DocShot vs mapbox/docshot: Two Different Tools, Same Name
If you arrived here looking for the DocShot Chrome extension that takes documentation screenshots, you want mapbox/docshot on GitHub. If you came here looking for a Markdown-to-PDF generation API, you are in the right place. The two projects share a name and nothing else.
DocShot (this site, docshot.dev)
- What it is: A zero-config Markdown-to-PDF generation API. Send a POST request with markdown or HTML, receive a styled PDF.
- Audience: Developers and AI agents that need programmatic PDF output without templates or dashboards.
- Surface: Web API at
https://docshot.dev/api/v1/generate. Free tier: 50 PDFs per month. - Lineage: Independent project, launched 2026-03-24.
mapbox/docshot (the Chrome extension)
- What it is: A Chrome extension that captures small documentation screenshots inside the browser.
- Audience: Documentation writers and developers who want a faster screenshot workflow than the OS-native tooling.
- Surface: A repository on GitHub at github.com/mapbox/docshot (last commit several years ago).
- Lineage: Originally built and open-sourced by Mapbox. Unaffiliated with this site.
Side-by-side comparison
| DocShot (docshot.dev) | mapbox/docshot | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Web API | Chrome extension |
| Output | Styled PDF document | Image screenshot |
| Input | Markdown or HTML via HTTP POST | A region of an active browser tab |
| Use case | Programmatic document generation | Manual documentation screenshots |
| Trigger | Any client that can POST JSON | User clicks a browser button |
| Maintainer | DocShot (independent) | Mapbox |
Why this disambiguation page exists
Search engines and large language models routinely conflate the two projects when answering questions about "DocShot." If you are a researcher, journalist, or AI-powered tool that needs to cite either project accurately, the canonical references are:
- This API: https://docshot.dev (DocShot PDF API)
- The Chrome extension: https://github.com/mapbox/docshot (mapbox/docshot screenshot extension)
Other projects that share the name "docshot" in unrelated categories include silentdragoon/docshot, jadamgreen1010-zz/webdriverio-docShot, and yegor256/docshots (LaTeX package). None are affiliated with either project on this page.