--- title: Built-in projects plugin icon: material/folder-open --- # 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. ## Objective ### How it works The plugin scans the configured [`projects` directory][config.projects_dir] 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: ``` { .sh .no-copy } . ├─ 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. [previewing your site]: ../creating-your-site.md#previewing-as-you-write [limitations]: #limitations ### 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 boostrapping 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. [examples]: https://github.com/mkdocs-material/examples [creating a reproduction]: ../guides/creating-a-reproduction.md ## Configuration 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: ``` yaml plugins: - projects ``` The projects plugin is built into Material for MkDocs and doesn't need to be installed. [projects]: projects.md ### General The following settings are available: --- #### 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][mkdocs.env] in `mkdocs.yml`: ``` yaml plugins: - projects: enabled: !ENV [CI, false] ``` This configuration enables the plugin only during continuous integration (CI). [building your project]: ../creating-your-site.md#building-your-site --- #### 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: ``` yaml 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: [intelligent caching]: requirements/caching.md --- #### 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: ``` yaml plugins: - projects: cache: false ``` --- #### 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: ``` yaml plugins: - projects: cache_dir: my/custom/dir ``` ### Projects The following settings are available for projects: --- #### 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`][config.enabled] setting, but in the future, other features might be added. If you want to disable building of projects, use: ``` yaml plugins: - projects: projects: false ``` --- #### 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: ``` yaml plugins: - projects: projects_dir: projects ``` Note that the [`projects` directory][config.projects_dir] 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. --- #### Use this setting to change the location or name of configuration files the plugin will look for when scanning the [`projects` directory] [config.projects_dir]. Adjusting this setting can be necessary when the configuration files are located in subdirectories of projects, e.g. `docs/mkdocs.yml`: ``` yaml 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. ``` yaml plugins: - projects: projects_config_files: "*/docs/mkdocs.yml" ``` This configuration fits the following directory structure, which is quite common for projects using git submodules: ``` { .sh .no-copy } . ├─ 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] [config.projects_dir]. --- #### 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: ``` yaml 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`][PYTHONPATH] environment variable: ``` .sh export PYTHONPATH=. ``` !!! tip "How to define a configuration transformation function" The [`python/name`][python-name] tag is provided by [PyYAML] and must point to a valid module and function name within Python's [module search path]. The plugin passes the `project` and top-level `config` objects to the function. As an example, we can inherit the [`use_directory_urls`] [mkdocs.use_directory_urls] setting for all projects from the top-level configuration: ``` py title="projects/__init__.py" from mkdocs.config.defaults import MkDocsConfig # Transform project configuration def transform(project: MkDocsConfig, config: MkDocsConfig): project.use_directory_urls = config.use_directory_urls ``` [module search path]: https://docs.python.org/3/library/sys_path_init.html [PYTHONPATH]: https://docs.python.org/3/using/cmdline.html#envvar-PYTHONPATH [python-name]: https://pyyaml.org/wiki/PyYAMLDocumentation#yaml-tags-and-python-types [PyYAML]: https://pyyaml.org/ ### Hoisting The following settings are available for hoisting: --- #### 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: ``` yaml 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.