How to Use MDX for Technical Documentation in 2025

Technical documentation has evolved far beyond static text files. In 2025, the best documentation is interactive, component-driven, and exportable. MDX sits at the intersection of all three—giving you Markdown simplicity with React component power.

This guide walks through practical patterns for building documentation with MDX that your team will actually enjoy writing and reading.

Why MDX Beats Plain Markdown for Docs

Plain Markdown handles basic formatting well, but falls short when you need:

Interactive examples that readers can modify
Reusable components like callouts, tabs, and API reference cards
Dynamic content pulled from data sources
Consistent styling enforced through components rather than raw HTML

MDX solves all of these by letting you import and use React components directly in your Markdown files.

Setting Up an MDX Documentation Project

The fastest way to get started is with Next.js and @next/mdx:

npx create-next-app@latest my-docs
cd my-docs
npm install @next/mdx @mdx-js/mdx @mdx-js/react

Configure next.config.mjs:

import withMDX from '@next/mdx';

export default withMDX({
  extension: /\.mdx?$/,
})({
  pageExtensions: ['js', 'jsx', 'md', 'mdx'],
});

Now any .mdx file in your pages/ directory becomes a route automatically.

Building Reusable Documentation Components

The real power of MDX comes from custom components. Here are the most useful ones for technical docs:

Callout / Admonition Component

// components/Callout.jsx
export function Callout({ type = 'info', children }) {
  const styles = {
    info: { bg: '#dbeafe', border: '#3b82f6', icon: 'i' },
    warning: { bg: '#fef3c7', border: '#f59e0b', icon: '!' },
    danger: { bg: '#fee2e2', border: '#ef4444', icon: 'x' },
  };
  const s = styles[type] || styles.info;

  return (
    <div style={{
      padding: '1rem',
      background: s.bg,
      borderLeft: `4px solid ${s.border}`,
      borderRadius: '4px',
      margin: '1rem 0'
    }}>
      {children}
    </div>
  );
}

API Reference Card

export function ApiEndpoint({ method, path, description }) {
  const colors = {
    GET: '#22c55e',
    POST: '#3b82f6',
    PUT: '#f59e0b',
    DELETE: '#ef4444',
  };

  return (
    <div style={{
      border: '1px solid #e5e7eb',
      borderRadius: '8px',
      padding: '1rem',
      margin: '0.5rem 0'
    }}>
      <code style={{
        background: colors[method],
        color: 'white',
        padding: '2px 8px',
        borderRadius: '4px',
        fontWeight: 'bold',
        fontSize: '0.8rem'
      }}>
        {method}
      </code>{' '}
      <code>{path}</code>
      <p style={{ margin: '0.5rem 0 0', color: '#6b7280' }}>
        {description}
      </p>
    </div>
  );
}

Use them in your MDX:

import { Callout } from '../components/Callout'
import { ApiEndpoint } from '../components/ApiEndpoint'

# User API

<Callout type="warning">
  Authentication required for all endpoints below.
</Callout>

<ApiEndpoint
  method="GET"
  path="/api/users/:id"
  description="Retrieve a user by their unique identifier"
/>

Organizing Large Documentation Sites

For projects with many pages, organize your MDX files by topic:

docs/
├── getting-started/
│   ├── installation.mdx
│   ├── quick-start.mdx
│   └── configuration.mdx
├── guides/
│   ├── authentication.mdx
│   ├── data-fetching.mdx
│   └── deployment.mdx
├── api-reference/
│   ├── users.mdx
│   ├── posts.mdx
│   └── comments.mdx
└── components/
    ├── Callout.jsx
    ├── ApiEndpoint.jsx
    └── CodeExample.jsx

Use frontmatter to manage ordering and metadata:

---
title: "Installation"
order: 1
category: "Getting Started"
---

Then build your sidebar navigation dynamically from the frontmatter data.

Adding PDF Export to Your Docs

One often-overlooked feature is PDF export. Stakeholders, clients, and offline readers frequently need PDF versions of documentation.

The approach used by mdxtopdf.com works well:

Compile MDX to a React component using @mdx-js/mdx
Render to HTML string with react-dom/server
Generate PDF from the HTML using a headless browser

For a quick solution, you can paste your MDX content into our converter and download a styled PDF immediately.

For programmatic use in a CI/CD pipeline:

import { evaluate } from '@mdx-js/mdx';
import { renderToString } from 'react-dom/server';
import puppeteer from 'puppeteer';

async function mdxToPdf(mdxContent, outputPath) {
  // Compile and evaluate
  const { default: Content } = await evaluate(mdxContent, {
    jsx, jsxs, Fragment,
  });

  // Render to HTML
  const html = renderToString(<Content />);

  // Generate PDF
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
  const page = await browser.newPage();
  await page.setContent(html);
  await page.pdf({ path: outputPath, format: 'A4' });
  await browser.close();
}

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

1. Import Path Issues

MDX files resolve imports relative to themselves, not the project root. Use path aliases:

// jsconfig.json
{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "paths": { "@/*": ["./*"] }
  }
}

2. Component Name Collisions

If you define a component in MDX with the same name as an HTML element (like <table> or <code>), it will override the default rendering. Use distinctive names for custom components.

3. Client-Side vs. Server-Side Rendering

Interactive components (with useState, event handlers) only work on the client. If your MDX renders server-side, wrap interactive parts in a client boundary or use dynamic imports.

4. Large File Performance

MDX compilation can be slow for very large files. Split long documents into multiple files and use a shared layout component to maintain consistency.

Conclusion

MDX has matured into a reliable foundation for technical documentation. The combination of Markdown readability with React component power makes it uniquely suited for docs that need to be both easy to write and rich in functionality.

Start with the basics—a Next.js project with @next/mdx—and layer in custom components as your documentation grows. When you need PDF output, tools like mdxtopdf.com bridge the gap between web-native MDX and traditional document formats.