MolCrafts Zensical Theme

Shared Zensical theme extension for MolCrafts documentation sites.

Install

pip install molcrafts-zensical-theme

Consuming sites should pin the theme in the dependency group that builds their docs so builds stay reproducible:

[dependency-groups]
docs = [
  "zensical>=0.0.45",
  "molcrafts-zensical-theme>=0.1.0",
]

For theme development, install the checkout in editable mode instead (pip install -e .).

The distribution includes the MolCrafts C++ handler for mkdocstrings; a second Python package is not required. Rendering C++ API documentation still requires the doxygen executable to be available on PATH.

Use

Add the theme to a Zensical project:

[project]
site_name = "MolCrafts Project"
site_url = "https://example.molcrafts.org/"

[project.theme]
name = "molcrafts"

[project.extra.molcrafts]
product = "molpy"
accent = "#0284c7"
accent_soft = "rgba(2, 132, 199, 0.14)"

All three values are optional. product tags the page (html[data-molcrafts-product="…"]) so site or theme CSS can target one product. accent sets the product accent (links, hovers, hero eyebrows); accent_soft is its translucent companion and, when omitted, is derived from accent via color-mix. Sites that set none of these fall back to the brand forest/sand accent. The theme ships no per-product color map — each product declares its own accent in its zensical.toml; the colors the old map used to assign are kept for reference in a comment at the top of assets/stylesheets/molcrafts.css.

The theme defaults to Zensical's modern variant, MolCrafts brand colors from moko.svg, Inter text, JetBrains Mono code, light/dark palettes, navigation tabs, section indexes, instant navigation, code-copy controls, search highlighting and suggestions, and TOC following. Consuming sites should not re-list these features/palette in their own zensical.toml — the theme already supplies them, and an inline list only risks drifting from the defaults. For a normal documentation site, setting name = "molcrafts" is the complete visual setup: typography, both color modes, component colors, and navigation behavior are owned by the theme. Product accent settings and the home-page components below are optional customization, not required theme tokens.

MolVis formatter fences

The theme exposes formatter entry points for MolVis embeds, so a documentation site can run zensical build or zensical serve without importing the MolVis Python package from a source checkout:

[project.markdown_extensions.pymdownx.superfences]
custom_fences = [
  { name = "molvis", class = "molvis", format = "molcrafts_zensical_theme.formatters.molvis_fence" },
  { name = "molvis-gallery", class = "molvis-gallery", format = "molcrafts_zensical_theme.formatters.molvis_gallery_fence" },
]

molvis-gallery accepts src, format, representations, background, and rotation-speed. The formatter validates author input and emits the molvis-style-gallery Web Component; authors do not need to insert raw HTML. When it finds core/dist/elements.js in the documentation project, it also stages that build under docs/assets/molvis-core so zensical serve uses the current checkout. Set MOLVIS_ELEMENTS_DIR and MOLVIS_DOCS_ASSET_DIR to override the source and destination; without a local bundle, the documentation loader can fall back to the published npm package.

C++ API reference

Enable the bundled handler in the consuming project's zensical.toml:

[project.plugins.mkdocstrings]
default_handler = "cpp"

[project.plugins.mkdocstrings.handlers.cpp]
input = ["include"]
file_patterns = ["*.h", "*.hpp", "*.cpp"]
build_dir = ".cache/mkdocstrings-cpp"

[project.plugins.mkdocstrings.handlers.cpp.options]
show_root_heading = true
members_order = "source"
separate_signature = true

Then use normal mkdocstrings directives in Markdown:

::: my_namespace::MyClass
    options:
      members_order: source

Home page

The theme ships a manual-style landing layout that a stock Zensical site does not have. It has two parts: a hero driven by page front-matter, and a set of manual-home components you compose in Markdown/HTML in the page body.

Hero (front-matter)

Set a hero mapping in the home page's front-matter; the theme's main.html renders it above the content. Every field is optional except that a hero only renders when the hero key is present. The eyebrow above the title defaults to "Manual" and can be changed with hero.kicker.

---
title: molpack
hide: [navigation, toc]
hero:
  kicker: Manual
  title: molpack                  # defaults to site_name if omitted
  description: One or two sentences of positioning.
  actions:                        # buttons; style "primary" fills, else outline
    - { label: Get started, href: getting_started/, style: primary }
    - { label: Guide, href: concepts/ }
  install:                        # right-hand card with copyable tabs
    label: Install
    methods:
      - { label: pip, command: pip install molpack }
      - { label: uv, command: uv add molpack }
      - { label: source, command: pip install -e . }
  badges:                         # badge row under the install card
    - img: https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/molpack
      href: https://pypi.org/project/molpack/
      alt: PyPI version
---

For a single install command, the old shorthand still works:

hero:
  install:
    command: pip install molpack

Manual-home components (body)

Wrap the body in .molcrafts-manual-home and compose these building blocks (all are plain HTML with markdown where inner Markdown is wanted):

See examples/docs/index.md for a complete, copyable example, and the molpy / molpack docs/index.md for production use.

Section templates

A section is built from two orthogonal, opt-in choices so a sub-manual picks a layout instead of relying on grid auto-placement. Pick a frame (how the titled block splits its label from its content) and drop a content template (how the items inside are arranged) into it.

Frames — modifiers on molcrafts-manual-section:

Content templates — drop one into a frame's body (or straight into molcrafts-manual-home):

Each card / row is an <a> (link, with accent hover) or a <div>, holding a <strong> label and an <em> or <p> description. A three-column grid needs the room a --stack frame gives it:

<section class="molcrafts-manual-section molcrafts-manual-section--stack" markdown>
  <div class="molcrafts-manual-section__header" markdown>
    <span class="molcrafts-manual-eyebrow">Capabilities</span>
    ## What molpy gives you
  </div>
  <div class="molcrafts-manual-grid molcrafts-manual-grid--cols-3">
    <a href="build/"><strong>Build</strong><em>Assemble systems from parts.</em></a>
    <a href="type/"><strong>Type</strong><em>Assign force-field parameters.</em></a>
    <a href="export/"><strong>Export</strong><em>Write LAMMPS, GROMACS, PDB.</em></a>
  </div>
</section>

Local Example

zensical build -f examples/zensical.toml
zensical serve -f examples/zensical.toml

The usage surface is Zensical-native: configure sites with zensical.toml. Zensical 0.0.45 still discovers packaged themes through the historical mkdocs.themes entry point and reads theme-package defaults from mkdocs_theme.yml; this package uses those hooks only for Zensical theme discovery, not for mkdocs.yml configuration.