diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 49ceb21..ef02775 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -20,3 +20,7 @@ pnpm-debug.log*
 # macOS-specific files
 .DS_Store
 .vercel
+
+# downloaded documentation
+src/content/docs/
+src/content/.docs-*/
diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
deleted file mode 100644
index 5575b6a..0000000
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
-[submodule "src/content/docs"]
-	path = src/content/docs
-	url = https://github.com/zane-lang/docs
-	branch = main
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 36e84f3..eb34683 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1 +1,11 @@
 # The Zane Website
+
+The documentation is shallow-cloned from [`zane-lang/docs`](https://github.com/zane-lang/docs)
+before starting the development server or building the site. To refresh it manually, run:
+
+```sh
+npm run sync:docs
+```
+
+Set `ZANE_DOCS_REF` to clone a branch or tag other than `main`. The clone's `.git`
+directory is removed after fetching, and the downloaded documentation is ignored by Git.
diff --git a/justfile b/justfile
index d9fd74d..67441d9 100644
--- a/justfile
+++ b/justfile
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
-submodules:
-	git submodule update --remote --recursive --force
+docs:
+	npm run sync:docs
 
 dev:
 	npm run dev
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ ship:
 	#!/usr/bin/env bash
 	read -p "Are you sure you want to deploy to production? [y/N] " confirm
 	if [[ "$confirm" =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]; then
-		just submodules && vercel --prod
+		vercel --prod
 	else
 		echo "Deployment cancelled."
 	fi
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index a777fd3..590eeca 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -3,8 +3,12 @@
 	"type": "module",
 	"version": "0.0.1",
 	"scripts": {
+		"sync:docs": "node scripts/fetch-docs.mjs",
+		"predev": "node scripts/fetch-docs.mjs --skip-if-exists",
 		"dev": "astro dev",
+		"prestart": "node scripts/fetch-docs.mjs --skip-if-exists",
 		"start": "astro dev",
+		"prebuild": "node scripts/fetch-docs.mjs",
 		"build": "astro build",
 		"preview": "astro preview",
 		"astro": "astro"
diff --git a/scripts/fetch-docs.mjs b/scripts/fetch-docs.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b3ef866
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/fetch-docs.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+import { execFile } from 'node:child_process';
+import { access, mkdtemp, mkdir, rename, rm } from 'node:fs/promises';
+import { dirname, join } from 'node:path';
+import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
+import { promisify } from 'node:util';
+
+const execFileAsync = promisify(execFile);
+
+const repository = 'https://github.com/zane-lang/docs.git';
+const ref = process.env.ZANE_DOCS_REF || 'main';
+const root = join(dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)), '..');
+const contentDirectory = join(root, 'src/content');
+const destination = join(contentDirectory, 'docs');
+
+if (process.argv.includes('--skip-if-exists')) {
+	try {
+		await access(destination);
+		console.log('Docs already exist, skipping download.');
+		process.exit(0);
+	} catch {}
+}
+
+await mkdir(contentDirectory, { recursive: true });
+const workDirectory = await mkdtemp(join(contentDirectory, '.docs-'));
+const checkout = join(workDirectory, 'checkout');
+
+try {
+	await execFileAsync(
+		'git',
+		['clone', '--depth=1', '--branch', ref, '--single-branch', repository, checkout],
+		{ timeout: 30_000 },
+	);
+
+	await rm(join(checkout, '.git'), { recursive: true, force: true });
+	await rm(destination, { recursive: true, force: true });
+	await rename(checkout, destination);
+	console.log(`Cloned zane-lang/docs@${ref} to src/content/docs`);
+} catch (error) {
+	const stderr = typeof error?.stderr === 'string' ? error.stderr.trim() : '';
+	throw new Error(stderr || error?.message || 'Failed to clone documentation', { cause: error });
+} finally {
+	await rm(workDirectory, { recursive: true, force: true });
+}
diff --git a/src/content/docs b/src/content/docs
deleted file mode 160000
index 3074f50..0000000
--- a/src/content/docs
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Subproject commit 3074f5023e45b3db411bb0fddcdb427094916181