Installation

How to install and use the theme

Install the sphinx_rtd_theme package (or add it to your requirements.txt file):

$ pip install sphinx_rtd_theme

In your Sphinx project’s conf.py file, add sphinx_rtd_theme to the list of enabled extensions and as the active theme:

extensions = [
    ...
    'sphinx_rtd_theme',
]

html_theme = "sphinx_rtd_theme"

See also

Supported browsers

Officially supported and tested browser/operating system combinations

Supported dependencies

Officially Supported versions of Python, Sphinx, and other dependencies.

Note

Adding this theme as an extension is what enables localization of theme strings in your translated output. If these strings are not translated in your output, either we lack the localized strings for your locale, or you are using an old version of the theme.

How to upgrade

Adding sphinx-rtd-theme to your project’s dependencies will make pip install the latest compatible version of the theme.

If you want to test a pre-release, you need to be explicit about the version you specify. Otherwise, pip will ignore pre-releases. Add for instance sphinx-rtd-theme==1.1.0b3 to test a pre-release.

Tip

We recommend that you pin the version of Sphinx that your project is built with. We won’t release sphinx-rtd-theme without marking its compatibility with Sphinx. So if you do not pin sphinx-rtd-theme itself, you will always get the latest compatible release.

More information is available in Read the Docs’ documentation on How to create reproducible builds.

Via Git or Download

Warning

Installing directly from the repository source is deprecated and is not recommended. Static assets won’t be included in the repository starting in release 3.0.0.

Symlink or subtree the sphinx_rtd_theme/sphinx_rtd_theme repository into your documentation at docs/_themes/sphinx_rtd_theme then add the following two settings to your Sphinx conf.py file:

html_theme = "sphinx_rtd_theme"
html_theme_path = ["_themes", ]