What is Poliage?
Poliage is a visual documentation platform that captures rich browser screenshots and syncs them to beautifully hosted documentation sites.
Core Philosophy
Documentation should be alive, not stale. Traditional documentation relies on manually captured screenshots that become outdated the moment your product changes. Poliage solves this by enabling automated visual captures that stay in sync with your actual product.
The Problem We Solve
Every product team struggles with the same documentation challenges:
Outdated Screenshots
Screenshots become stale within days of product updates. Manual recapture is time-consuming and error-prone.
Inconsistent Styling
Documentation screenshots have varying sizes, zoom levels, and visual treatments.
Poor Organization
Visual assets are scattered across folders without clear version history or relationships.
How Poliage Works
Poliage operates through a 3-stage workflow:
Capture
Use the Poliage CLI to capture browser screenshots. Define what to capture using JSON configuration files that specify URLs, selectors, and capture options.
Sync
Push captures to the Poliage platform using poliage sync. Each sync creates a "visual commit" that tracks exactly what changed.
Host
Your documentation is automatically rendered and hosted on a custom subdomain. Changes go live immediately after sync.
Key Concepts
Projects
A Project represents a single documentation site. Each project has:
- A unique subdomain (e.g.,
yourcompany.poliage.com) - Its own capture configuration
- Independent version history
Visual Commits
Every poliage sync creates a Visual Commit — a snapshot of all your documentation assets at a point in time. Think of it like Git commits, but for visual documentation.
Assets
Assets are the individual visual elements within your documentation:
- Screenshots captured from browsers
- Annotated images with callouts
- Cropped regions highlighting specific UI elements
Architecture Overview
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Poliage Platform │
├──────────────────┬───────────────────┬───────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ CLI/SDK │ Dashboard │ Hosted Docs │
│ (Capture) │ (Manage) │ (Deliver) │
│ │ │ │
└──────────────────┴───────────────────┴───────────────────────┘New to Poliage? Start with the Installation Guide to set up the CLI.