You can manually define API endpoints in individual MDX files rather than using an OpenAPI specification. This method provides flexibility for custom content, but we recommend generating API documentation from an OpenAPI specification file for most API documentation projects as it’s more maintainable and feature-rich. However, MDX can be useful for documenting small APIs, prototyping, or when you want to feature API endpoints alongside other content.

To generate pages for API endpoints using MDX, configure your API settings in docs.json, create individual MDX files for each endpoint, and use components like <ParamFields /> to define parameters. From these definitions, Mintlify generates interactive API playgrounds, request examples, and response examples.

1

Configure your API

In your docs.json file, define your base URL and auth method:

 "api": {
  "mdx": {
    "server": "https://mintlify.com/api", // string array for multiple base URLs
    "auth": {
      "method": "key",
      "name": "x-api-key" // options: bearer, basic, key.
    }
  }
}

If you want to hide the API playground, use the display field. You do not need to include an auth method if you hide the playground.

"api": {
  "playground": {
    "display": "none"
  }
}

Find a full list of API configurations in Settings.

2

Create your endpoint pages

Each API endpoint page should have a corresponding MDX file. At the top of each file, define title and api:

---
title: 'Create new user'
api: 'POST https://api.mintlify.com/user'
---

You can specify path parameters by adding the parameter name to the path, wrapped with {}:

https://api.example.com/v1/endpoint/{userId}

If you have a server field configured in docs.json, you can use relative paths like /v1/endpoint.

You can override the globally-defined display mode for the API playground per page by adding playground at the top of the MDX file:

---
title: 'Create new user'
api: 'POST https://api.mintlify.com/user'
playground: 'none'
3

Add your endpoints to your docs

Add your endpoint pages to the sidebar by adding the paths to the navigation field in your docs.json. Learn more about structuring your docs in Navigation.

​
Enabling authentication

You can add an authentication method to your docs.json to enable it globally on every page or you can set it on a per-page basis.

A page’s authentication method will override a global method if both are set.

​
Bearer token

"api": {
    "mdx": {
      "auth": {
        "method": "bearer"
      }
    }
}

​
Basic authentication

"api": {
    "mdx": {
      "auth": {
        "method": "basic"
      }
    }
}

​
API key

"api": {
    "mdx": {
      "auth": {
        "method": "key",
        "name": "x-api-key"
      }
    }
}

​
None

The none authentication method is useful to disable authentication on a specific endpoint after setting a default in docs.json.

---
title: "Your page title"
authMethod: "none"
---