title: MkDocs
category: page
slug: mkdocs
sortorder: 0434
toc: False
sidebartitle: MkDocs
meta: MkDocs is a static site generator built in Python that is intended for creating slick project documentation.


[MkDocs](http://www.mkdocs.org/) is a Python-based static site generator 
that combines Markdown content with [Jinja2 templates](/jinja2.html) to 
produce websites. MkDocs can be pronounced "McDocs" or "M-K Docs",
[although the core committers do not have a strong preference](https://twitter.com/_tomchristie/status/805861272076042241)
one way or the other on the name's pronunciation.


MkDocs' 
[source code is available on GitHub](https://github.com/mkdocs/mkdocs)
under the 
[BSD 2-clause license](https://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-2-Clause).

<a href="http://www.mkdocs.org/" style="border: none;"><img src="/img/logos/mkdocs.jpg" width="100%" alt="MkDocs static site and documentation generator logo." class="technical-diagram" style="border-radius:5px"></a>


## What's great about MkDocs?
MkDocs uses a YAML configuration file and can optionally use themes to 
easy change the look-and-feel of the documentation output.

In addition to the easy configuration via a YAML file and the drop-in 
themes, MkDocs also has a wonderful search feature. Search is often not
possible out of the box in other static site generators. With MkDocs search
can easily be added without plugins or code changes to the static site
generator.

<div class="well see-also">MkDocs is an implementation of the <a href="/static-site-generator.html">static site generators</a> concept. Learn how the parts fit together in the <a href="/web-development.html">web development</a> chapter or view <a href="/table-of-contents.html">all topics</a>.</div>


## MkDocs resources
* The official 
  [Getting Started with MkDocs](http://www.mkdocs.org/#getting-started)
  is likely the best place to go when you are just getting set up with your
  first site that uses this project.

* [Mkdocs documentation](https://visibilityspots.org/mkdocs.html) is a quick
  tutorial to get MkDocs installed and modify the initial mkdocs.yml file.

* [MkDocs making strides](http://www.dougalmatthews.com/2015/Jun/27/mkdocs-making-strides/) 
  is a post from one of the project's core commiters on some changes that
  greatly improved the project such as site regeneration during development
  when a file is modified, search, the command-line client and packageable
  theming.

