repo, choose a folder like docs/help during init or with wtfm configure.
• Writing style. Pick from friendly, minimal, technical or formal with wtfm configure.
• Screenshots. Each article gets up to three. The main path gets them first; optional branches are described in text. Every screenshot carries a small "created automatically by supportpages.io" strip.

How it works

1. setup connects a local MCP server and a writer agent to Claude Code or Codex.
2. init has your agent map the project once: framework, routes, layouts, CSS and branding.
3. When you ask for an article, the writer agent reads the relevant source, writes the steps, and builds each screenshot as an HTML mockup of your real UI.
4. The mockups are rendered to PNG with a local Chromium, checked against your source, and saved with the article.

Publish

Give your users somewhere to read it. A Markdown folder in your repo helps nobody who can't find it. SupportPages.io, made by the same team, turns the guides WTFM writes into a help centre your users can search and ask: on your own domain, in your branding, and kept current as the product changes.

[help.supportpages.io, a help centre hosted on SupportPages.io: AI search, suggested questions and article categories]

• Kept current on every merge. When a pull request merges, SupportPages.io reads the diff and drafts the article updates for you to review.
• Video walkthroughs. Each guide can come with a narrated video that clicks through the same steps, with captions.
• Answers, not just search. Readers ask in their own words and get an answer drawn from your articles, with the sources linked.
• Your branding on your own domain, an editor to review drafts before anyone sees them, and publishing straight from your coding agent.

Everything above works without it, and a free account hosts up to 10 articles.

The same pattern applies: connect once in the terminal, then work in your agent.

Connect a project:

wtfm publish

You'll sign in or create an account in your browser and choose a help centre. Any articles you've already saved upload as drafts. (Setting up a new project? Choose Publish them to a SupportPages.io help centre during wtfm init instead.)

Then keep asking your agent:

Write a guide to exporting a report.

New articles arrive in the help centre as drafts, with a link to review them in the editor. Publishing is always a separate step: click Publish in the editor, or ask:

Publish the guide to exporting a report.

A help centre never needs access to your GitHub or Bitbucket. Only wtfm yolo does.

wtfm yolo: write the whole manual

Starting from nothing? wtfm yolo plans every guide your product needs and writes them all at once, on SupportPages.io's servers instead of your computer and your coding agent's usage.

wtfm yolo

It walks you through whatever is missing: browser sign-in, choosing or creating a help centre, and connecting your repository (SupportPages.io needs read access to write from your code). It then shows your plan's article allowance and asks before starting (--yes skips the question). The free plan covers your first 10 guides.

Progress shows live: sections, recommended articles, then drafts as they are written. Everything lands as drafts; nothing goes live until you publish it in the editor, whose link is printed at the end. Ctrl+C only stops watching: the run keeps going, and wtfm status picks it up again. If a run fails, run wtfm yolo again to resume it without losing the drafts already written.

Privacy

• Local projects send only anonymous usage counts and crash reports to SupportPages.io (see below). Your coding agent and its model provider read your source, as they do for any other task.
• Publishing uploads the article, its images and a small provenance record. Your source code is never uploaded.
• wtfm yolo writes on SupportPages.io from the repository you connect there; it is the only command that gives SupportPages.io access to your code.
• Credentials are stored in private files under ~/.config/supportpages, never in your repository. Signing in also saves your account email there, to show which account is connected.
• Other network requests carry none of your code or articles. Chromium for screenshots downloads from Google's Chrome for Testing storage, and the plugin's packages install from the npm registry. When a project's own styles can't be compiled, analysis fetches its CSS framework (Bootstrap, Bulma or Foundation) from the jsDelivr CDN, and a mockup with no project styles loads Tailwind from its CDN while rendering. An article's optional generated images use OpenAI only if you have set your own OPENAI_API_KEY; WTFM never sets it.
• Project analysis runs unattended. init and analyse start your agent with its permission prompts off (--dangerously-skip-permissions for Claude Code, --dangerously-bypass-approvals-and-sandbox for Codex). Writing articles uses the agent's normal approval prompts.

Plugin hooks

Installed as a Claude Code plugin, WTFM registers two hooks. Neither sends anything over the network except the Chromium download, and neither can block or change a tool call.

• SessionStart checks whether Chromium for screenshots is installed. If it isn't, it starts puppeteer's Chromium download in the background, once, and returns straight away without printing anything into the session.
• PostToolUse runs after every tool call, but does nothing unless an article is being written (a .rtfm-trace/CURRENT marker in your project). During a run it appends one line per tool call to .rtfm-trace/<article>.ndjson in your project: the time, tool name, file path, search pattern and the first 500 characters of a shell command. The trace stays on your computer and is used to spot repeated work in a run. It prints nothing and always exits successfully.

Anonymous usage counts and crash reports

WTFM tells us how many installs are in use and when something breaks, so we can fix it. It says so the first time you set up a project, and it's easy to turn off. It is sent to SupportPages.io without your sign-in and stays anonymous until you sign in from this computer; after that, usage from this computer is linked to your account. Turning it off stops both.

What is sent

• A random install ID created on this computer (not derived from it), the WTFM version, the coding client's name (e.g. claude-code), your OS, CPU architecture and Node.js major version.
• A count when WTFM is first used and when it is uninstalled (and whether its settings were kept), when a project is set up (local or hosted), and when an article or video walkthrough finishes: its outcome, where it went (local, uploaded or generated on SupportPages.io), an error code if it failed, and how many seconds it took; likewise when a wtfm yolo run starts and ends.
• For unexpected errors only: the error type and code, and stack frames with every path outside WTFM replaced by <external>. Messages from other code are never sent.

What is never sent: your code, file names or paths, article titles or content, repository or project names, or credentials. Your IP address is not stored. The install ID is also sent when you sign in from this computer, which is what links later usage from it to your account.

Turn it off with any of these:

• ask your coding agent to turn off SupportPages telemetry;
• run wtfm telemetry off;
• set SUPPORTPAGES_TELEMETRY=0 or DO_NOT_TRACK=1.

It is always off in CI. wtfm doctor shows whether it's on and why; set SUPPORTPAGES_TELEMETRY_DEBUG=1 to print each report to stderr as it is sent.

FAQ

Is this for API docs or READMEs? No. WTFM writes end-user documentation: how-to and troubleshooting guides for the people who use your product, with screenshots. Your agent already handles developer docs well.

Why not just ask Claude Code to write the docs? It will write you decent steps. It won't show the screen, and it guesses at labels it hasn't looked up. WTFM adds a project analysis, a renderer that builds screenshots from your own UI code, and checks that run before anything is saved.

What does it cost? WTFM is free and Apache 2.0. Articles run on your own Claude Code or Codex subscription. wtfm yolo is the exception: it runs on SupportPages.io and needs an account; the free plan covers 10 guides.

wtfm: command not found Open a new terminal, or run the PATH command the installer printed.

My agent can't see the SupportPages tools. Restart any Claude Code or Codex sessions that were open during wtfm setup.

Setup won't finish. Run wtfm doctor, fix what it reports, then run wtfm init again.

An article was interrupted halfway. Ask your agent to continue it, or run wtfm status to see where it stopped.

Does it collect usage data? Only anonymous counts and crash reports, never your code or articles. See Anonymous usage counts and crash reports to see exactly what is sent or turn it off.

Can I use it on Windows? Yes, inside WSL.

More on supportpages.io/wtfm.

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome. When reporting a bug, include your OS, wtfm --version, the command you ran and its output, with credentials and private code removed. For larger changes, open an issue first so we can agree on the approach.

To work on the code:

npm cinpm testnode scripts/cli.mjs --help

The article engine in engine/ is synced from upstream on each engine release, so changes there are reviewed here and ported back by the maintainers.

License

Apache 2.0. The UI stylesheets bundled under engine/ keep their own licenses; see NOTICE. The license doesn't cover the SupportPages name or logo.