---
template: overrides/main.html
---

# Customization

Project documentation is as diverse as the projects themselves and Material for
MkDocs is a great starting point for making it look beautiful. However, as you
write your documentation, you may reach a point where small adjustments are
necessary to preserve your brand's style.

## Adding assets

[MkDocs] provides several ways to customize a theme. In order to make a few
small tweaks to Material for MkDocs, you can just add CSS and JavaScript files to
the `docs` directory.

  [MkDocs]: https://www.mkdocs.org

### Additional CSS

If you want to tweak some colors or change the spacing of certain elements,
you can do this in a separate style sheet. The easiest way is by creating a
new style sheet file in the `docs` directory:

``` sh
.
├─ docs/
│  └─ stylesheets/
│     └─ extra.css
└─ mkdocs.yml
```

Then, add the following lines to `mkdocs.yml`:

``` yaml
extra_css:
  - stylesheets/extra.css
```

### Additional JavaScript

If you want to integrate another syntax highlighter or add some custom logic to
your theme, create a new JavaScript file in the `docs` directory:

``` sh
.
├─ docs/
│  └─ javascripts/
│     └─ extra.js
└─ mkdocs.yml
```

Then, add the following lines to `mkdocs.yml`:

``` yaml
extra_javascript:
  - javascripts/extra.js
```

## Extending the theme

If you want to alter the HTML source (e.g. add or remove some parts), you can
extend the theme. MkDocs supports [theme extension], an easy way to override
parts of Material for MkDocs without forking from git. This ensures that you
can update to the latest version more easily.

  [theme extension]: https://www.mkdocs.org/user-guide/styling-your-docs/#using-the-theme-custom_dir

### Setup and theme structure

Enable Material for MkDocs as usual in `mkdocs.yml`, and create a new folder
for `overrides` which you then reference using the [`custom_dir`][custom_dir]
setting:

``` yaml
theme:
  name: material
  custom_dir: overrides
```

!!! warning "Theme extension prerequisites"

    As the [`custom_dir`][custom_dir] setting is used for the theme extension
    process, Material for MkDocs needs to be installed via `pip` and referenced
    with the [`name`][name] setting in `mkdocs.yml`. It will not work when
    cloning from `git`.

The structure in the `overrides` directory must mirror the directory structure
of the original theme, as any file in the `overrides` directory will replace the
file with the same name which is part of the original theme. Besides, further
assets may also be put in the `overrides` directory:

``` sh
.
├─ .icons/                             # Bundled icon sets
├─ assets/
│  ├─ images/                          # Images and icons
│  ├─ javascripts/                     # JavaScript files
│  └─ stylesheets/                     # Style sheets
├─ partials/
│  ├─ integrations/                    # Third-party integrations
│  │  ├─ analytics/                    # Analytics integrations
│  │  └─ analytics.html                # Analytics setup
│  ├─ languages/                       # Translation languages
│  ├─ content.html                     # Page content
│  ├─ copyright.html                   # Copyright and theme information
│  ├─ footer.html                      # Footer bar
│  ├─ header.html                      # Header bar
│  ├─ language.html                    # Translation setup
│  ├─ logo.html                        # Logo in header and sidebar
│  ├─ nav.html                         # Main navigation
│  ├─ nav-item.html                    # Main navigation item
│  ├─ palette.html                     # Color palette
│  ├─ search.html                      # Search interface
│  ├─ social.html                      # Social links
│  ├─ source.html                      # Repository information
│  ├─ source-file.html                 # Source file information
│  ├─ tabs.html                        # Tabs navigation
│  ├─ tabs-item.html                   # Tabs navigation item
│  ├─ toc.html                         # Table of contents
│  └─ toc-item.html                    # Table of contents item
├─ 404.html                            # 404 error page
├─ base.html                           # Base template
└─ main.html                           # Default page
```

  [custom_dir]: https://www.mkdocs.org/user-guide/configuration/#custom_dir
  [name]: https://www.mkdocs.org/user-guide/configuration/#name

### Overriding partials

In order to override a partial, we can replace it with a file of the same name
and location in the `overrides` directory. For example, to replace the original
`footer.html` partial, create a new `footer.html` partial in the `overrides`
directory:

``` sh
.
├─ overrides/
│  └─ partials/
│     └─ footer.html
└─ mkdocs.yml
```

MkDocs will now use the new partial when rendering the theme. This can be done
with any file.

### Overriding blocks <small>recommended</small> { #overriding-blocks data-toc-label="Overriding blocks" }

Besides overriding partials, it's also possible to override (and extend)
template blocks, which are defined inside the templates and wrap specific
features. In order to set up block overrides, create a `main.html` file inside
the `overrides` directory:

``` sh
.
├─ overrides/
│  └─ main.html
└─ mkdocs.yml
```

Then, e.g. to override the site title, add the following lines to `main.html`:

``` html
{% extends "base.html" %}

{% block htmltitle %}
  <title>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet</title>
{% endblock %}
```

The following template blocks are provided by the theme:

| Block name        | Purpose                                         |
| :---------------- | :---------------------------------------------- |
| `analytics`       | Wraps the Google Analytics integration          |
| `announce`        | Wraps the announcement bar                      |
| `config`          | Wraps the JavaScript application config         |
| `content`         | Wraps the main content                          |
| `extrahead`       | Empty block to add custom meta tags             |
| `fonts`           | Wraps the font definitions                      |
| `footer`          | Wraps the footer with navigation and copyright  |
| `header`          | Wraps the fixed header bar                      |
| `hero`            | Wraps the hero teaser (if available)            |
| `htmltitle`       | Wraps the `<title>` tag                         |
| `libs`            | Wraps the JavaScript libraries (header)         |
| `outdated`        | Wraps the version warning                       |
| `scripts`         | Wraps the JavaScript application (footer)       |
| `site_meta`       | Wraps the meta tags in the document head        |
| `site_nav`        | Wraps the site navigation and table of contents |
| `styles`          | Wraps the style sheets (also extra sources)     |
| `tabs`            | Wraps the tabs navigation (if available)        |

## Theme development

Material for MkDocs is built on top of [TypeScript], [RxJS] and [SASS], and
uses a lean, custom build process to put everything together.[^1] If you want
to make more fundamental changes, it may be necessary to make the adjustments
directly in the source of the theme and recompile it.

  [^1]:
    Prior to :octicons-tag-24: 7.0.0 the build was based on Webpack, resulting
    in occasional broken builds due to incompatibilities with loaders and
    plugins. Therefore, we decided to swap Webpack for a leaner solution which
    is now based on [RxJS] as the application itself. This allowed for the
    pruning of more than 500 dependencies (~30% less).

  [TypeScript]: https://www.typescriptlang.org/
  [RxJS]: https://github.com/ReactiveX/rxjs
  [SASS]: https://sass-lang.com

### Environment setup

In order to start development on Material for MkDocs, a [Node.js] version of
at least 14 is required. First, clone the repository:

```
git clone https://github.com/squidfunk/mkdocs-material
```

Next, all dependencies need to be installed, which is done with:

```
cd mkdocs-material
pip install -e .
pip install mkdocs-minify-plugin
pip install mkdocs-redirects
npm install
```

  [Node.js]: https://nodejs.org

### Development mode

Start the watcher with:

```
npm start
```

Then, in a second terminal window, start the MkDocs live preview server with:

```
mkdocs serve --watch-theme
```

Point your browser to [localhost:8000][live preview] and you should see this
very documentation in front of you.

!!! warning "Automatically generated files"

    Never make any changes in the `material` directory, as the contents of this
    directory are automatically generated from the `src` directory and will be
    overwritten when the theme is built.

  [live preview]: http://localhost:8000

### Building the theme

When you're finished making your changes, you can build the theme by invoking:

``` sh
npm run build # (1)!
```

1.  While this command will build all theme files, it will skip the overrides
    used in Material for MkDocs' own documentation which are not distributed
    with the theme. If you forked the theme and want to build the overrides
    as well, use:

    ```
    npm run build:all
    ```

    This will take longer, as now the icon search index, schema files, as
    well as additional style sheet and JavaScript files are built.

This triggers the production-level compilation and minification of all style
sheets and JavaScript files. After the command exits, the compiled files are
located in the `material` directory. When running `mkdocs build`, you should
now see your changes to the original theme.