Third-party plugins¶

We have conducted a quantitative and a qualitative analysis of third-party MkDocs plugins by analyzing the top 1,000 repositories on GitHub that use Material for MkDocs, as well as MkDocs' plugin catalog. From this, we have identified functionality that we commit to provide natively.

Zensical Spark

Rather than simply reimplementing existing third-party plugins, we're taking a fresh approach:

Zensical Spark is our collaborative space where, together with our professional users, we reimagine these features from the ground up. We iterate over ideas with our members, validate design concepts, and ensure new functionality integrates seamlessly with Zensical's runtime architecture.

What we'll cover¶

We intend to implement the functionality provided by the following MkDocs plugins:

mkdocstrings¶

The mkdocstrings plugin enables robust API documentation generation. We are excited to have the author of mkdocstrings, Timothée Mazzucotelli (aka @pawamoy), on our team. Together, we are building a dedicated Zensical module for API documentation.

Plugins such as git-revision-date-localized, git-authors, and git-committers integrate Git metadata into your documentation. In Zensical, this functionality will be supported natively.

macros plugin¶

The versatile macros plugin allows dynamic content generation within Markdown files. Zensical will provide similar features through a powerful and flexible component system.

minify plugin¶

The minify plugin streamlines HTML, CSS, and JavaScript assets for optimized delivery. Zensical will natively include minification, image compression, and additional build optimizations.

mike (versioning)¶

mike provides multi-version documentation management, specifically for publishing static sites on GitHub Pages. Zensical will offer more options and introduce improved workflows for version management, addressing legacy and long-term support releases.

awesome-nav / literate-nav¶

awesome-nav and literate-nav allow navigation structure to be defined outside the main configuration file. Zensical expands on these concepts, offering modular navigation for more flexible information architecture.

static-i18n¶

The static-i18n plugin adds multilingual support to MkDocs sites. Zensical will provide native internationalization, designed to cover a broad range of multilingual documentation needs.

Other plugins¶

We have a well-defined strategy for integrating the core features of these plugins into the Zensical ecosystem. This list represents our initial focus areas, with further functionality planned for future releases as demands evolve.

With the upcoming module system, we aim to establish a scalable and extensible framework that enables third-party developers to build modular extensions, significantly enhancing Zensical's core functionality. This foundation fosters the development of a vibrant ecosystem, empowering users and contributors alike to customize Zensical to meet diverse and evolving requirements.