Built-in projects plugin¶

The projects plugin adds the ability to split your main project into multiple distinct projects, build them concurrently and preview them together as one. This is particularly useful when creating a multi-language project, but can also be used to split very large projects into smaller parts.

Sponsors only – this plugin is currently reserved to our awesome sponsors.

Objective¶

How it works¶

The plugin scans the configured projects directory for mkdocs.yml files, identifies all nested projects and builds them concurrently. If not configured otherwise, the plugin expects that your project has the following directory layout, e.g. for a multi-language project:

.
├─ docs/
├─ projects/
│  ├─ en/
│  │  ├─ docs/
│  │  └─ mkdocs.yml
│  └─ de/
│     ├─ docs/
│     └─ mkdocs.yml
└─ mkdocs.yml

One of the most useful and interesting features of the plugin is that it allows previewing your site from the main project, while still being able to preview and build each project individually. This is especially useful for multi-language projects.

If, when previewing your site, you change a file in one of the projects, the plugin only rebuilds this project and makes sure that MkDocs will also reload the associated files. This also creates the opportunity for splitting your main project into several projects for a better editing experience.

There are some limitations, but we're working hard to remove them.

When to use it¶

The plugin came into existence because we needed a convenient and scalable method to build our examples repository, which features many self-contained and runnable projects that users can download and use as a basis when bootstrapping a new project or creating a reproduction.

When you want to create a multi-language project, or have a very large existing project, you might consider using the plugin, as it makes managing, editing and building more comfortable.

Configuration¶

insiders-4.38.0 projects – built-in

In order to get started with the projects plugin, just add the following lines to mkdocs.yml, and split your main project into several distinct projects that can be built concurrently:

plugins:
  - projects

The projects plugin is built into Material for MkDocs and doesn't need to be installed.

General¶

The following settings are available:

enabled¶

insiders-4.38.0 true

Use this setting to enable or disable the plugin when building your project. If you want to disable the plugin, e.g., for local builds, you can use an environment variable in mkdocs.yml:

plugins:
  - projects:
      enabled: !ENV [CI, false]

This configuration enables the plugin only during continuous integration (CI).

concurrency¶

insiders-4.38.0 available CPUs - 1

With more CPUs available, the plugin can do more work in parallel, and thus build projects faster. If you want to disable concurrent processing completely, use:

plugins:
  - projects:
      concurrency: 1

By default, the plugin uses all available CPUs - 1 with a minimum of 1.

Caching¶

The plugin implements an intelligent caching mechanism, ensuring that a project is only rebuilt when its contents change. While the initial build might take some time, it's a good idea to use caching, as it will speed up consecutive builds.

The following settings are available for caching:

cache¶

insiders-4.38.0 true

Use this setting to instruct the plugin to bypass the cache, in order to rebuild all projects, even though the cache may not be stale. It's normally not necessary to specify this setting, except for when debugging the plugin itself. Caching can be disabled with:

plugins:
  - projects:
      cache: false

cache_dir¶

insiders-4.38.0 .cache/plugin/projects

It is normally not necessary to specify this setting, except for when you want to change the path within your root directory where the metadata is cached. If you want to change it, use:

plugins:
  - projects:
      cache_dir: my/custom/dir

Logging¶

The following settings are available for logging:

log¶

insiders-4.47.0 true

Use this setting to control whether the plugin should display log messages from projects when building your site. While not being recommended, you can disable logging with:

plugins:
  - projects:
      log: false

log_level¶

insiders-4.47.0 info

Use this setting to control the log level that the plugin should employ when encountering errors, which requires that the log setting is enabled. The following log levels are available:

plugins:
  - projects:
      log_level: error

plugins:
  - projects:
      log_level: warn

plugins:
  - projects:
      log_level: info

plugins:
  - projects:
      log_level: debug

Projects¶

The following settings are available for projects:

projects¶

insiders-4.38.0 true

Use this setting to enable or disable building of projects. Currently, the plugin's sole purpose is to build projects, so it's equivalent to the enabled setting, but in the future, other features might be added. If you want to disable building of projects, use:

plugins:
  - projects:
      projects: false

projects_dir¶

insiders-4.38.0 projects

Use this setting to change the folder where your projects are located. It's normally not necessary to change this setting, but if you want to rename the folder or change its file system location, use:

plugins:
  - projects:
      projects_dir: projects

Note that the projects directory is solely used for project organization – it is not included in project URLs, since projects are automatically hoisted by the plugin.

The provided path is resolved from the root directory.

projects_config_files¶

insiders-4.42.0 */mkdocs.yml

Use this setting to change the location or name of configuration files the plugin will look for when scanning the projects directory. Adjusting this setting can be necessary when the configuration files are located in subdirectories of projects, e.g. docs/mkdocs.yml:

plugins:
  - projects:
      projects_config_files: "**/mkdocs.yml" # (1)!

1. If all projects share the same location for their configuration files, e.g., docs/mkdocs.yml, it's advisable to fully qualify the path, as it's faster to resolve than a ** glob pattern.

   plugins:
     - projects:
         projects_config_files: "*/docs/mkdocs.yml"
   

   This configuration fits the following directory structure, which is quite common for projects using git submodules:

   .
   ├─ docs/
   ├─ projects/
   │  ├─ git-submodule-a/
   │  │  └─ docs/
   │  │     └─ mkdocs.yml
   │  └─ git-submodule-b/
   │     └─ docs/
   │        └─ mkdocs.yml
   └─ mkdocs.yml
   

The provided path is resolved from the projects directory.

projects_config_transform¶

insiders-4.42.0

Use this setting to transform the configuration of each project as read from mkdocs.yml before it is built, which allows for adjusting the configuration of each project when building them together, but leave them untouched when building them individually:

plugins:
  - projects:
      projects_config_transform: !!python/name:projects.transform

The provided module and function name are looked up in Python's module search path. You need to add your root directory to the search path when building your site, so Python can resolve it. The easiest way is to add the working directory to the PYTHONPATH environment variable:

export PYTHONPATH=.

from mkdocs.config.defaults import MkDocsConfig

# Transform project configuration
def transform(project: MkDocsConfig, config: MkDocsConfig):
    project.use_directory_urls = config.use_directory_urls

Hoisting¶

The following settings are available for hoisting:

hoisting¶

insiders-4.39.0 true

Use this setting to enable or disable hoisting of themes files to the main project. If you disable this setting, each project receives a copy of the theme's files, which can be considered redundant:

plugins:
  - projects:
      hoisting: false

It's generally advisable to enable hoisting, as it yields faster deployments and faster loading of your project's sites, because the files are the same for all projects and can be deduplicated.

Limitations¶

The plugin is one of the latest additions to Material for MkDocs, which means it is rather young and has some limitations. We're working hard to remove them, and we're happy to receive feedback and learn about your requirements in #5800. Current limitations are:

• Basic multi-language support only: we'll be investigating how to provide better support for multi-language projects, allowing to easier interlink projects and switch between them.

• Separate search indexes and sitemaps: currently, the projects are entirely separate, which means they will have separate search indexes and sitemaps.