mkdocs2confluence 0.7.31

Publish MkDocs Material pages to Confluence Cloud — admonitions, Mermaid diagrams, tabs, page properties and more

mk2conf — MkDocs / Zensical to Confluence

A Python CLI tool that compiles MkDocs-flavoured Markdown into native Confluence storage XHTML and publishes it directly to Confluence Cloud. It is a compiler/transpiler, not an HTML converter — every construct maps to its native Confluence equivalent, so pages look and behave like hand-authored Confluence content.

Zensical compatible — Zensical is the modern successor to MkDocs + Material for MkDocs. Since it uses the same mkdocs.yml format and Python Markdown extensions, your Zensical project works with mk2conf today with no changes required.

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Installation

Requires Python 3.12+. The PyPI package is mkdocs2confluence; the CLI command is mk2conf.

pip install mkdocs2confluence
# or, for an isolated install:
pipx install mkdocs2confluence

To use the mk2conf pdf subcommand, install the optional PDF extra:

pip install "mkdocs2confluence[pdf]"

WeasyPrint requires system libraries (Pango, Cairo) — install them for your platform:

Platform	Command
macOS	brew install pango
Ubuntu / Debian	apt install libpango-1.0-0 libpangoft2-1.0-0
Windows 11	choco install gtk-runtime — or download the GTK3 runtime installer and add its bin\ folder to your PATH

From source (see Setup.md):

git clone https://github.com/jeckyl2010/mkdocs2confluence.git
cd mkdocs2confluence && uv sync

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Quick start

# Inspect the Confluence storage XHTML for a page
mk2conf preview --page index.md

# Open a live browser preview — rebuilds on every file save
mk2conf preview --page index.md --watch
mk2conf preview --section Guide --watch

# Dry-run: see what would be published without touching Confluence
mk2conf publish --dry-run

# Publish all nav pages to Confluence
mk2conf publish

# Export a nav section to a stand-alone PDF document
mk2conf pdf --section Guide --out guide.pdf

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Configuration

Add a confluence: block to your mkdocs.yml:

confluence:
  base_url: https://yourorg.atlassian.net
  space_key: TECH
  email: [e-mail]
  token: !ENV CONFLUENCE_API_TOKEN   # never hardcode the token
  parent_page_id: "123456"           # optional root page
  mermaid_render: kroki              # "kroki" (default) | "kroki:https://your-kroki" | "none"
  full_width: true                   # default: true

The API token is read from (in priority order):

1. token: in mkdocs.yml — typically via !ENV CONFLUENCE_API_TOKEN
2. CONFLUENCE_API_TOKEN environment variable
3. MK2CONF_TOKEN environment variable

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Your first publish

Once you have added the confluence: block (see above), this is all you need to get from zero to a live Confluence page:

# 1. Set your API token (add this to your shell profile or CI secrets)
export CONFLUENCE_API_TOKEN=your_api_token_here

# 2. Preview one page locally to verify the output before touching Confluence
mk2conf preview --page docs/index.md --watch

# 3. Dry-run to see exactly what would be created or updated
mk2conf publish --dry-run

# 4. Publish
mk2conf publish

That is it. mk2conf reads mkdocs.yml in the current directory, compiles every page listed in nav:, mirrors the hierarchy under parent_page_id, and skips any page that has not changed since the last run.

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Commands

mk2conf preview

Compile and inspect output locally — no Confluence API calls. Mermaid diagrams are rendered via Kroki unless mermaid_render: none is set.

mk2conf preview [--config PATH] --page PATH [--out FILE] [--html] [--watch]
mk2conf preview [--config PATH] --section SECTION [--out FILE] [--watch]

Flag	Default	Description
--config PATH	./mkdocs.yml	Path to mkdocs.yml
--page PATH	(required unless --section)	Relative path to the Markdown file
--section SECTION	(none)	Nav section title to render, slash-separated for nested sections (e.g. Guide or Guide/Setup). Renders all pages in that subtree as a browseable HTML index.
--out FILE	stdout	Write output to a file or directory
--html	off	Render macros as styled browser-viewable HTML
--watch	off	Serve on http://localhost:8765 and auto-rebuild on file changes. Implies --html. Ctrl+C to stop.

--html is for local review only — the actual Confluence storage XHTML is the --html-free output.

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mk2conf publish

Compile all pages in nav: and publish to Confluence Cloud.

mk2conf publish [--config PATH] [--page PATH] [--section SECTION] [--dry-run] [--report FILE] [--prune]

Flag	Default	Description
--config PATH	./mkdocs.yml	Path to mkdocs.yml
--page PATH	(all nav pages)	Publish a single page only
--section SECTION	(whole nav)	Publish only a nav subtree, slash-separated for nested sections (e.g. Guide or Guide/Setup)
--dry-run	off	Print the publish plan; no Confluence API writes
--report FILE	(none)	Write a JSON publish report
--prune	off	Delete managed pages no longer in nav:. Only pages stamped by mk2conf are eligible — manually-created Confluence pages are never touched. Ignored on partial (--page / --section) runs.

Publish behaviour

• Only nav: pages are published — pages absent from the nav are never touched (natural draft gate).
• Pages with ready: false in front matter are skipped, even if listed in nav:.
• Section nodes (nav groups without a page) become empty parent pages, mirroring the nav hierarchy.
• Local assets are uploaded as Confluence page attachments automatically.
• Unchanged pages are skipped — a sha256 hash of the compiled output is stored as a hidden page property; pages with identical content since the last run produce no version bump and no notification.

Mermaid rendering

mermaid_render	Behaviour
kroki (default)	Render via https://kroki.io. PNGs cached in ~/.cache/mk2conf/mermaid/.
kroki:https://your-kroki	Render via a self-hosted Kroki instance.
none	Fall back to a code macro labelled mermaid.

If Kroki is unreachable the run continues, falling back to the code macro for affected diagrams.

Styling from extra.css

If mkdocs.yml lists extra_css: files, mk2conf reads them and applies a whitelisted set of CSS properties as inline style="..." attributes on Confluence output.

Selector	Applied to
th, thead th	Table header cells
td	Table body cells
h1 – h6	Headings
code (not pre code)	Inline code spans

Supported properties: background-color, color, font-weight, font-style, font-size, text-align, border. CSS custom properties (var(--name)) are resolved automatically, including chained variables and var(--name, fallback) syntax.

Complex Material theme overrides (compound selectors, color-mix(), @media, :has()) are silently skipped. For best results, maintain a small dedicated overrides file:

/* confluence-overrides.css */
:root { --primary: #d20014; }
th  { background-color: var(--primary); color: white; font-weight: 600; }
h1, h2, h3 { color: var(--primary); }
code { background-color: #f5f5f5; }

extra_css:
  - stylesheets/extra.css                   # full Material theme
  - stylesheets/confluence-overrides.css    # simple Confluence-targeted styles

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mk2conf pdf

Export a nav section or single page to a stand-alone, printer-ready PDF document. Requires pip install "mkdocs2confluence[pdf]".

mk2conf pdf [--config PATH] (--section SECTION | --page PATH) [--out FILE] [--author TEXT] [--doc-version TEXT] [--quiet]

Flag	Default	Description
--config PATH	./mkdocs.yml	Path to mkdocs.yml
--section SECTION	(required unless --page)	Export a nav subtree by section title
--page PATH	(required unless --section)	Export a single page
--out FILE	<section-or-page>.pdf	Output PDF path
--author TEXT	(none)	Author name printed on the cover page
--doc-version TEXT	(none)	Document version printed on the cover page
--quiet	off	Suppress progress output

The PDF includes a cover page, table of contents with page numbers, and one chapter per nav page with automatic page breaks. Code blocks avoid mid-block splits; Mermaid diagrams appear as embedded PNGs (same Kroki-rendered images used for Confluence).

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Supported Markdown features

Block elements

Feature	Confluence output
ATX headings # – ######	<h1> – <h6>
Paragraphs	<p>
Fenced code blocks	code macro with language, title, and line numbers
Bullet lists	<ul>/<li>
Ordered lists	<ol>/<li>
Task lists - [x] / - [ ]	Native <ac:task-list> / <ac:task> macros
Tables (GFM pipe syntax)	<table> with header and column alignment
Blockquotes	<blockquote>
Horizontal rules ---	<hr/>

Inline elements

Feature	Confluence output
**bold** / __bold__	<strong>
*italic*	<em>
~~strikethrough~~	<s>
~subscript~	<sub> (pymdownx.tilde)
^superscript^	<sup> (pymdownx.caret)
^^inserted^^	<u> (pymdownx.caret insert)
`inline code`	<code>
[text](url)	<a href="...">
https://bare-url	<a href="..."> (autolink)
[text](file.pdf)	<ac:link><ri:attachment .../> (uploaded as attachment)
	<ac:image> with <ri:attachment> (local) or <ri:url> (remote)
{ width="400" }	<ac:image ac:width="400"> — also supports height and align
<br> / <br/> / trailing \	<br />
<sub> / <sup> / <u> / <small>	Direct XHTML passthrough
<mark>text</mark>	<span style="background-color: yellow;">
<kbd>text</kbd>	<code>
++ctrl+alt+del++	<code>Ctrl</code>+<code>Alt</code>+<code>Del</code> (pymdownx.keys)
<s>text</s> / <del>text</del>	<span style="text-decoration: line-through;">

MkDocs / Material extensions

Feature	Confluence output
--8<-- file includes	Resolved before parsing
Admonitions !!! type "title"	info / tip / warning / note macro
Danger admonitions (danger, error, bug)	Red panel macro with 🚨 prefix
Collapsible admonitions ??? type	expand macro
Content tabs === "Label"	expand macros (one per tab)
Details blocks ??? "title"	expand macro
Footnotes [^1]	Superscript anchor links + Footnotes section at page bottom
Mermaid diagrams	PNG via Kroki, uploaded as attachment (<ac:image ac:align="center">)
Internal links [text](page.md)	Native Confluence page link; #fragment anchors preserved
awesome-pages nav (.pages files)	Fully supported
Edit link banner	info macro linking back to source in GitHub/GitLab
Grid cards <div class="grid cards" markdown>	Native ac:layout multi-column sections (auto-detects 1/2/3 columns from card count)

YAML front matter → Page Properties

A YAML front matter block is converted to a Confluence Page Properties macro, making it queryable via the Page Properties Report macro.

---
title: "Architecture Proposal – IAM"
subtitle: "Hybrid Identity Hub"
documentId: AP-IAM-2026
version: "0.1"
lastUpdated: 2026-01-12
author: "Anders Hybertz"
tags: [architecture, iam]
ready: true
status: in-progress
---

Field	Notes
title	Used as the Confluence page title on publish
subtitle	Rendered as italic lead paragraph above the properties table
tags	Also applied as Confluence page labels
ready	true → ✅ Ready · false → 📝 Draft (skips publish)
status	Sets the Confluence page status badge — common values: rough-draft, in-progress, ready-for-review (space-specific values are also supported). Not shown in the properties table.
other fields	Title-cased key, value stringified

If repo_url + edit_uri are set in mkdocs.yml, an Edit Source row links to the source file. If site_url is set, a Published Page row links to the rendered MkDocs site.

Abbreviation expansion

MkDocs abbreviation definitions (*[ABBR]: Full term) are rendered as inline superscript anchor links. The first occurrence of each abbreviation in body text gets a superscript number (API¹) that links to a numbered glossary appended at the bottom of the page. Subsequent occurrences are left as plain text. Abbreviations that only appear in headings or other non-expandable contexts are included in the glossary as plain numbered entries (no inline back-link). Uses only native Confluence storage format — no plugins required.

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Known limitations

Feature	Behaviour
Admonition styling	tip, info, warning, note use Confluence's fixed native macro colours. danger, error, bug use a custom red panel macro with 🚨 prefix. All other types are mapped to the nearest native macro.
Abbreviation tooltips	No native tooltip support. First occurrence gets a superscript anchor link (API¹); all definitions collected in a numbered glossary at the bottom of the page. No plugins required.
Page ordering	Confluence sorts child pages alphabetically; the v2 REST API has no write endpoint for ordering.
Code language aliases	Short aliases (py, js, yml, ts, sh) are passed through as-is; Confluence requires full language names for syntax highlighting.
Unrecognised blocks	Preserved as a visible warning macro — no content is silently lost.

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Architecture

Each stage is a separate Python module under src/mkdocs_to_confluence/. The plan phase makes all API read calls (find existing pages); the execute phase makes all write calls, ensuring parent pages always exist before their children.

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Development

See Setup.md for environment setup.

uv run pytest -q                        # run tests
uv run ruff check src tests             # lint
uv run vulture src --min-confidence 80  # dead code check
uv run mypy src                         # type-check
uv run bandit -r src -ll                # security scan