mastodon 4.7.3Founder of @zensical@fosstodon.org, creator of Material for MkDocs
Material for MkDocs 9.7.7 is out.
It fixes a DOM-based XSS issue in the optional search.suggest feature, which was responsibly disclosed to us. Please update.
Material for MkDocs will continue receiving security updates through November 5, 2026.
https://github.com/squidfunk/mkdocs-material/releases/tag/9.7.7
Now that Zensical Studio is out and humming, I'm picking up work on ZRX again, the heart of Zensical. Working hard on closing the remaining gap to MkDocs, so most projects can move to Zensical in the coming weeks/months ☺️
Sneak peek: Python Markdown snippets as first-class symbols in Zensical Studio. Rename a snippet – every inclusion site updates. Type-safe content reuse, finally. 🎯
Python Markdown is too strict about link labels. We're working on fixing that in Zensical's new Rust-based Markdown implementation ☺️
No more [`module.symbol`][module.symbol] workarounds.
👀 Sneak peek: A Markdown formatter that understands Python Markdown - natively:
✨ Format on save (or edit)
⚡ Extremely fast – written in Rust
🏗️ Integrated into Zensical Studio
👯♀️ Works with Zensical and MkDocs projects
More about Zensical Studio:
https://zensical.org/studio/
Edit a headline, save – 10 incoming links updated automatically. No need to remember updating them manually. That's Zensical Studio – @zensical@fosstodon.org.
Zensical Studio is in public beta and available here:
https://zensical.org/studio/
The Slow Collapse of MkDocs
A very well researched article answering the question why MkDocs as we know it is dying. Recommended read, especially if you or your organization depend on it.
AWS started using Zensical as well 😎 https://docs.aws.amazon.com/durable-functions/
Codeberg now bans projects that mostly consist of AI-generated code. It's not yet clear where the line between AI-assisted and AI-generated projects will be drawn, and how it will be enforced.
We got some heat for warning our users that MkDocs 2.0 won't have a plugin system in Material for MkDocs.
The maintainer just confirmed it again and is actively working on MkDocs 2.0 – no plugins, by design. Markdown + templating only.
https://github.com/mkdocs/mkdocs/discussions/4088#discussioncomment-16917686
A much-requested feature is here: Zensical Studio 0.2.0 now provides a live, interactive Markdown preview.
It also works with your existing MkDocs projects ☺️
This is a prime example: LLM confidently hallucinating our recommended configuration, trapping the user into thinking it's a bug. Stop submitting slop and wasting our time as maintainers! Always verify before you paste:
https://github.com/squidfunk/mkdocs-material/issues/8584#issuecomment-4324498173
Just shipped a massive new update for @zensical@fosstodon.org Studio!
We’re pushing hard on docs-as-code: workspace intelligence for Markdown, transitive snippet awareness, anchor/link refactors, and much better navigation.
Still early, but this is the direction.
https://zensical.org/studio/
Open Source software wins in the age of AI – not despite it, but because of it. Extensibility, transparency, and community ownership matter more than ever. It's at the core of everything we're building with @zensical@fosstodon.org.
MkDocs hasn't had a plugin system for the first three years. We're working very hard to deliver a battle-tested module system for @zensical@fosstodon.org this summer, at latest.
Just finished the impl of a central module system concept: Specificity. If multiple selectors match a resource, ordering becomes important. This allows for super fine-grained module interdependencies 😎
Released as part of ZRX 0.0.15
https://github.com/zensical/zrx/releases/tag/v0.0.15
Pretty happy with how this turned out! We found so many issues in our own docs when dogfooding – unresolved links and unused definitions that had been silently hiding for months. 😅
Adoption of @zensical@fosstodon.org is growing fast, as we're already close to 100k monthly downloads!
We're working hard on reaching feature parity within the coming months, so all Material for MkDocs users can switch to a maintained, modern docs stack 🚀
We've just released Zensical 0.0.25, which includes several improvements for authoring and user experience, as well as accessibility.
We're also making good progress on the module system, so shouldn't be long ☺️
I will be on @talkpython@fosstodon.org next week, talking about @zensical@fosstodon.org ☺️
We just delivered the latest Zensical Monthly straight to the inbox of over 1,000 subscribers ☺️
The software industry is being flooded with slopware – crypto bros moving into software, doing what they do, chasing quick gains now that "coding is solved."
Craft has never been a bigger moat.
And yes, I know. Only 6 more months, and "computer uses itself".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrCh0tEnUjU
Had our first open video call today! We demoed an early design draft of @zensical@fosstodon.org's module system – the optimize plugin from Material for MkDocs (400 LOC) reduced to ~20 lines with ZRX modules.
The runtime handles parallelization, caching & orchestration automatically.
I just released mike 2.2.0+zensical-0.1.0!
I modernized the project, made sure tests are running + some missing replacements of "MkDocs" with "Zensical". This means you can now deploy versioned Zensical documentation to GitHub Pages!
https://github.com/squidfunk/mike/releases/tag/2.2.0%2Bzensical-0.1.0
Python Markdown Extension priorities – or – why you should probably never allow developers to pick their own magic numbers:
What runs before or after what? 🤯
We just delivered Zensical Monthly, January 2026 edition straight to your inbox with the latest and greatest updates to keep you informed on what's happening behind the scenes ☺️
We send 1 newsletter at the beginning of every month:
https://zensical.org/about/newsletter/
We updated our blog article with a detailed explanation on why we believe forking MkDocs is not a viable path forward. We borrowed parts of ZAP 007, our latest proposal on the requirements identified for Zensical's module system.
Blog post:
https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/blog/2026/02/18/mkdocs-2.0/#why-forking-is-impractical
ZAP 007 – Module system:
https://zensical.org/spark/proposals/zap-007-module-system/
Making great progress on ZRX, the foundation for the module system that we're cooking up for @zensical@fosstodon.org – it'll offer several degrees of freedom, and allow for type-safe composition (= plugin interop) – something that MkDocs (now dead) never delivered.
We've had plenty of requests for this – every issue of Zensical Monthly is now published online ☺️
Writing Rust in Zed – boy, can it get any better than that?
🎄 Merry Christmas 🎅
Zensical 0.0.15 brings fuzzy search support, and improves tooltip behavior on touch devices. The Zensical team wishes you a joyful holiday season and a fantastic new year! 🎄✨
In the light of the latest MkDocs developments, we've updated our plugin section to outline how we plan to reach feature parity as quickly as possible, and how MkDocs plugins relate to @zensical@fosstodon.org modules.
This is such a good album. Hydro & War are absolute peak in terms of production skills and musicality when it comes to Drum & Bass. I'm coming back to this one again and again, as well as to their other works.
👋 Open Source maintainers: what's your experience with issues and PRs sent to your repositories that are obviously fully LLM-generated?
4 weeks after launching Zensical Studio, Markdown Preview is one of the most requested features – soon, you won't even need to leave the editor to get a truthful preview of your docs. Supports dark mode 🌗
If you haven't, check out Studio:
https://zensical.org/studio/
Zensical Studio is out, and the bigger picture is coming together. We're building the next-generation Docs-as-Code stack, end to end, and we're right on track.
More in tomorrow's newsletter.
https://zensical.org/about/newsletter/
