tinyrox

Last updated: 2026-02-06

Minimal R documentation generator - base R only, no magic.

What it does

tinyrox is a lightweight alternative to roxygen2 that generates valid .Rd files and NAMESPACE from #' comments using only base R.

Installation

1remotes::install_github("cornball-ai/tinyrox")

Usage

 1library(tinyrox)
 2
 3# Generate man/*.Rd and NAMESPACE from R/*.R
 4document()
 5
 6# Clean generated files (man/, NAMESPACE)
 7clean()
 8
 9# Check for common CRAN policy issues
10check_cran()

Supported Tags

Documentation

Tag	Purpose
`@title`	One-line title
`@description`	Short description
`@details`	Longer description
`@param name`	Parameter documentation
`@return`	Return value
`@value`	Alias for `@return`
`@examples`	Code examples (verbatim)
`@example path`	Include example from file
`@seealso`	Cross-references
`@references`	Citations
`@section Title:`	Custom section
`@author`	Author information
`@family name`	Related functions
`@aliases`	Additional topic aliases
`@keywords`	Rd keywords (e.g., `internal`)
`@name`	Explicit topic name
`@inheritParams fn`	Copy params from another function
`@noRd`	Skip Rd generation

Namespace

Tag	Effect
`@export`	`export()`
`@exportS3Method generic class`	`S3method()`
`@import pkg`	`import()`
`@importFrom pkg sym1 sym2`	`importFrom()`
`@useDynLib pkg`	`useDynLib()`

Example

 1#' Add Two Numbers
 2#'
 3#' @param x First number
 4#' @param y Second number
 5#' @return The sum
 6#' @export
 7#'
 8#' @examples
 9#' add(1, 2)
10add <- function(x, y) {
11  x + y
12}

CRAN Compliance Checking

tinyrox includes automated CRAN compliance checks:

 1# Check DESCRIPTION for common issues
 2check_description_cran()
 3# Warns about: unquoted package names, missing web service links
 4
 5# Check R code for CRAN policy violations
 6check_code_cran()
 7# Warns about: T/F, print()/cat(), .GlobalEnv, installed.packages(), etc.
 8
 9# Run all checks
10check_cran()
11
12# Auto-fix DESCRIPTION quoting issues
13fix_description_cran()

Issues detected:

Unquoted package/software names in Title/Description
Missing web service links for packages like hfhub, gh
T/F instead of TRUE/FALSE
print()/cat() instead of message()
installed.packages() usage
.GlobalEnv modifications
setwd() without on.exit() restoration
Hardcoded set.seed() without parameter

Philosophy

tinyrox follows the tinyverse philosophy:

Dependencies have real costs. Each dependency is an invitation to break your project.

Design principles:

Minimize dependencies (tinyrox has none)
Explicit over implicit - no inference magic
Strict subset of tags - not everything roxygen2 does
Deterministic output - same input = same output
Fail fast on unknown tags

What tinyrox does NOT do:

Markdown parsing
Automatic dependency inference
@rdname grouping magic
pkgdown integration

Development Workflow

tinyrox is part of the tinyverse toolchain for R package development:

Package	Purpose
tinyrox	Documentation & NAMESPACE
tinypkgr	install, load_all, check, build
tinytest	Unit testing
fyi	Rd to markdown (LLM context, static sites)

 1# Edit R/*.R files with #' comments
 2
 3# Regenerate docs
 4tinyrox::document()
 5
 6# Load for interactive development (no install)
 7tinypkgr::load_all()
 8
 9# Install and reload in current session
10tinypkgr::reload()
11tinytest::test_package("mypkg")
12
13# Full R CMD check
14tinypkgr::check()

Or from the command line with littler:

1r -e 'tinyrox::document(); tinypkgr::install(); tinytest::test_package("mypkg")'

License

GPL-3

Reference

See Function Reference for complete API documentation.

Functions

tinyrox Reference
Function reference for tinyrox

Packages