# Where to Find Marin Project Documentation: Complete Guide to the Repository docs/ Directory

> Find Marin project documentation easily within the repository's docs/ directory. This guide shows you the entry point and online hosting location for all Marin docs.

- Repository: [The Marin Project/marin](https://github.com/marin-community/marin)
- Tags: getting-started
- Published: 2026-08-29

---

**The Marin project documentation is located in the `docs/` directory at the repository root, with [`docs/index.md`](https://github.com/marin-community/marin/blob/main/docs/index.md) serving as the entry point, and is hosted online at https://marin.readthedocs.io/en/latest/.**

The Marin codebase includes a comprehensive, self-contained documentation tree that covers installation, tutorials, architectural deep-dives, and developer references. According to the marin-community/marin source code, all documentation lives in a dedicated `docs/` folder and is automatically rendered and published to Read the Docs for public access.

## Documentation Location and Structure

The Marin project documentation follows a documentation-as-code approach, keeping all materials under version control alongside the source code.

### Repository Documentation Directory

The primary documentation location is the **`docs/`** directory in the marin-community/marin repository. The top-level entry point is **[[`docs/index.md`](https://github.com/marin-community/marin/blob/main/docs/index.md)](https://github.com/marin-community/marin/blob/main/docs/index.md)**, which aggregates the introductory README content and provides a quick-links sidebar to all major sections.

### Online Hosting on Read the Docs

The full documentation website is automatically built and hosted on **Read the Docs** at `https://marin.readthedocs.io/en/latest/`. This live site mirrors the Markdown files under `docs/` and adds navigation, search functionality, and versioning support.

## Key Documentation Sections

The `docs/` directory organizes content into logical categories including tutorials, explanations, references, and operational guides.

### Tutorials and Quick-Start Guides

**[[`docs/tutorials/installation.md`](https://github.com/marin-community/marin/blob/main/docs/tutorials/installation.md)](https://github.com/marin-community/marin/blob/main/docs/tutorials/installation.md)** provides step-by-step instructions to clone the repository, set up Python environments, install dependencies for CPU/GPU/TPU targets, and configure optional services like WandB and Hugging Face.

**[[`docs/tutorials/first-experiment.md`](https://github.com/marin-community/marin/blob/main/docs/tutorials/first-experiment.md)](https://github.com/marin-community/marin/blob/main/docs/tutorials/first-experiment.md)** offers a complete walkthrough for training a tiny language model on the TinyStories dataset.

### Architectural Explanations

**[[`docs/explanations/lm-pipeline.md`](https://github.com/marin-community/marin/blob/main/docs/explanations/lm-pipeline.md)](https://github.com/marin-community/marin/blob/main/docs/explanations/lm-pipeline.md)** delivers a deep architectural overview of how Marin organizes data, tokenization, training steps, and evaluation in the language-modeling pipeline.

**[[`docs/explanations/lazy-artifacts.md`](https://github.com/marin-community/marin/blob/main/docs/explanations/lazy-artifacts.md)](https://github.com/marin-community/marin/blob/main/docs/explanations/lazy-artifacts.md)** explains Marin's lazy execution model, which defers heavy I/O operations until specifically needed. This optimization strategy improves resource utilization during training workflows.

### Developer References

The **[`docs/references/`](https://github.com/marin-community/marin/tree/main/docs/references)** directory contains technical reference files including [`train-config.md`](https://github.com/marin-community/marin/blob/main/train-config.md), [`resource-config.md`](https://github.com/marin-community/marin/blob/main/resource-config.md), and [`default-steps.md`](https://github.com/marin-community/marin/blob/main/default-steps.md). These files describe configuration schemas, internal APIs, and valid parameter options for training experiments.

### Recipes and Operational Guides

**[`docs/recipes/`](https://github.com/marin-community/marin/tree/main/docs/recipes)** contains ready-to-use "skill" scripts for common tasks, such as [`add_scaling_heuristic.md`](https://github.com/marin-community/marin/blob/main/add_scaling_heuristic.md) for adding scaling heuristics to experiments.

**[`docs/reports/`](https://github.com/marin-community/marin/tree/main/docs/reports)** houses experiment summaries, model cards, and performance analyses from past training runs.

**[`docs/ops/`](https://github.com/marin-community/marin/tree/main/docs/ops)** defines monitoring and alerting contracts for training stability, including loss-spike alerts and operational runbooks.

## Accessing Documentation Programmatically

For automated tooling or CI checks, you can load Marin documentation assets directly from the repository. The following Python snippet demonstrates how to read and render Markdown files from the `docs/` directory:

```python
import pathlib
import markdown

def load_doc(relative_path: str) -> str:
    """
    Load a Markdown document from the `docs/` directory and return the rendered HTML.
    """
    repo_root = pathlib.Path(__file__).resolve().parents[2]  # adjust as needed

    md_path = repo_root / "docs" / relative_path
    return markdown.markdown(md_path.read_text())

# Example: render the installation guide

html = load_doc("tutorials/installation.md")
print(html[:200])          # preview the first 200 characters

```

This approach reads raw Markdown files directly from the repository and converts them to HTML using the standard `markdown` package. This enables integration with external documentation portals or custom UI components that need to present Marin documentation content programmatically.

## Summary

- **Primary Location**: All Marin project documentation resides in the `docs/` directory at the repository root.
- **Entry Point**: Start with [`docs/index.md`](https://github.com/marin-community/marin/blob/main/docs/index.md) for the documentation hub and navigation.
- **Online Access**: Browse the rendered documentation at https://marin.readthedocs.io/en/latest/.
- **Key Sections**: Tutorials cover installation and first experiments, explanations detail the LM pipeline and lazy artifacts, references define configuration schemas, and recipes provide reusable skill scripts.
- **Programmatic Access**: Load documentation files directly using standard Python libraries for integration with external tools.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Where is the Marin project documentation hosted online?

The Marin project documentation is hosted on Read the Docs at `https://marin.readthedocs.io/en/latest/`. The site automatically builds from the `docs/` directory in the main repository branch, providing searchable, versioned documentation with navigation sidebars.

### What is the main entry point file for Marin documentation?

The main entry point is **[`docs/index.md`](https://github.com/marin-community/marin/blob/main/docs/index.md)** in the repository root. This file aggregates the README introduction and provides a quick-links sidebar to all major documentation sections including tutorials, explanations, and reference materials.

### How do I find installation instructions for Marin?

Installation instructions are located at **[`docs/tutorials/installation.md`](https://github.com/marin-community/marin/blob/main/docs/tutorials/installation.md)**. This file contains step-by-step guides for cloning the repository, setting up Python environments, installing dependencies for CPU/GPU/TPU hardware targets, and configuring optional integrations with WandB and Hugging Face.

### Can I access Marin documentation programmatically for tooling purposes?

Yes, you can load documentation files programmatically by reading the Markdown files directly from the `docs/` directory using Python's `pathlib` and the `markdown` package. This enables automated documentation rendering for CI checks, custom documentation portals, or integrated development tools.