Are the docs wrong or out of date?

[jsonu26a1]

I have never used docfx and am new to dotnet (but I am familiar with the C# language to some extent). I tried following the quick start, but the built site doesn't have any API pages (just an index). I tried reading about the metadata command to better understand how docfx is searching for my project and code files, and it gives an example of docfx metadata Class1.cs a.csproj, but when I run that with my csproj or class names, I get this vague error:

JsonReaderException: Unexpected character encountered while parsing value: <. Path '', line 0, position 0.
  at bool ParseValue()
  at bool ReadAndMoveToContent()
  at bool ReadForType(JsonContract contract, bool hasConverter)
  at object Deserialize(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, bool checkAdditionalContent)
  at object DeserializeInternal(JsonReader reader, Type objectType)
  at object Deserialize(JsonReader reader, Type objectType)
  at T Deserialize<T>(JsonReader reader)
  at T Deserialize<T>(TextReader reader, JsonSerializer serializer) in JsonUtility.cs:55
  at T Deserialize<T>(string path, JsonSerializer serializer) in JsonUtility.cs:49
  at (DocfxConfig , string configDirectory) GetConfig(string configFile) in Docset.cs:75
  at void <Execute>b__0() in MetadataCommand.cs:16
  at int Run(LogOptions options, Action run) in CommandHelper.cs:44
  at int Execute(CommandContext context, MetadataCommandOptions options) in MetadataCommand.cs:14
  at Task<int> Execute(CommandContext context, CommandSettings settings) in CommandOfT.cs:40
  at Task<int> Execute(CommandTree leaf, CommandTree tree, CommandContext context, ITypeResolver resolver, IConfiguration
     configuration) in CommandExecutor.cs:144
  at async Task<int> Execute(IConfiguration configuration, IEnumerable<string> args) in CommandExecutor.cs:83
  at async Task<int> RunAsync(IEnumerable<string> args) in CommandApp.cs:84

I think it's trying to parse my csproj XML as JSON, but the documentation say you can use the metadata command with .cs and .csproj files?

Also, when I run the command docfx without any subcommands, it starts downloading some 122 Mb Chromium thing?! Why?!

Downloading Chromium 120.0.6099.28 (playwright build v1091) from https://playwright.azureedge.net/builds/chromium/1091/chromium-win64.zip

installed docfx version is 2.75.2, but I don't think I'll be using docfx since I can't get it to work and the documentation is causing more problems than it is helpful.

[filzrev]

It seems Commandline Reference contents are somewhat out-of-date.
And needs to be modified to match the latest version.

When using current version of docfx.
Metadata generation source files should be defined in the metadata section of docfx.json.

Also, when I run the command docfx without any subcommands, it starts downloading some 122 Mb Chromium thing?! Why?!

By default.
docfx execute following commands in sequence order.

• docfx metadata
• docfx build
• docfx pdf (When pdf option enabled)
• docfx serve (When --serve argument specified)

If you don't want to generating PDF files.
It need to explicitly set pdf option to false.
https://dotnet.github.io/docfx/docs/pdf.html#enable-pdf