Martin Donath
@squidfunk.com
Founder of @zensical.org, creator of Material for MkDocs
Pinned
Zensical - A modern static site generator - Material for MkDocs
We are thrilled to announce Zensical, our next-gen static site generator that addresses and overcomes the technical limitations of MkDocs
squidfunk.github.io
Zensical – a modern static site generator.
We're excited to release @zensical.org, our new SSG that is compatible with Material for MkDocs:
– 5x faster rebuilds
– Modern design
– Blazing-fast search
Read the full announcement on our blog:
squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-mater...
A thread ⬇ 1/7
We're excited to release @zensical.org, our new SSG that is compatible with Material for MkDocs:
– 5x faster rebuilds
– Modern design
– Blazing-fast search
Read the full announcement on our blog:
squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-mater...
A thread ⬇ 1/7
900 stars 7 days after release – I think it's safe to say we had a very successful launch with @zensical.org. We're super happy and the feedback is overwhelmingly positive. Thank you all for supporting our work ❤️
November 11, 2025 at 5:51 PM
900 stars 7 days after release – I think it's safe to say we had a very successful launch with @zensical.org. We're super happy and the feedback is overwhelmingly positive. Thank you all for supporting our work ❤️
📣 Material for MkDocs Insiders now free for everyone!
With 9.7.0, we release all Insiders features previously exclusive to sponsors! This marks the last version of Material that includes new features, as we now enter maintenance mode.
A thread ⬇ 1/4
squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-mater...
With 9.7.0, we release all Insiders features previously exclusive to sponsors! This marks the last version of Material that includes new features, as we now enter maintenance mode.
A thread ⬇ 1/4
squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-mater...
Insiders – Now free for everyone - Material for MkDocs
We just released 9.7.0 – the final version of Material for MkDocs, which includes all features that were previously exclusive to sponsors
squidfunk.github.io
November 11, 2025 at 4:21 PM
📣 Material for MkDocs Insiders now free for everyone!
With 9.7.0, we release all Insiders features previously exclusive to sponsors! This marks the last version of Material that includes new features, as we now enter maintenance mode.
A thread ⬇ 1/4
squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-mater...
With 9.7.0, we release all Insiders features previously exclusive to sponsors! This marks the last version of Material that includes new features, as we now enter maintenance mode.
A thread ⬇ 1/4
squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-mater...
Reposted by Martin Donath
We're on the HackerNews front page right now!
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4586...
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4586...
Zensical – A modern static site generator built by the Material for MkDocs team | Hacker News
news.ycombinator.com
November 9, 2025 at 6:00 PM
We're on the HackerNews front page right now!
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4586...
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4586...
... and the next Zensical release! We'll probably have one every day for the next 10 days, playing whack-a-mole with bugs as they appear, when thousands of Material users test-drive Zensical on their existing projects 😃
Compatibility madness!
github.com/zensical/zen...
Compatibility madness!
github.com/zensical/zen...
Release zensical-0.0.5 · zensical/zensical
Bug fixes
6c47c6d fix - disable tracing by default @squidfunk
27f7f1b fix - extra templates incorrectly handled @squidfunk
083656a fix - add protocol to printed serve URL @squidfunk
fdc412a fix - ...
github.com
November 7, 2025 at 7:08 PM
... and the next Zensical release! We'll probably have one every day for the next 10 days, playing whack-a-mole with bugs as they appear, when thousands of Material users test-drive Zensical on their existing projects 😃
Compatibility madness!
github.com/zensical/zen...
Compatibility madness!
github.com/zensical/zen...
I just closed my GitHub Sponsors account, saying goodbye to over $16k in monthly sponsorships. These sponsorships allowed me to build a team around Material for MkDocs, and now, Zensical.
With Zensical Spark, we're on a new track to OSS sustainability:
zensical.org/spark/
With Zensical Spark, we're on a new track to OSS sustainability:
zensical.org/spark/
Zensical
Adaptive systems for evolving ideas – Zensical creates scalable Open Source systems for technical writing that always keep you in the flow
zensical.org
November 6, 2025 at 12:00 PM
I just closed my GitHub Sponsors account, saying goodbye to over $16k in monthly sponsorships. These sponsorships allowed me to build a team around Material for MkDocs, and now, Zensical.
With Zensical Spark, we're on a new track to OSS sustainability:
zensical.org/spark/
With Zensical Spark, we're on a new track to OSS sustainability:
zensical.org/spark/
Zensical – a modern static site generator.
We're excited to release @zensical.org, our new SSG that is compatible with Material for MkDocs:
– 5x faster rebuilds
– Modern design
– Blazing-fast search
Read the full announcement on our blog:
squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-mater...
A thread ⬇ 1/7
We're excited to release @zensical.org, our new SSG that is compatible with Material for MkDocs:
– 5x faster rebuilds
– Modern design
– Blazing-fast search
Read the full announcement on our blog:
squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-mater...
A thread ⬇ 1/7
Zensical - A modern static site generator - Material for MkDocs
We are thrilled to announce Zensical, our next-gen static site generator that addresses and overcomes the technical limitations of MkDocs
squidfunk.github.io
November 5, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Zensical – a modern static site generator.
We're excited to release @zensical.org, our new SSG that is compatible with Material for MkDocs:
– 5x faster rebuilds
– Modern design
– Blazing-fast search
Read the full announcement on our blog:
squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-mater...
A thread ⬇ 1/7
We're excited to release @zensical.org, our new SSG that is compatible with Material for MkDocs:
– 5x faster rebuilds
– Modern design
– Blazing-fast search
Read the full announcement on our blog:
squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-mater...
A thread ⬇ 1/7
If you install a fresh copy of MkDocs, livereload won't work, so MkDocs won't rebuild your project as you make changes. I've updated this reported issue with details on what is happening and how to work around it until the problem is fixed upstream.
github.com/squidfunk/mk...
github.com/squidfunk/mk...
`mkdocs serve` doesn't reload upon change anymore · Issue #8478 · squidfunk/mkdocs-material
Problem Updated by @squidfunk with explanation + workarounds When serving the documentation with mkdocs serve and making a change to a document in the docs folder, MkDocs does not automatically reb...
github.com
October 15, 2025 at 10:01 AM
If you install a fresh copy of MkDocs, livereload won't work, so MkDocs won't rebuild your project as you make changes. I've updated this reported issue with details on what is happening and how to work around it until the problem is fixed upstream.
github.com/squidfunk/mk...
github.com/squidfunk/mk...
A full-stack day - it started with Floyd-Warshall and ended in navigation icon resolution.
a man is playing a game of jenga in front of a happy birthday banner
ALT: a man is playing a game of jenga in front of a happy birthday banner
media.tenor.com
September 27, 2025 at 4:36 PM
A full-stack day - it started with Floyd-Warshall and ended in navigation icon resolution.
1/2 Phishing by using GitHub issues as a transport – the email looks quite legit, includes a link to a typo-squatted domain (y-comblnator.com) they want you to click on, followed by a lot of whitespace to hide the common GitHub issue footer ⬇️
September 24, 2025 at 8:00 AM
1/2 Phishing by using GitHub issues as a transport – the email looks quite legit, includes a link to a typo-squatted domain (y-comblnator.com) they want you to click on, followed by a lot of whitespace to hide the common GitHub issue footer ⬇️
Open Source is not a democracy. It's a meritocracy.
Absolute must-watch interview with David Heinemeier Hansson aka DHH, creator of Ruby on Rails.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTa2...
Absolute must-watch interview with David Heinemeier Hansson aka DHH, creator of Ruby on Rails.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTa2...
DHH Is Right About Everything
YouTube video by ThePrimeTime
www.youtube.com
September 15, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Open Source is not a democracy. It's a meritocracy.
Absolute must-watch interview with David Heinemeier Hansson aka DHH, creator of Ruby on Rails.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTa2...
Absolute must-watch interview with David Heinemeier Hansson aka DHH, creator of Ruby on Rails.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTa2...
Coming back from preparing new docs for the past 3 weeks with my team, I'm so happy to return to Rust. IMHO, the best programming language of the time. It enables me to think clearly. I've also written some TypeScript lately, and I don't enjoy it as much as I did before Rust.
September 11, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Coming back from preparing new docs for the past 3 weeks with my team, I'm so happy to return to Rust. IMHO, the best programming language of the time. It enables me to think clearly. I've also written some TypeScript lately, and I don't enjoy it as much as I did before Rust.
So seeing the current state of AI, I'm very happy me and my team focused on hard engineering topics around Material for MkDocs in the last 15 months, not building yet another "it has AI now" technology. Close to launch, and no, it's definitely not just a something+AI.
September 3, 2025 at 7:13 AM
So seeing the current state of AI, I'm very happy me and my team focused on hard engineering topics around Material for MkDocs in the last 15 months, not building yet another "it has AI now" technology. Close to launch, and no, it's definitely not just a something+AI.
The last missing puzzle piece in making the templates of Material for MkDocs compatible with minijinja.
August 16, 2025 at 9:16 AM
The last missing puzzle piece in making the templates of Material for MkDocs compatible with minijinja.
Several users reached out to us, that a quite fatal bug in MkDocs emerged 10 hours ago that silently changes all URLs to *.html format. Your site will still work, but all links are different.
It can be mitigated with "pip install click<8.2.2"
github.com/mkdocs/mkdoc...
It can be mitigated with "pip install click<8.2.2"
github.com/mkdocs/mkdoc...
MkDocs `use_directory_urls: true` bug with `click==8.2.2` · Issue #4014 · mkdocs/mkdocs
Context Latest version of click dependency (released August 2, 2025) is breaking use_directory_urls: true functionality in MkDocs and MkDocs Material. Bug description This is causing 404's when cli...
github.com
August 2, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Several users reached out to us, that a quite fatal bug in MkDocs emerged 10 hours ago that silently changes all URLs to *.html format. Your site will still work, but all links are different.
It can be mitigated with "pip install click<8.2.2"
github.com/mkdocs/mkdoc...
It can be mitigated with "pip install click<8.2.2"
github.com/mkdocs/mkdoc...
Very good talk on why OOP was a mistake.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo84...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo84...
Casey Muratori – The Big OOPs: Anatomy of a Thirty-five-year Mistake – BSC 2025
YouTube video by Better Software Conference
www.youtube.com
July 24, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Very good talk on why OOP was a mistake.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo84...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo84...
Fascinating how some users choose passive-aggressive entitlement for their very first interaction with Open Source maintainers. Kindness costs nothing. We’re humans, not a support SLA 🫠
July 16, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Fascinating how some users choose passive-aggressive entitlement for their very first interaction with Open Source maintainers. Kindness costs nothing. We’re humans, not a support SLA 🫠
Choose your dependencies wisely.
a man in a suit is pointing at a pile of m & ms
ALT: a man in a suit is pointing at a pile of m & ms
media.tenor.com
July 8, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Choose your dependencies wisely.
👋
Any other Open Source maintainer here getting tagged on GitHub by users with no public contributions on projects that you do not maintain, asking for you to look into the problem described? What the actual...
Always happy to work for free!
Any other Open Source maintainer here getting tagged on GitHub by users with no public contributions on projects that you do not maintain, asking for you to look into the problem described? What the actual...
Always happy to work for free!
June 22, 2025 at 10:21 AM
👋
Any other Open Source maintainer here getting tagged on GitHub by users with no public contributions on projects that you do not maintain, asking for you to look into the problem described? What the actual...
Always happy to work for free!
Any other Open Source maintainer here getting tagged on GitHub by users with no public contributions on projects that you do not maintain, asking for you to look into the problem described? What the actual...
Always happy to work for free!
I'm astonished some users prefer non-standard (and IMHO noisy) Markdown syntax over plain HTML, with developers going to great lengths coming up with new syntax constructs. In what world is this [↑] better than this [↓]?
June 20, 2025 at 8:25 AM
I'm astonished some users prefer non-standard (and IMHO noisy) Markdown syntax over plain HTML, with developers going to great lengths coming up with new syntax constructs. In what world is this [↑] better than this [↓]?
My single most effective method for solving complex problems that you're stuck on: going for a run. When I do this in the morning, solutions to problems just pop into my head, and my work day gets a head start. I don't listen to music, I just let the thinking happen.
June 18, 2025 at 9:29 AM
My single most effective method for solving complex problems that you're stuck on: going for a run. When I do this in the morning, solutions to problems just pop into my head, and my work day gets a head start. I don't listen to music, I just let the thinking happen.
Time and attention is all you got. Use it wisely. Build epic shit, do things you love. Money is only a means to an end and material things will not make you happy.
Just my opinion.
Just my opinion.
June 15, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Time and attention is all you got. Use it wisely. Build epic shit, do things you love. Money is only a means to an end and material things will not make you happy.
Just my opinion.
Just my opinion.
Wow, all my reserved crates on crates.io just got deleted, and one is now used by somebody else. The usage policy of crates.io says that crates are FCFS and ownership transfer is not possible without approval of the owner. Did somebody experience this?
crates.io: Rust Package Registry
crates.io
May 16, 2025 at 11:06 AM
📣 Material for MkDocs Update
We're experimenting with alternative ways to manage our public issue tracker. From now on, change requests will be moved to our new public backlog, and prioritized according to our roadmap that we'll release soon ☺️
github.com/squidfunk/mk...
We're experimenting with alternative ways to manage our public issue tracker. From now on, change requests will be moved to our new public backlog, and prioritized according to our roadmap that we'll release soon ☺️
github.com/squidfunk/mk...
Backlog: see open change requests · Issue #8200 · squidfunk/mkdocs-material
NoteWe're introducing a backlog. Change requests will be closed and moved to a dedicated backlog. This helps us keep the issue tracker focused on bugs, and gives users and contributors a clearer ov...
github.com
May 5, 2025 at 4:12 PM
📣 Material for MkDocs Update
We're experimenting with alternative ways to manage our public issue tracker. From now on, change requests will be moved to our new public backlog, and prioritized according to our roadmap that we'll release soon ☺️
github.com/squidfunk/mk...
We're experimenting with alternative ways to manage our public issue tracker. From now on, change requests will be moved to our new public backlog, and prioritized according to our roadmap that we'll release soon ☺️
github.com/squidfunk/mk...
First measurement for the new preview server I've been working on as part of the foundational work on Material for MkDocs:
🚀 50x more req/s than 'mkdocs serve'
🏗️ Extensible middleware architecture
🤏 Tiny, only very few dependencies
We're making good progress!
🚀 50x more req/s than 'mkdocs serve'
🏗️ Extensible middleware architecture
🤏 Tiny, only very few dependencies
We're making good progress!
April 25, 2025 at 10:12 AM
First measurement for the new preview server I've been working on as part of the foundational work on Material for MkDocs:
🚀 50x more req/s than 'mkdocs serve'
🏗️ Extensible middleware architecture
🤏 Tiny, only very few dependencies
We're making good progress!
🚀 50x more req/s than 'mkdocs serve'
🏗️ Extensible middleware architecture
🤏 Tiny, only very few dependencies
We're making good progress!