If you've built documentation in the Python ecosystem, chances are you've used Martin Donath's work. His Material for MKDocs powers docs for FastAPI, uv, AWS, OpenAI, and tens of thousands of other projects. But when MKDocs 2.0 took a direction that would break Material and 300 ecosystem plugins, Martin went back to the drawing board. The result is Zensical: A new static site generator with a Rust core, differential builds in milliseconds instead of minutes, and a migration path designed to bring the whole community along. 
 
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<h2 class="links-heading mb-4">Links from the show</h2>
<div>Guest 
Martin Donath: <a href="https://github.com/squidfunk?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >github.com</a> 
 
Zensical: <a href="https://zensical.org?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >zensical.org</a> 
Material for MkDocs: <a href="https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >squidfunk.github.io</a> 
Getting Started: <a href="https://zensical.org/docs/get-started/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >zensical.org</a> 
Github pages: <a href="https://docs.github.com/en/pages?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >docs.github.com</a> 
Cloudflare pages: <a href="https://pages.cloudflare.com?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >pages.cloudflare.com</a> 
Michaels Example: <a href="https://gist.github.com/mikeckennedy/f03686c4c4ce7ce88b41c6b91c3226cf?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >gist.github.com</a> 
Material for MkDocs: <a href="https://zensical.org/docs/setup/basics/#transition-from-mkdocs" target="_blank" >zensical.org</a> 
gohugo.io/content-management/shortcodes: <a href="https://gohugo.io/content-management/shortcodes/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >gohugo.io</a> 
a sense of size of the project: <a href="https://blobs.talkpython.fm/zensical-size.webp?cache_id=fe7bda" target="_blank" >blobs.talkpython.fm</a> 
Zensical Spark: <a href="https://zensical.org/spark/?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >zensical.org</a> 
 
Watch this episode on YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1BvvIPUzes" target="_blank" >youtube.com</a> 
Episode #542 deep-dive: <a href="https://talkpython.fm/episodes/show/542/zensical-a-modern-static-site-generator#takeaways-anchor" target="_blank" >talkpython.fm/542</a> 
Episode transcripts: <a href="https://talkpython.fm/episodes/transcript/542/zensical-a-modern-static-site-generator" target="_blank" >talkpython.fm</a> 
 
Theme Song: Developer Rap 
🥁 Served in a Flask 🎸: <a href="https://talkpython.fm/flasksong" target="_blank" >talkpython.fm/flasksong</a> 
 
---== Don't be a stranger ==--- 
YouTube: <a href="https://talkpython.fm/youtube" target="_blank" > youtube.com/@talkpython</a> 
 
Bluesky: <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/talkpython.fm" target="_blank" >@talkpython.fm</a> 
Mastodon: <a href="https://fosstodon.org/web/@talkpython" target="_blank" > @talkpython@fosstodon.org</a> 
X.com: <a href="https://x.com/talkpython" target="_blank" > @talkpython</a> 
 
Michael on Bluesky: <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/mkennedy.codes?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" >@mkennedy.codes</a> 
Michael on Mastodon: <a href="https://fosstodon.org/web/@mkennedy" target="_blank" > @mkennedy@fosstodon.org</a> 
Michael on X.com: <a href="https://x.com/mkennedy?featured_on=talkpython" target="_blank" > @mkennedy</a> </div>

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