I've recently migrated a few (small) sites from #MkDocs (no longer maintained) to #Zensical, which went very smoothly.
It also motivated me to write a small Markdown extension for including source code for #Python functions, classes, methods, etc, similar to the `:pyobject:` option in reStructuredText's `literalinclude` directive:
https://includepy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
(I'm aware of the snippets extension, which has many more features, but requires adding markers to the source files)
When installing dependencies, formatting code, linting it, type-checking it, and building docs with #Poetry or #PDM, #Black, #Flake8, #Mypy and #MkDocs would previously take from 2min to several more, it now takes less than 15 seconds for the whole thing, thanks to #uv, #Ruff, #ty and #Zensical.
This is for 5 #Python versions (3.10 to 3.15).
The DX got much better 🥰
Overriding some CSS in a project that uses Sass but doesn't let you hook into it kind of sucks.
Sure, I _can_ hard-code something like "@media screen and (max-width: 76.2344em)" (which originates from an expression like "px2em(719.75px)") into my CSS file, but should I _have_ to?
(Looking at you, #Zensical.)
(Yes, I know Zensical is still at 0.0.something. I don't exactly _expect_ it to make this easy for me at this time. I'm just venting.)
Da werden wir mal im Lauf des Jahres ein #lernOS Leitfaden zum Test von #mkdocs auf #zensical umstellen.
From: @squidfunk
https://fosstodon.org/@squidfunk/115955190362504185
Prek, "a reimagined version of pre-commit, built in Rust", has a ✨ fresh ✨ documentation page, thanks to a contributed by yours truly and paid for by my employee, AOE GmbH, wo allows me to use some of my working time to contribute to OSS projects. 🫶
The docs were moved from material for mkdocs to @squidfunk (https://fosstodon.org/@squidfunk)'s new doc generator @zensical (https://fosstodon.org/@zensical)!
Site: https://prek.j178.dev
MR: https://github.com/j178/prek/pull/1421
#OSS #Documentation #Zensical #Mkdocs
📌 https://kevingimbel.de/status/1769068200
https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/blog/2025/11/05/zensical/ Zensical – A modern static site generator built by the Material for MkDocs team
RE: https://fosstodon.org/@squidfunk/115656211161522368
Already deployed some docs with #Zensical, including API reference 😎 That's where the screenshot comes from! Check it out here: https://pawamoy.github.io/yore/reference/api/
I need to figure out how I can embargo certain content with #Zensical, because I think my business model for surfhosting dot cc once launched is gonna be something like "pay $3 a year to get access to articles 6 months earlier than the genpop and every AI scraper which makes it across the moat"
I don't particularly love the idea of doing that, but I need to feed and house myself and I am absolutely not going to simply donate my research & writing to the techbro theft machines.
it may be as simple as a .htaccess redirect, I don't know.
I didn't realize this, but #Zensical is from the same developer(s) as, and is apparently a continuation of, Material for MkDocs 👀
> We're putting significant effort into ensuring a smooth migration from Material for MkDocs for all users. Zensical can natively read mkdocs.yml, allowing you to build your existing project with minimal changes.
this is relevant to Surfhosting because the (skeleton of the) doc archive is built with Material for MkDocs.
Started experimenting with #Zensical as a replacement for #mkdocs-material.It's blazing fast and has a nice new look.
🚀✨ "Zensical: Now you too can generate static sites the hard way!" 😂 Because static site generators weren’t already a confusing maze of #buzzwords and pointless features, behold Zensical—a solution to a problem nobody had! 🤔💡
https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/blog/2025/11/05/zensical/ #Zensical #StaticSiteGenerator #WebDevelopment #TechHumor #HackerNews #ngated
Zensical – A modern static site generator built by the Material for MkDocs team
https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/blog/2025/11/05/zensical/
#HackerNews #Zensical #MkDocs #StaticSiteGenerator #WebDevelopment #MaterialDesign
Built a small project website using #Zensical. It was fun and actually works pretty well already as long as you don't get too fancy.
I'm especially missing blog and metadata features, as well as the ability to create own plugins.
But to set up some documentation for that software project of yours, it's easy and fast.
Oh look, a new player in the static site generator space: The "Material for MkDocs" team is saying goodbye to the unmaintained MkDocs base and are instead writing a new, modern SSG from scratch, called Zensical.
https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/blog/2025/11/05/zensical/
It doesn't have feature parity yet, but already looks quite capable. No blogging or custom plugins yet though, else I might've tried Zensical for the upcoming relaunch of my personal site.
I’m sunsetting the Insiders program 🙂
I'm redirecting my time and energy from #MkDocs into #Zensical (see the announcement here: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/blog/2025/11/05/zensical/) @zensical
All currently private features will be released to the public this week.
Thank you so much to all my current and past sponsors! You are fantastic 💓
Only the Insiders program comes to an end ($$ -> access to private features): I will continue working on my open source projects, so you can keep sponsoring me if you like my work 😊
