Commands that operate on an existing project need a docinsight.json or legacy .diproj manifest. Let DocInsight discover the project during routine work, or use --manifest when a command needs an explicit project context.

When a command runs inside a documentation project, DocInsight searches the current directory and then its parent directories for docinsight.json. It uses the nearest manifest it finds:

docinsight check
docinsight build

This lets commands run from the project root or from a documentation or source subdirectory.

Discovery follows the directory hierarchy, so a command started outside the project root cannot find that project's manifest automatically. Sources outside the project root remain valid inputs, but run commands from within the project or use --manifest to select the project explicitly.

If DocInsight does not find docinsight.json, it uses a single legacy .diproj manifest in the current directory. When the directory contains more than one .diproj file, select one explicitly.

Use --manifest to point a command at a specific docinsight.json or legacy .diproj manifest:

docinsight check --manifest products/mylibrary/docinsight.json
docinsight build --manifest ../product-docs/docinsight.json

A relative --manifest path is resolved from the current working directory. Explicit selection is useful in scripts, CI jobs, monorepos, and repository layouts where documentation and source code live in different locations.

Manifest selection identifies the project; it does not choose which configured outputs a command uses. For that behavior, see Select output targets.