sphinx-substitution-extensions 2025.6.6

Extensions for Sphinx which allow for substitutions.

Sphinx Substitution Extensions

Extensions for Sphinx which allow substitutions within code blocks.

Contents

• Sphinx Substitution Extensions

  • Installation

  • rST setup

  • Using substitutions in rST documents

    • code-block

    • Inline :substitution-code:

    • substitution-download

  • MyST Markdown setup

  • Using substitutions in MyST Markdown

    • code-block

    • Inline :substitution-code:

    • substitution-download

  • Credits

  • Contributing

Installation

Sphinx Substitution Extensions is compatible with Sphinx 8.2.0+ using Python 3.10+.

$ pip install Sphinx-Substitution-Extensions

rST setup

1. Add the following to conf.py to enable the extension:

"""Configuration for Sphinx."""

extensions = ["sphinxcontrib.spelling"]  # Example existing extensions

extensions += ["sphinx_substitution_extensions"]

2. Set the following variable in conf.py to define substitutions:

"""Configuration for Sphinx."""

rst_prolog = """
.. |release| replace:: 0.1
.. |author| replace:: Eleanor
"""

This will replace |release| in the new directives with 0.1, and |author| with Eleanor.

Using substitutions in rST documents

code-block

This adds a :substitutions: option to Sphinx’s built-in code-block directive.

.. code-block:: shell
   :substitutions:

   echo "|author| released version |release|"

Inline :substitution-code:

:substitution-code:`echo "|author| released version |release|"`

substitution-download

:substitution-download:`|author|'s manuscript <|author|_manuscript.txt>`

MyST Markdown setup

1. Add sphinx_substitution_extensions to extensions in conf.py to enable the extension:

"""Configuration for Sphinx."""

extensions = ["myst_parser"]  # Example existing extensions

extensions += ["sphinx_substitution_extensions"]

2. Set the following variables in conf.py to define substitutions:

"""Configuration for Sphinx."""

myst_enable_extensions = ["substitution"]

myst_substitutions = {
    "release": "0.1",
    "author": "Eleanor",
}

This will replace |release| in the new directives with 0.1, and |author| with Eleanor.

Using substitutions in MyST Markdown

code-block

This adds a :substitutions: option to Sphinx’s built-in code-block directive.

```{code-block} bash
   :substitutions:

   echo "|author| released version |release|"
```

As well as using |author|, you can also use {{author}}. This will respect the value of myst_sub_delimiters as set in conf.py.

Inline :substitution-code:

{substitution-code}`echo "|author| released version |release|"`

substitution-download

{substitution-download}`|author|'s manuscript <|author|_manuscript.txt>`

Credits

ClusterHQ Developers

This package is largely inspired by code written for Flocker by ClusterHQ. Developers of the relevant code include, at least, Jon Giddy and Tom Prince.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.rst.