Title: Living Manual Author: William Alexander Published: August 24, 2026 Last modified: August 24, 2026 --- Search plugins ![](https://ps.w.org/living-manual/assets/banner-772x250.png?rev=3663927) ![](https://ps.w.org/living-manual/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=3663927) # Living Manual By [William Alexander](https://profiles.wordpress.org/williamalexander/) [Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/living-manual.1.6.1.zip) * [Details](https://wordpress.org/plugins/living-manual/#description) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/plugins/living-manual/#reviews) * [Installation](https://wordpress.org/plugins/living-manual/#installation) * [Development](https://wordpress.org/plugins/living-manual/#developers) [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/living-manual/) ## Description Most organizations have an authoritative document nobody reads: the operations manual, the employee handbook, the policy book. It is careful, complete, and correct, and it sits in a shared drive as a PDF that is more work to open than to ask a coworker about. Living Manual turns that PDF into a living website. Upload the document and get: * Clean, browsable web pages with a table of contents and deep links. * Real full-text search across every section. * A public or logged-in-only manual, your choice per document. The free core needs no API key and no external service. It extracts the PDF text and builds a section tree from the document’s own structure, in a single step, at no cost. #### Living Manual Pro The optional [Living Manual Pro](https://livingmanual.ai) add-on adds an AI docent: a chat widget that answers only from your document and cites the exact section behind every claim, plus an AI-enhanced ingest, a knowledge graph, and an insights dashboard that analyzes what readers keep asking. The core runs fully on its own without it. ### External services This plugin connects to the Living Manual support site at https://support.livingmanual. ai to deliver feedback you write on the Help & Feedback admin screen. The request happens only when you type a message and click Send. It is never made automatically, on activation, on a schedule, or in the background. What is sent: your message, the email address you optionally provide, and a short list of environment details used to reproduce problems: your site URL, your WordPress version, your PHP version, the Living Manual and Living Manual Pro version numbers, whether an Anthropic API key is set (true or false, never the key itself), whether a license key is set (true or false, never the key itself), your active theme name and version, your site locale, and whether the site is a multisite. The screen prints these exact values above the Send button before you submit. Service terms: https://livingmanual.ai/terms/ Privacy policy: https://support.livingmanual. ai/privacy/ ## Screenshots [⌊The browsable manual: a table of contents and real full-text search, built from your PDF with no API key.⌉⌊The browsable manual: a table of contents and real full- text search, built from your PDF with no API key.⌉[ The browsable manual: a table of contents and real full-text search, built from your PDF with no API key. [⌊A section page: clean, readable documentation with breadcrumbs and next/previous navigation.⌉⌊A section page: clean, readable documentation with breadcrumbs and next/previous navigation.⌉[ A section page: clean, readable documentation with breadcrumbs and next/previous navigation. ## Installation 1. Install and activate Living Manual. 2. Go to Settings > Permalinks and click Save to flush rewrite rules. 3. Open the Living Manual admin menu, upload a PDF, and give it a name. 4. Visit /manual/your-slug/ to browse the manual. ## FAQ ### Does the free version need an API key? No. The free core builds browsable pages and search from your PDF with no API key and no external service. ### What does the Pro add-on add? An AI docent that answers from your document with citations, an AI-enhanced ingest with a knowledge graph, and an insights dashboard. It requires this free core plugin to be installed and active. ### Where is my content stored? Everything stays in your own WordPress database and uploads directory. Your document, its sections, and your search index never leave your server. ### Does the plugin send anything to an external service? Only when you ask it to. The Help & Feedback screen has a form for writing to Living Manual support, and submitting that form is the plugin’s only outbound request. There is no activation ping, no usage telemetry, and no scheduled call. See External services below. ## Reviews There are no reviews for this plugin. ## Contributors & Developers “Living Manual” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin. Contributors * [ William Alexander ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/williamalexander/) [Translate “Living Manual” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/living-manual) ### Interested in development? [Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/living-manual/), check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/living-manual/), or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/living-manual/) by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/living-manual/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss). ## Changelog #### 1.4.0 * Adding a filter that lets a manual live on a custom path, with every link, breadcrumb, and the search form following it. #### 1.3.0 * Adding a Help & Feedback admin screen with links to the documentation and a feedback form, with a full disclosure of what is sent before you send it. #### 1.0.0 * First public release of the free core: browsable, searchable manual pages built from a PDF with no API key and no cost. ## Meta * Version **1.6.1** * Last updated **3 days ago** * Active installations **Fewer than 10** * WordPress version ** 6.0 or higher ** * Tested up to **7.0.4** * PHP version ** 8.0 or higher ** * Tags * [documentation](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/documentation/)[knowledge base](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/knowledge-base/) [manual](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/manual/)[pdf](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/pdf/) [search](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/search/) * [Advanced View](https://wordpress.org/plugins/living-manual/advanced/) ## Ratings No reviews have been submitted yet. [Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/living-manual/reviews/#new-post) [See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/living-manual/reviews/) ## Contributors * [ William Alexander ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/williamalexander/) ## Support Got something to say? Need help? [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/living-manual/)