{"id":352557,"date":"2026-08-24T16:35:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T16:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/living-manual\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T16:42:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T16:42:15","slug":"living-manual","status":"publish","type":"plugin","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/living-manual\/","author":12281243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"version":"1.6.1","stable_tag":"1.6.1","tested":"7.0.4","requires":"6.0","requires_php":"8.0","requires_plugins":null,"header_name":"Living Manual","header_author":"William Alexander","header_description":"Turn a PDF into a browsable, searchable manual website. Upload a document; get clean web pages, a table of contents, and real full-text search. 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It is careful, complete, and\ncorrect, and it sits in a shared drive as a PDF that is more work to open than\nto ask a coworker about.<\/p>\n\n<p>Living Manual turns that PDF into a living website. Upload the document and get:<\/p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Clean, browsable web pages with a table of contents and deep links.<\/li>\n<li>Real full-text search across every section.<\/li>\n<li>A public or logged-in-only manual, your choice per document.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>The free core needs no API key and no external service. It extracts the PDF\ntext and builds a section tree from the document's own structure, in a single\nstep, at no cost.<\/p>\n\n<h4>Living Manual Pro<\/h4>\n\n<p>The optional <a href=\"https:\/\/livingmanual.ai\">Living Manual Pro<\/a> add-on adds an AI\ndocent: a chat widget that answers only from your document and cites the exact\nsection behind every claim, plus an AI-enhanced ingest, a knowledge graph, and\nan insights dashboard that analyzes what readers keep asking. The core runs\nfully on its own without it.<\/p>\n\n<h3>External services<\/h3>\n\n<p>This plugin connects to the Living Manual support site at\nhttps:\/\/support.livingmanual.ai to deliver feedback you write on the\nHelp &amp; Feedback admin screen.<\/p>\n\n<p>The request happens only when you type a message and click Send. It is never\nmade automatically, on activation, on a schedule, or in the background.<\/p>\n\n<p>What is sent: your message, the email address you optionally provide, and a\nshort list of environment details used to reproduce problems: your site URL,\nyour WordPress version, your PHP version, the Living Manual and Living Manual\nPro version numbers, whether an Anthropic API key is set (true or false, never\nthe key itself), whether a license key is set (true or false, never the key\nitself), your active theme name and version, your site locale, and whether the\nsite is a multisite. The screen prints these exact values above the Send button\nbefore you submit.<\/p>\n\n<p>Service terms: https:\/\/livingmanual.ai\/terms\/\nPrivacy policy: https:\/\/support.livingmanual.ai\/privacy\/<\/p>\n\n<!--section=installation-->\n<ol>\n<li>Install and activate Living Manual.<\/li>\n<li>Go to Settings &gt; Permalinks and click Save to flush rewrite rules.<\/li>\n<li>Open the Living Manual admin menu, upload a PDF, and give it a name.<\/li>\n<li>Visit \/manual\/your-slug\/ to browse the manual.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n<!--section=faq-->\n<dl>\n<dt id=\"does%20the%20free%20version%20need%20an%20api%20key%3F\"><h3>Does the free version need an API key?<\/h3><\/dt>\n<dd><p>No. The free core builds browsable pages and search from your PDF with no API\nkey and no external service.<\/p><\/dd>\n<dt id=\"what%20does%20the%20pro%20add-on%20add%3F\"><h3>What does the Pro add-on add?<\/h3><\/dt>\n<dd><p>An AI docent that answers from your document with citations, an AI-enhanced\ningest with a knowledge graph, and an insights dashboard. It requires this\nfree core plugin to be installed and active.<\/p><\/dd>\n<dt id=\"where%20is%20my%20content%20stored%3F\"><h3>Where is my content stored?<\/h3><\/dt>\n<dd><p>Everything stays in your own WordPress database and uploads directory. Your\ndocument, its sections, and your search index never leave your server.<\/p><\/dd>\n<dt id=\"does%20the%20plugin%20send%20anything%20to%20an%20external%20service%3F\"><h3>Does the plugin send anything to an external service?<\/h3><\/dt>\n<dd><p>Only when you ask it to. The Help &amp; Feedback screen has a form for writing to\nLiving Manual support, and submitting that form is the plugin's only outbound\nrequest. There is no activation ping, no usage telemetry, and no scheduled\ncall. See External services below.<\/p><\/dd>\n\n<\/dl>\n\n<!--section=changelog-->\n<h4>1.4.0<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Adding a filter that lets a manual live on a custom path, with every link,\nbreadcrumb, and the search form following it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.3.0<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Adding a Help &amp; Feedback admin screen with links to the documentation and a\nfeedback form, with a full disclosure of what is sent before you send it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.0.0<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>First public release of the free core: browsable, searchable manual pages\nbuilt from a PDF with no API key and no cost.<\/li>\n<\/ul>","raw_excerpt":"Turn a PDF into a browsable, searchable manual website. 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