{"slug": "sphinx", "name": "Sphinx", "category": "notes", "category_name": "Notes and knowledge", "description": "", "recommenders": 2, "commenters": 5, "warners": 2, "score": 0.356, "rising": 0.67, "first": "2025-11-23", "latest": "2026-10-26", "why": "I use Sphinx to make a nice website from the markdown sources", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 2}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0], "listed": false, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I use Sphinx to make a nice website from the markdown sources", "icon": false, "domain": "sphinx.fyi", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://sphinx.fyi", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Sphinx"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 797131760, "item_id": 49820735, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49820735", "by": "WCSTombs", "date": "2026-09-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Sphinx to make a nice website from the markdown sources", "excerpt": "> Or is it because they then publish those docs somewhere else? Exactly, I use Sphinx to make a nice website from the markdown sources (although it doesn't have to be markdown). That includes generating a full API reference page from all the docstrings.", "context": "", "use_case": "docs website and API reference", "switched_from": "", "story": "The GitHub wiki is an anti-pattern (2022)"}, {"id": 745772306, "item_id": 46610769, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46610769", "by": "dont__panic", "date": "2026-01-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "vanilla solutions out there like AsciiDoctor and Sphinx", "excerpt": "I love the linux philosophy at work here. Pandoc is an incredible tool that every documentarian knows. Markdown is a great tool that covers 80%+ of docs requirements (admonitions and tabs are not well-defined in vanilla markdown, for instance, but you don't strictly _need_ those). I've worked on docs at quite a few companies at this point. Almost every company I've ever seen has built a Rube Goldberg machine and tota", "context": "has worked on docs at many companies", "use_case": "documentation", "switched_from": "", "story": "You Don't Need Mintlify"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 786470225, "item_id": 49154389, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49154389", "by": "lilerjee", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I found they are too complicated, bloated, not easy to organize notes", "excerpt": "I used Joplin, Sphinx doc for many years ago, but I don't use them recently. I found they are too complicated, bloated, not easy to organize notes, not easy to access across devices, not flexible, no manual sorting, etc. I like simple, concise, flexible and practical note-taking or bookmark management app. So I have created my own note-taking app Metaessen [1] for 2+ years. Now I am just using my own app and pure tex", "context": "", "use_case": "notes and documentation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Note-Taking and Personal Knowledge Management"}, {"id": 736346801, "item_id": 46021675, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46021675", "by": "stonecharioteer", "date": "2025-11-23", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I wanted to put out content, not fight the weird system that was Sphinx", "excerpt": "I love RestructuredText. My blog used to be on RST, because I hate markdown. I moved to Hugo and Markdown because I wanted to put out content, not fight the weird system that was Sphinx (My RST blog was running on it), and ablog, the Sphinx blogging framework didn't work with Furo, my favourite theme. I just use Hugo, and I use Claude to fix the css.", "context": "", "use_case": "blog", "switched_from": "", "story": "Markdown is holding you back"}]}], "who": [{"by": "dont__panic", "context": "has worked on docs at many companies", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46610769", "date": "2026-01-13"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["documentation backend", "docs website and api reference", "notes and documentation", "documentation", "blog"], "compared": [{"slug": "manticore-search", "name": "Manticore Search", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "hugo", "name": "Hugo", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}], "makers": [{"id": 787818016, "item_id": 49238626, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49238626", "by": "hackitup7", "date": "2026-08-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use it myself.", "excerpt": "I was only working on this occasionally, but I built an extension to block sites in a more creative way. Basically I'm finding myself in a bind where: - I spend too much time doomscrolling (X, reddit, HN etc) - AI is making me lose touch with a lot of basic skills like coding, and I was already losing touch with doing real math So I built an extension that blocks sites and forces you to actually solve a problem befor", "context": "", "use_case": "blocking distracting sites", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50238739", "title": "PaperPilot \u2013 Zero-Cloud, Pure-Rust PDF Engine with WASM and MCP", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49815484", "title": "The GitHub wiki is an anti-pattern (2022)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49233423", "title": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49084324", "title": "Note-Taking and Personal Knowledge Management", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46596823", "title": "You Don't Need Mintlify", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46017782", "title": "Markdown is holding you back", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"warn": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"warn": 1}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 803839153, "item_id": 50239947, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50239947", "by": "Surac", "date": "2026-10-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I eben use it with sphinx as a backend", "excerpt": "I use mostly typst for pdf generating today i have written different frontends and connectors to transform everything into typ files and templates. I eben use it with sphinx as a backend", "context": "", "use_case": "documentation backend", "switched_from": "", "story": "PaperPilot \u2013 Zero-Cloud, Pure-Rust PDF Engine with WASM and MCP"}, {"id": 797131760, "item_id": 49820735, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49820735", "by": "WCSTombs", "date": "2026-09-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Sphinx to make a nice website from the markdown sources", "excerpt": "> Or is it because they then publish those docs somewhere else? Exactly, I use Sphinx to make a nice website from the markdown sources (although it doesn't have to be markdown). That includes generating a full API reference page from all the docstrings.", "context": "", "use_case": "docs website and API reference", "switched_from": "", "story": "The GitHub wiki is an anti-pattern (2022)"}, {"id": 786470225, "item_id": 49154389, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49154389", "by": "lilerjee", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I found they are too complicated, bloated, not easy to organize notes", "excerpt": "I used Joplin, Sphinx doc for many years ago, but I don't use them recently. I found they are too complicated, bloated, not easy to organize notes, not easy to access across devices, not flexible, no manual sorting, etc. I like simple, concise, flexible and practical note-taking or bookmark management app. So I have created my own note-taking app Metaessen [1] for 2+ years. Now I am just using my own app and pure tex", "context": "", "use_case": "notes and documentation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Note-Taking and Personal Knowledge Management"}, {"id": 745772306, "item_id": 46610769, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46610769", "by": "dont__panic", "date": "2026-01-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "vanilla solutions out there like AsciiDoctor and Sphinx", "excerpt": "I love the linux philosophy at work here. Pandoc is an incredible tool that every documentarian knows. Markdown is a great tool that covers 80%+ of docs requirements (admonitions and tabs are not well-defined in vanilla markdown, for instance, but you don't strictly _need_ those). I've worked on docs at quite a few companies at this point. Almost every company I've ever seen has built a Rube Goldberg machine and tota", "context": "has worked on docs at many companies", "use_case": "documentation", "switched_from": "", "story": "You Don't Need Mintlify"}, {"id": 736346801, "item_id": 46021675, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46021675", "by": "stonecharioteer", "date": "2025-11-23", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I wanted to put out content, not fight the weird system that was Sphinx", "excerpt": "I love RestructuredText. My blog used to be on RST, because I hate markdown. I moved to Hugo and Markdown because I wanted to put out content, not fight the weird system that was Sphinx (My RST blog was running on it), and ablog, the Sphinx blogging framework didn't work with Furo, my favourite theme. I just use Hugo, and I use Claude to fix the css.", "context": "", "use_case": "blog", "switched_from": "", "story": "Markdown is holding you back"}]}