Configuration#

There are a number of options for configuring your site’s look and feel. All configuration options are passed with the html_theme_options variable in your conf.py file. This is a dictionary with key: val pairs that you can configure in various ways. This page describes the options available to you.

Configure project logo and title#

By default the theme will use the value of project on the left side of the header navbar. This can be replaced by a Logo image, and optionally a custom html_title as well.

Single logo for light and dark mode#

Put an image in a folder that is in html_static_path, and use the following configuration:

html_static_path = ["_static"]
html_logo = "_static/logo.png"

Different logos for light and dark mode#

You may specify use a different version of your logo image for “light” and “dark” modes. This is useful if your logo image is not adapted to a dark mode (light background, not enough contrast, etc…).

To do so, put the 2 image files in a folder that is in html_static_path and configure the relative path to each image with logo.image_light and logo.image_dark in html_theme_options, like so:

html_static_path = ["_static"]
html_theme_options = {
   "logo": {
      "image_light": "logo-light.png",
      "image_dark": "logo-dark.png",
   }
}

Note

image_light and image_dark will override the html_logo setting. If you only specify one of them, but not the other, then the un-specified setting will re-use html_logo.

Add a logo title#

To add a title in the brand section of your documentation, define a value for html_theme_options.logo["text"] This will appear just after your logo image if it is set.

html_theme_options = {
    "logo": {
        "text": "My awesome documentation",
    }
}

Note

The html_title field will work as well if no logo images are specified.

Configure default mode#

The theme mode can be changed by the user. By default landing on the documentation will switch the mode to auto. You can specified this value to be one of auto, dark, light.

html_context = {
   # ...
   "default_mode": "light"
}

For more information, see Manage light and dark themes.

Tip

To completely remove the theme management, configure default_mode to the value you want in your documentation (light or dark) and then remove the theme-switcher from the navbar_end section of the header navbar configuration:

html_theme_options {
    # ...
    # Note we have omitted `theme-switcher` below
    "navbar_end": ["navbar-icon-links"]
}

Configure pygment theme#

As the Sphinx theme supports multiple modes, the code highlighting colors can be modified for each one of them by modifying the pygment_light_style`and `pygment_style_style. You can check available Pygments colors on this page.

html_theme_options = {
   ...
   "pygment_light_style": "tango",
   "pygment_dark_style": "native"
}

Danger

The native Sphinx option pygments_style will be overwritten by this theme.

Adding favicons#

pydata_sphinx_theme supports the standard sphinx favicon configuration, using html_favicon.

Additionally, pydata_sphinx_theme allows you to add any number of browser- or device-specific favicons of any size. To define arbitrary favicons, use the favicons configuration key. The href value can be either an absolute URL (beginning with http) or a local path relative to your html_static_path:

html_theme_options = {
   "favicons": [
      {
         "rel": "icon",
         "sizes": "16x16",
         "href": "https://secure.example.com/favicon/favicon-16x16.png",
      },
      {
         "rel": "icon",
         "sizes": "32x32",
         "href": "favicon-32x32.png",
      },
      {
         "rel": "apple-touch-icon",
         "sizes": "180x180",
         "href": "apple-touch-icon-180x180.png"
      },
   ]
}

pydata_sphinx_theme will add link tags to your document’s head section, following this pattern:

<link rel="{{ favicon.rel }}" sizes="{{ favicon.sizes }}" href="{{ favicon.href }}">

Configure the sidebar#

pydata_sphinx_theme provides two new sidebar items by default:

  • sidebar-nav-bs.html - a bootstrap-friendly navigation section

  • search-field.html - a bootstrap-friendly search bar

By default, this theme’s sidebar has these two elements in it. If you’d like to override this behavior and control the sidebar on a per-page basis, use the Sphinx html-sidebars configuration value.

Hiding the previous and next buttons#

By default, each page of your site will have “previous” and “next” buttons at the bottom. You can hide these buttons with the following configuration:

html_theme_options = {
  "show_prev_next": False
}

Add a dropdown to switch between docs versions#

You can add a button to your site that allows users to switch between versions of your documentation. The links in the version switcher will differ depending on which page of the docs is being viewed. For example, on the page https://mysite.org/en/v2.0/changelog.html, the switcher links will go to changelog.html in the other versions of your docs. When clicked, the switcher will check for the existence of that page, and if it doesn’t exist, redirect to the homepage of that docs version instead.

The switcher requires the following configuration steps:

  1. Add a JSON file containing a list of the documentation versions that the switcher should show on each page.

  2. Add a configuration dictionary called switcher to the html_theme_options dict in conf.py. switcher should have 2 keys:

    • json_url: the persistent location of the JSON file described above.

    • version_match: a string stating the version of the documentation that is currently being browsed.

  3. Specify where to place the switcher in your page layout. For example, add the "version-switcher" template to one of the layout lists in html_theme_options (e.g., navbar_end, footer_items, etc).

Below is a more in-depth description of each of these configuration steps.

Add a JSON file to define your switcher’s versions#

First, write a JSON file stating which versions of your docs will be listed in the switcher’s dropdown menu. That file should contain a list of entries that each can have the following fields:

  • version: a version string. This is checked against switcher['version_match'] to provide styling to the switcher.

  • url: the URL for this version.

  • name: an optional name to display in the switcher dropdown instead of the version string (e.g., “latest”, “stable”, “dev”, etc).

Here is an example JSON file:

[
    {
        "name": "v2.1 (stable)",
        "version": "2.1",
        "url": "https://mysite.org/en/2.1/index.html"
    },
    {
        "version": "2.1rc1",
        "url": "https://mysite.org/en/2.1rc1/index.html"
    },
    {
        "version": "2.0",
        "url": "https://mysite.org/en/2.0/index.html"
    },
    {
        "version": "1.0",
        "url": "https://mysite.org/en/1.0/index.html"
    }
]

See the discussion of switcher['json_url'] (below) for options of where to save the JSON file.

Configure switcher['json_url']#

The JSON file needs to be at a stable, persistent, fully-resolved URL (i.e., not specified as a path relative to the sphinx root of the current doc build). Each version of your documentation should point to the same URL, so that as new versions are added to the JSON file all the older versions of the docs will gain switcher dropdown entries linking to the new versions. This could be done a few different ways:

  • The location could be one that is always associated with the most recent documentation build (i.e., if your docs server aliases “latest” to the most recent version, it could point to a location in the build tree of version “latest”). For example:

    html_theme_options = {
    ...,
    "switcher": {
        "json_url": "https://mysite.org/en/latest/_static/switcher.json",
    }
}

    In this case the JSON is versioned alongside the rest of the docs pages but only the most recent version is ever loaded (even by older versions of the docs).

  • The JSON could be saved in a folder that is listed under your site’s html_static_path configuration. See the Sphinx static path documentation for more information.

  • The JSON could be stored outside the doc build trees. This probably means it would be outside the software repo, and would require you to add new version entries to the JSON file manually as part of your release process. Example:

    html_theme_options = {
    ...,
    "switcher": {
        "json_url": "https://mysite.org/switcher.json",
    }
}

Configure switcher['version_match']#

This configuration value tells the switcher what docs version is currently being viewed, and is used to style the switcher (i.e., to highlight the current docs version in the switcher’s dropdown menu, and to change the text displayed on the switcher button).

Typically you can re-use one of the sphinx variables version or release as the value of switcher['version_match']; which one you use depends on how granular your docs versioning is. See the Sphinx “project info” documentation for more information). Example:

version = my_package_name.__version__.replace("dev0", "")  # may differ
html_theme_options = {
    ...,
    "switcher": {
        "version_match": version,
    }
}

Specify where to display the switcher#

Finally, tell the theme where on your site’s pages you want the switcher to appear. There are many choices here: you can add "version-switcher" to one of the locations in html_theme_options (e.g., navbar_end, footer_items, etc). For example:

html_theme_options = {
   ...,
   "navbar_start": ["navbar-logo", "version-switcher"]
}

Alternatively, you could override one of the other templates to include the version switcher in a sidebar. For example, you could define _templates/sidebar-nav-bs.html as:

{%- include 'version-switcher.html' -%}
{{ super() }}

to insert a version switcher at the top of the left sidebar, while still keeping the default navigation below it. See Add/Remove items from theme sections for more information.

Style the switcher buttons#

You may apply styles via CSS to any of the switcher buttons to control their look and feel. Each button has two HTML dataset entries that you can use to apply CSS rules to subsets of buttons. These entries are:

data-version
data-version-name

For example, the link for an entry with version="0.2", and name="My version" would have metadata like so:

<a data-version-name="My version" data-version="0.2" class="<classes...>">

You can create CSS rules that select this metadata like so:

// Style all links with a specific subset of versions
#version_switcher a[data-version="0.2"],
#version_switcher a[data-version="0.3"] {
   background-color: red;
}
// Style all links with `stable` in the version name
#version_switcher a[data-version-name*="stable"] {
   background-color: green;
}

In addition, the parent button of the dropdown list contains similar metadata about the current version. This could be used to style the entire dropdown a certain color based on the active version.

For example, if you wanted to style the dropdown button to use the theme’s secondary color (PyData orange by default) if it was a dev version, you could use the following CSS selector:

// If the active version has the name "dev", style it orange
#version_switcher_button[data-active-version-name*="dev"] {
   background-color: var(--pst-color-secondary);
}

See also

See the MDN documentation on dataset properties for more information on using and styling with these properties.

Add an Edit this Page button#

You can add a button to each page that will allow users to edit the page text directly and submit a pull request to update the documentation. To include this button in the right sidebar of each page, add the following configuration to your conf.py file in ‘html_theme_options’:

html_theme_options = {
    "use_edit_page_button": True,
}

A number of providers are available for building Edit this Page links, including GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket. For each, the default public instance URL can be replaced with a self-hosted instance.

GitHub#

html_context = {
    # "github_url": "https://github.com", # or your GitHub Enterprise interprise
    "github_user": "<your-github-org>",
    "github_repo": "<your-github-repo>",
    "github_version": "<your-branch>",
    "doc_path": "<path-from-root-to-your-docs>",
}

GitLab#

html_context = {
    # "gitlab_url": "https://gitlab.com", # or your self-hosted GitLab
    "gitlab_user": "<your-gitlab-org>",
    "gitlab_repo": "<your-gitlab-repo>",
    "gitlab_version": "<your-branch>",
    "doc_path": "<path-from-root-to-your-docs>",
}

Bitbucket#

html_context = {
    # "bitbucket_url": "https://bitbucket.org", # or your self-hosted Bitbucket
    "bitbucket_user": "<your-bitbucket-org>",
    "bitbucket_repo": "<your-bitbucket-repo>",
    "bitbucket_version": "<your-branch>",
    "doc_path": "<path-from-root-to-your-docs>",
}

Custom Edit URL#

For a fully-customized Edit this Page URL, provide edit_page_url_template, a jinja2 template string which must contain {{ file_name }}, and may reference any other context values.

html_context = {
    "edit_page_url_template": "{{ my_vcs_site }}{{ file_name }}{{ some_other_arg }}",
    "my_vcs_site": "https://example.com",
    "some_other_arg": "?some-other-arg"
}

Configure the search bar position#

To modify the position of the search bar, add the search-field.html template to your sidebar, or to one of the navbar positions, depending on where you want it to be placed.

For example, if you’d like the search field to be in your side-bar, add it to the sidebar templates like so:

html_sidebars = {
    "**": ["search-field.html", "sidebar-nav-bs.html", "sidebar-ethical-ads.html"]
}

If instead you’d like to put the search bar in the top navbar, use the following configuration:

html_theme_options = {
    "navbar_end": ["navbar-icon-links.html", "search-field.html"]
}

Note

By default the search bar is placed in the sidebar. If you wish to move it to the navbar, explicitly define a list of sidebar templates in html_sidebars and omit the search-field.html entry.

Configure the search bar text#

To modify the text that is in the search bar before people click on it, add the following configuration to your conf.py file:

html_theme_options = {
    "search_bar_text": "Your text here..."
}

Google Analytics#

If the google_analytics_id config option is specified (like G-XXXXXXXXXX), Google Analytics’ javascript is included in the html pages.

html_theme_options = {
    "google_analytics_id": "G-XXXXXXXXXX",
}

Changing pages with keyboard presses#

By default, pydata-sphinx-theme allows users to move to the previous/next page using the left/right arrow keys on a keyboard. To disable this behavior, use the following configuration:

html_theme_options = {
  "navigation_with_keys": False
}

Show more levels of the in-page TOC by default#

Normally only the 2nd-level headers of a page are show in the right table of contents, and deeper levels are only shown when they are part of an active section (when it is scrolled on screen).

You can show deeper levels by default by using the following configuration, indicating how many levels should be displayed:

html_theme_options = {
  "show_toc_level": 2
}

All headings up to and including the level specified will now be shown regardless of what is displayed on the page.

Remove the sidebar from some pages#

If you’d like the left sidebar to be removed from a page, you can use the following configuration in conf.py:

html_sidebars = {
  "pagename": []
}

This works for glob-style patterns as well. For example:

html_sidebars = {
  "folder/*": []
}

If you’d like to remove the left sidebar from all pages of your documentation, use this pattern:

html_sidebars = {
  "**": []
}

For information about configuring the sidebar’s contents, see Configure the sidebar.

Configure the navbar center alignment#

By default, the navigation bar center area will align with the content on your page. This equals the following default configuration:

html_theme_options = {
   ...
   "navbar_align": "content"
   ...
}

If instead you’d like these items to snap to the left (closer to the logo), use this configuration:

html_theme_options = {
   ...
   "navbar_align": "left"
   ...
}

If you’d like these items to snap to the right of the page, use this configuration:

html_theme_options = {
   ...
   "navbar_align": "right"
   ...
}

Adding ethical advertisements to your sidebar in ReadTheDocs#

If you’re hosting your documentation on ReadTheDocs, you should consider adding an explicit placement for their ethical advertisements. These are non-tracking advertisements from ethical companies, and they help ReadTheDocs sustain themselves and their free service.

Ethical advertisements are added to your sidebar by default. To ensure they are there if you manually update your sidebar, ensure that the sidebar-ethical-ads.html template is added to your list. For example:

html_sidebars = {
    "**": ["search-field.html", "sidebar-nav-bs.html", "sidebar-ethical-ads.html"]
}

Improve build speed and performance#

By default this theme includes all of your documentation links in a collapsible sidebar. However, this may slow down your documentation builds considerably if you have a lot of documentation pages. This is most common with documentation for projects with a large API, which use the .. autosummary:: directive to generate API documentation.

To improve the performance of your builds in these cases, see Navigation depth and collapsing the sidebar.