How Celo simplified developer onboarding with a documentation overhaul

Key outcomes

• Reduced time-to-integration by 50%.
• Consolidated 250+ pages into six audience-focused sections, improving discoverability and navigation.
• Migrated documentation from Docusaurus to Mintlify, which simplified updates and lowered maintenance effort.
• Removed duplicate and obsolete pages, cutting editorial debt and clutter.
• Launched a single quickstart (Celo Composer) to guide new developers straight to working examples.
• Navigation and visual design cleaned up with a consistent sidebar, balanced cards, and predictable page layouts.

Company summary

Celo is a mobile-first blockchain platform designed to increase cryptocurrency adoption among smartphone users, particularly in regions where traditional banking is limited. Celo believes in making the process as simple as sending a text message.

• Industry: Blockchain / web3
• Company Size: ~201–500 employees
• Locations: Headquarters in San Francisco
• Use Case: Developer onboarding, documentation restructuring
• Products: Celo Composer, SDKs and web3 libraries, node software, and infra tooling

The challenge

By early 2025, Celo’s documentation had grown to over 250 pages. Though the content was valuable, it was not easy to navigate:

• Sections overlapped or repeated information.
• Pre–L2 material was still mixed in with current guides.
• The structure wasn’t aligned with the different audiences who relied on the docs.

We had the pleasure of working closely with the Hackmamba team during a time when our blockchain ecosystem was evolving quickly- Sophia Dew, Dev Rel Engineering Lead at Celo

Increased documentation complexity leads to developer frustration, delayed integration, and friction within the larger Celo community. Broken navigation or unclear guidance would mean longer time-to-adoption for new developers, unnecessary support queries raised towards the team, and a lost opportunity to keep contributors engaged. Below is earlier version of how Celo docs would look like:

Our approach

We collaborated with Celo’s team to migrate the documentation from Docusaurus to Mintlify, employing an intent-based approach that enhanced content navigation for diverse audiences. The project took about three weeks and focused on three key areas:

1. Audit and clean-up

• Removed duplicate and outdated content.
• Flagged pages that needed rewriting
• Identified Obsolete content that needed to be merged or removed.

2. Restructuring around user needs The documentation was restructured into six sections aligned with user intent, making it easier for developers, infrastructure partners, and community contributors to find what they need.

• About Celo – A starting point for anyone new to the project. It brings together the basics: what Celo is, its history, wallets, exchanges, ramps, bridging, and core protocol topics like governance and consensus.

• Build on Celo – The main hub for developers. It includes a quick start guide with Celo Composer, details on L2 architecture, and a launch checklist. It also covers areas such as building with AI, example use cases (including Mini Apps and DeFi agents), and MCP servers.

• Infra partners – A section dedicated to those running or integrating infrastructure. It had different call-to-actions for both developers and node operators. It also covered sections like L2 specs, integration guidance, and notices.

• Tooling – A practical toolkit for builders. Here, you’ll find SDKs, libraries, testnets, wallets, explorers, developer environments, oracles, contract verification, and cross-chain messaging solutions.

• Contribute to Celo – Built for community members and contributors. It includes guides for builders, DAOs, code and documentation contributors, community RPC nodes, and the release process.

• Legacy – Older but still important content, such as L1 architecture, validators, and bridging guides, is now consolidated in one place, making it easy to find without cluttering the main flow.

By structuring the docs this way, each type of user, whether you’re a developer, infrastructure partner, or community contributor, has a clear place to begin

The team was easy to collaborate with and delivered high-quality work that made a real difference-Sophia Dew, Dev Rel Engineering Lead at Celo

3. Quality checks A comprehensive QA process was conducted to ensure the new documentation structure was consistent, accessible, and easy to maintain over time (As seen in the screenshot below).

• All links and anchors have been verified, allowing new pages to be added without disrupting navigation.
• Cards on the homepage were restructured and balanced, giving a clear layout that can scale as more content is introduced.
• Icons, images, and videos were reviewed for consistent style, which keeps the docs professional and easier to extend.
• Light and dark modes were tested to confirm readability across different viewing preferences.
• Site performance was measured and optimized, ensuring fast load times even as the documentation continued to grow.

Celo’s updated docs are now available. https://docs.celo.org/home/celo

They helped us reorganize our documentation with speed and clarity, even as many moving parts shifted around them- Sophia Dew, Dev Rel Engineering Lead at Celo

Before and after

Some of the most visible improvements came in these areas:

Introduction

• Before: Developers had to bounce between two separate pages, “What is Celo” and “Using Celo”, just to understand the basics.
• After: A single, streamlined “What is Celo” page provides a clear overview in one place, allowing someone new to the platform to understand the basics without detours.

Navigation

• Before: Important material was hidden several clicks down in the sidebar, which meant developers often missed it or spent extra time searching for it.
• After: The navigation was flattened into six top-level sections, so critical pages are visible immediately and can be opened with a single click.

Developer onboarding

• Before: Multiple entry points made it unclear where a developer should begin, which slowed down their first interaction with the platform.
• After: A dedicated “Quickstart with Celo Composer” provides newcomers with a clear starting point, enabling them to move from zero to building much more quickly.

I really appreciated their professionalism and clear communication throughout the process- Sophia Dew, Dev Rel Engineering Lead at Celo

Closing thoughts

For developer-focused products, documentation is often the first point of contact, and when it’s difficult to follow, adoption slows. Celo solved this by restructuring its docs into a format that’s simple to navigate and easy to maintain. If your team is running into similar challenges, Hackmamba can help. We provide expert technical documentation servicesfor technical product companies to untangle complex documentation, reduce maintenance loads, and provide developers with a clear path to building with your product.