MkDocs

MkDocs
Developer(s)	Tom Christie, Dougal Matthews, Waylan Limberg, Oleh Prypin, Ultrabug
Initial release	January 24, 2014
Stable release	1.6.1 / August 30, 2024; 2 months ago
Repository	github.com/mkdocs/mkdocs ;
Written in	Python
Operating system	Cross-platform
Type	Documentation generator
License	BSD
Website	www.mkdocs.org

MkDocs is static site generator designed for building project documentation. It is written in Python, and also used in other environments.

Mode of operation

MkDocs converts Markdown files into HTML pages, effectively creating a static website containing documentation.

Markdown is extensible, and the MkDocs ecosystem exploits its extensible nature through a number of extensions^[2]^[3] that help with for autogenerating documentation from source code, adding admonitions, writing mathematical notation, inserting footnotes, highlighting source code etc.

Themes

MkDocs provides two built-in themes, default theme (based on Bootstrap) and Read the Docs theme. Many of the available third-party themes are listed in the official catalog,^[4] including the popular Material for MkDocs theme.^[5]

History

The first tagged version of MkDocs, version 0.2, came out on January 21, 2014.^[6]

By early 2015, Read the Docs supported building documentation with MkDocs, in addition to Sphinx. In preparation for the 0.12 release,^[7] MkDocs started using Read the Docs for hosting.^[8]

In January 2016, MkDocs added support for installable themes.^[9] Next month, Martin Donath started developing Material for MkDocs theme. In the following years, the theme became very popular and in July 2020 the development model was changed to sponsorware, where the new features get released to the Insiders version first and become publicly available after funding goals are hit.^[10]

Usage

MkDocs offers built-in support for deployment to GitHub Pages. Alternatives, such as GitLab and Cloudflare Pages, offer first-party support for deploying MkDocs sites.^[11]^[12]

Many companies use MkDocs with the Material theme to deploy their documentation, including Atlassian,^[13] Google,^[14] Microsoft,^[15] and Red Hat.^[16] It is also a popular choice among open source projects, such as Electron,^[17] Kubernetes,^[18] and WebKit.^[19]

References

^ "Release Notes". MkDocs.
^ "Extensions — Python-Markdown 3.4.4 documentation". python-markdown.github.io. Retrieved 2023-09-23.
^ "Pymdown Extensions - PyMdown Extensions Documentation". facelessuser.github.io. Retrieved 2023-09-23.
^ Theming catalog, MkDocs, 2023-09-23, retrieved 2023-09-23
^ Donath, Martin. "Material for MkDocs". squidfunk.github.io. Retrieved 2023-09-23.
^ "Release 0.2 · mkdocs/mkdocs". GitHub. Retrieved 2023-09-24.
^ "MkDocs 0.12 is in the wild. Lots of bug fixes and a few new features". X (formerly Twitter). 2015-04-14. Retrieved 2023-09-24.
^ "mkdocs | Read the Docs". readthedocs.org. 2015-02-12. Retrieved 2023-09-24.
^ "The new MkDocs release supports installable themes. Nice addition to the project that will let you install via pip". X (formerly Twitter). 2016-01-21. Retrieved 2023-09-24.
^ Donath, Martin (2021-12-27). "The past, present and future - Material for MkDocs". squidfunk.github.io. Retrieved 2023-09-24.
^ "GitLab Pages examples / mkdocs · GitLab". GitLab. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
^ "Deploy an MkDocs site · Cloudflare Pages docs". developers.cloudflare.com. 2023-08-07. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
^ "Atlassian DC Helm Charts". atlassian.github.io. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
^ "Accompanist". google.github.io. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
^ "Code With Engineering Playbook". microsoft.github.io. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
^ "home - Ansible Lint Documentation". ansible-lint.readthedocs.io. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
^ "electron-builder". www.electron.build. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
^ "Welcome - kOps - Kubernetes Operations". kops.sigs.k8s.io. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
^ "WebKit Documentation". docs.webkit.org. Retrieved 2023-12-10.

External links

MkDocs
Read the Docs large-scale, collaborative documentation host powered by Sphinx, MkDocs, and Jupyter Book

[1] "Release Notes". MkDocs.

[2] "Extensions — Python-Markdown 3.4.4 documentation". python-markdown.github.io. Retrieved 2023-09-23.

[3] "Pymdown Extensions - PyMdown Extensions Documentation". facelessuser.github.io. Retrieved 2023-09-23.

[4] Theming catalog, MkDocs, 2023-09-23, retrieved 2023-09-23

[5] Donath, Martin. "Material for MkDocs". squidfunk.github.io. Retrieved 2023-09-23.

[6] "Release 0.2 · mkdocs/mkdocs". GitHub. Retrieved 2023-09-24.

[7] "MkDocs 0.12 is in the wild. Lots of bug fixes and a few new features". X (formerly Twitter). 2015-04-14. Retrieved 2023-09-24.

[8] "mkdocs | Read the Docs". readthedocs.org. 2015-02-12. Retrieved 2023-09-24.

[9] "The new MkDocs release supports installable themes. Nice addition to the project that will let you install via pip". X (formerly Twitter). 2016-01-21. Retrieved 2023-09-24.

[10] Donath, Martin (2021-12-27). "The past, present and future - Material for MkDocs". squidfunk.github.io. Retrieved 2023-09-24.

[11] "GitLab Pages examples / mkdocs · GitLab". GitLab. Retrieved 2023-12-10.

[12] "Deploy an MkDocs site · Cloudflare Pages docs". developers.cloudflare.com. 2023-08-07. Retrieved 2023-12-10.

[13] "Atlassian DC Helm Charts". atlassian.github.io. Retrieved 2023-12-10.

[14] "Accompanist". google.github.io. Retrieved 2023-12-10.

[15] "Code With Engineering Playbook". microsoft.github.io. Retrieved 2023-12-10.

[16] "home - Ansible Lint Documentation". ansible-lint.readthedocs.io. Retrieved 2023-12-10.

[17] "electron-builder". www.electron.build. Retrieved 2023-12-10.

[18] "Welcome - kOps - Kubernetes Operations". kops.sigs.k8s.io. Retrieved 2023-12-10.

[19] "WebKit Documentation". docs.webkit.org. Retrieved 2023-12-10.

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