diff --git a/src/Elastic.Markdown/IO/Paths.cs b/src/Elastic.Markdown/IO/Paths.cs
index 8b63080..3075ef0 100644
--- a/src/Elastic.Markdown/IO/Paths.cs
+++ b/src/Elastic.Markdown/IO/Paths.cs
@@ -15,4 +15,13 @@ private static DirectoryInfo RootDirectoryInfo()
 	}
 
 	public static readonly DirectoryInfo Root = RootDirectoryInfo();
+
+	/// Used in debug to locate static folder so we can change js/css files while the server is running
+	public static DirectoryInfo? GetSolutionDirectory()
+	{
+		var directory = new DirectoryInfo(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory());
+		while (directory != null && directory.GetFiles("*.sln").Length == 0)
+			directory = directory.Parent;
+		return directory;
+	}
 }
diff --git a/src/Elastic.Markdown/Myst/InlineParsers/DiagnosticLinkInlineParser.cs b/src/Elastic.Markdown/Myst/InlineParsers/DiagnosticLinkInlineParser.cs
index 524cfa8..d4ce66d 100644
--- a/src/Elastic.Markdown/Myst/InlineParsers/DiagnosticLinkInlineParser.cs
+++ b/src/Elastic.Markdown/Myst/InlineParsers/DiagnosticLinkInlineParser.cs
@@ -108,6 +108,10 @@ public override bool Match(InlineProcessor processor, ref StringSlice slice)
 
 		if (url.EndsWith(".md"))
 			link.Url = Path.ChangeExtension(url, ".html");
+		// rooted links might need the configured path prefix to properly link
+		var prefix = processor.GetBuildContext().UrlPathPrefix;
+		if (url.StartsWith("/") && !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(prefix))
+			link.Url = $"{prefix}/{link.Url}";
 
 		if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(anchor))
 			link.Url += $"#{anchor}";
diff --git a/src/docs-builder/Http/DocumentationWebHost.cs b/src/docs-builder/Http/DocumentationWebHost.cs
index c9537ea..656e9bb 100644
--- a/src/docs-builder/Http/DocumentationWebHost.cs
+++ b/src/docs-builder/Http/DocumentationWebHost.cs
@@ -10,9 +10,12 @@
 using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http;
 using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;
 using Microsoft.Extensions.FileProviders;
+using Microsoft.Extensions.FileProviders.Physical;
 using Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting;
 using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;
+using Microsoft.Extensions.Primitives;
 using Westwind.AspNetCore.LiveReload;
+using IFileInfo = Microsoft.Extensions.FileProviders.IFileInfo;
 
 namespace Documentation.Builder.Http;
 
@@ -20,8 +23,7 @@ public class DocumentationWebHost
 {
 	private readonly WebApplication _webApplication;
 
-	private readonly string _staticFilesDirectory =
-		Path.Combine(Paths.Root.FullName, "docs", "source", "_static");
+	private readonly string _staticFilesDirectory;
 
 	public DocumentationWebHost(string? path, ILoggerFactory logger, IFileSystem fileSystem)
 	{
@@ -40,6 +42,15 @@ public DocumentationWebHost(string? path, ILoggerFactory logger, IFileSystem fil
 		builder.Services.AddSingleton(logger);
 		builder.Logging.SetMinimumLevel(LogLevel.Warning);
 
+		_staticFilesDirectory = Path.Combine(context.SourcePath.FullName, "_static");
+		#if DEBUG
+		// this attempts to serve files directly from their source rather than the embedded resourses during development.
+		// this allows us to change js/css files without restarting the webserver
+		var solutionRoot = Paths.GetSolutionDirectory();
+		if (solutionRoot != null)
+			_staticFilesDirectory = Path.Combine(solutionRoot.FullName, "src", "Elastic.Markdown", "_static");
+		#endif
+
 		_webApplication = builder.Build();
 		SetUpRoutes();
 	}
@@ -52,7 +63,7 @@ private void SetUpRoutes()
 		_webApplication.UseLiveReload();
 		_webApplication.UseStaticFiles(new StaticFileOptions
 		{
-			FileProvider = new PhysicalFileProvider(_staticFilesDirectory),
+			FileProvider = new EmbeddedOrPhysicalFileProvider(_staticFilesDirectory),
 			RequestPath = "/_static"
 		});
 		_webApplication.UseRouting();
@@ -86,3 +97,40 @@ private static async Task<IResult> ServeDocumentationFile(ReloadableGeneratorSta
 		}
 	}
 }
+
+
+public class EmbeddedOrPhysicalFileProvider : IFileProvider
+{
+	private readonly EmbeddedFileProvider _embeddedProvider;
+	private readonly PhysicalFileProvider _fileProvider;
+
+	public EmbeddedOrPhysicalFileProvider(string root)
+	{
+		_embeddedProvider = new EmbeddedFileProvider(typeof(BuildContext).Assembly, "Elastic.Markdown._static");
+		_fileProvider = new PhysicalFileProvider(root);
+	}
+
+	public IDirectoryContents GetDirectoryContents(string subpath)
+	{
+		var contents = _fileProvider.GetDirectoryContents(subpath);
+		if (!contents.Exists)
+			contents = _embeddedProvider.GetDirectoryContents(subpath);
+		return contents;
+	}
+
+	public IFileInfo GetFileInfo(string subpath)
+	{
+		var fileInfo = _fileProvider.GetFileInfo(subpath.Replace("/_static", ""));
+		if (!fileInfo.Exists)
+			fileInfo = _embeddedProvider.GetFileInfo(subpath);
+		return fileInfo;
+	}
+
+	public IChangeToken Watch(string filter)
+	{
+		var changeToken = _fileProvider.Watch(filter);
+		if (changeToken is NullChangeToken)
+			changeToken = _embeddedProvider.Watch(filter);
+		return changeToken;
+	}
+}
diff --git a/src/docs-generator/Cli/Commands.cs b/src/docs-generator/Cli/Commands.cs
index 924d1a4..3f435da 100644
--- a/src/docs-generator/Cli/Commands.cs
+++ b/src/docs-generator/Cli/Commands.cs
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ public async Task<int> Generate(
 			WriteMarkdownFile(outputFolder, file);
 		}
 
-		var name = $"random-docset-{seedContent}-{seedFileSystem}";
+		var name = $"random-docset-{Determinism.Random.SeedFileSystem}-{Determinism.Random.SeedFileSystem}";
 		WriteIndexMarkdownFile(name, outputFolder);
 
 		var docset = Path.Combine(outputFolder.FullName, "docset.yml");
diff --git a/src/docs-generator/Domain/Generators.cs b/src/docs-generator/Domain/Generators.cs
index feef603..dad7b90 100644
--- a/src/docs-generator/Domain/Generators.cs
+++ b/src/docs-generator/Domain/Generators.cs
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
 // Elasticsearch B.V licenses this file to you under the Apache 2.0 License.
 // See the LICENSE file in the project root for more information
 
-using Slugify;
 using Soenneker.Utils.AutoBogus;
 
 namespace Documentation.Generator.Domain;
@@ -12,7 +11,6 @@ public static class Generators
 	public static AutoFaker<FolderName> FolderName { get; } = new();
 	public static AutoFaker<Section> Section { get; } = new();
 	public static AutoFaker<MarkdownFile> File { get; } = new();
-	public static SlugHelper Slug { get; } = new();
 
 	static Generators()
 	{