diff --git a/.github/workflows/docs.yml b/.github/workflows/docs.yml
index 38dafbbb0..666df0224 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/docs.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/docs.yml
@@ -192,3 +192,45 @@ jobs:
             lychee --no-progress --scheme http --scheme https \
               --exclude "localhost" --max-concurrency 8 \
               "docs-build/html/**/*.html" || true'
+
+  # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+  # Publish (manual): regenerate HTML + PDF + man and push them to the gh-pages
+  # branch under /reference/ (Pages is legacy branch-based, served from
+  # gh-pages:/). workflow_dispatch only -- publishing is a deliberate act, not
+  # something every push should do. The landing page (gh-pages:/index.html) and
+  # the historical archive (gh-pages:/docs/) are left untouched.
+  # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+  publish:
+    name: publish to gh-pages (manual)
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    if: github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch'
+    permissions:
+      contents: write
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - name: Install Nix (flakes enabled)
+        uses: cachix/install-nix-action@v27
+        with:
+          extra_nix_config: |
+            experimental-features = nix-command flakes
+      - name: Build the full site (HTML + PDF + man)
+        run: nix develop --command bash -c 'cd docs-src && python3 build.py'
+      - name: Deploy /reference/ to gh-pages
+        env:
+          GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+        run: |
+          ver=$(sed -n 's/^DB_VERSION_PATCH=//p' dist/RELEASE)
+          full="5.3.$ver"
+          git config user.name  "github-actions[bot]"
+          git config user.email "github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"
+          tar czf "/tmp/libdb-man-$full.tar.gz" -C docs-build/man man3
+          git fetch origin gh-pages
+          git worktree add /tmp/ghp origin/gh-pages
+          rm -rf /tmp/ghp/reference
+          mkdir -p /tmp/ghp/reference/pdf
+          cp -r docs-build/html/* /tmp/ghp/reference/
+          cp docs-build/pdf/*.pdf /tmp/ghp/reference/pdf/
+          cp "/tmp/libdb-man-$full.tar.gz" "/tmp/ghp/reference/libdb-man-$full.tar.gz"
+          ( cd /tmp/ghp && git add -A && \
+            git commit -m "Publish documentation reference ($full) [ci]" && \
+            git push origin HEAD:gh-pages )
diff --git a/docs-src/index.md b/docs-src/index.md
index 4789a86c9..3fde681a8 100644
--- a/docs-src/index.md
+++ b/docs-src/index.md
@@ -3,16 +3,60 @@ title: "Berkeley DB Documentation"
 ---
 # Berkeley DB Documentation
 
-Reference documentation for Berkeley DB, generated from Markdown source.
+The complete reference for **libdb** (Berkeley DB) — the embedded,
+transactional key/value storage engine. Generated from Markdown source by
+`docs-src/build.py`; available as HTML (here), [PDF](#pdf), and
+[man pages](#man). Version and copyright are single-sourced from
+`docs-src/_data/site.toml` + `dist/RELEASE`.
 
-This tree is the modernized replacement for the lost-source DocBook HTML: one
-Markdown file per topic, rendered to HTML (and, in later phases, PDF and man
-pages) by `docs-src/build.py`. Version and copyright live in one place
-(`docs-src/_data/site.toml` + `dist/RELEASE`), not duplicated per page.
+## API reference
 
-## Reference
+- [C API Reference](api/c/index.html) — the primary interface: `DB_ENV`, `DB`,
+  `DBC` (cursor), `DBT`, transactions, locking, logging, replication, and the
+  command-line utilities.
+- [C++ / STL API Reference](api/stl/index.html) — the `dbstl` standard-template-
+  library containers and iterators backed by Berkeley DB.
 
-- [C API Reference](api/c/index.html)
+## Guides
 
-*(C++/STL API, the Getting Started guides, the Programmer's Reference, and the
-other trees are migrated in follow-up phases.)*
+- [Programmer's Reference](guides/programmer_reference/index.html) — the
+  conceptual manual: access methods, the environment, memory pool, locking,
+  logging, transactions, replication, XA, and tuning.
+- [Getting Started with Data Storage](guides/gsg/index.html) — databases,
+  cursors, secondary indexes, the four access methods.
+- [Getting Started with Transactions](guides/gsg_txn/index.html) — ACID,
+  isolation, deadlocks, recovery, checkpoints.
+- [Getting Started with Replication](guides/gsg_db_rep/index.html) — the
+  replication framework and Replication Manager.
+- [Collections (Bindings) Tutorial](guides/collections/index.html) — the
+  Java-style collections/bindings API.
+- [Berkeley DB SQL](guides/bdb-sql/index.html) — the SQLite-compatible SQL
+  interface.
+- [Installation & Build](guides/installation/index.html) — building on Unix,
+  Windows, Android; configuration flags; the test suite.
+- [Upgrading](guides/upgrading/index.html) — release-to-release upgrade notes
+  (2.0 through 4.7 and the 11gR2 line).
+- [Porting](guides/porting/index.html) — porting Berkeley DB to a new platform.
+- Articles: [In-Memory Databases](guides/articles/inmemory/index.html) ·
+  [Message Text](guides/articles/mssgtxt/index.html).
+
+## <a id="man"></a>Man pages
+
+Every public API has a section-3 man page, plus a library overview
+(**`libdb(3)`**). They are built to `docs-build/man/man3/` (787 pages) and
+shipped in the release man-page tarball. Install and use like any system man
+page, e.g. `man libdb`, `man db_get`.
+
+## <a id="pdf"></a>PDF downloads
+
+Each book is also available as a PDF (see the release assets / `docs-build/pdf/`):
+`api_c.pdf`, `api_stl.pdf`, `guides_programmer_reference.pdf`,
+`guides_gsg.pdf`, `guides_gsg_txn.pdf`, `guides_gsg_db_rep.pdf`,
+`guides_collections.pdf`, `guides_bdb-sql.pdf`, `guides_installation.pdf`,
+`guides_upgrading.pdf`, `guides_porting.pdf`,
+`guides_articles_inmemory.pdf`, `guides_articles_mssgtxt.pdf`.
+
+---
+
+*The C#/Java language-binding manuals (Sandcastle / Javadoc, not DocBook) are
+archived separately and are not part of this Markdown-sourced tree.*