mkdocs-material/docs/insiders/getting-started.md

---
template: overrides/main.html
title: Switching to Insiders
---

# Switching to Insiders

Material for MkDocs Insiders is a fully compatible drop-in replacement[^1] for 
Material for MkDocs, and can be installed similarily using [`pip`][pip],
[`docker`][docker] or [`git`][git]. Note that in order to get access to the
Insiders repository, you need to [become an eligible sponsor] of @squidfunk.

  [^1]:
    While Insiders always strives for full downward compatibility with Material
    for MkDocs, there are some cases which slightly deviate from the non-Insiders,
    
    because
    configuration can't be shared due to limitations of MkDocs. This is
    particularly true for the `plugins` configuration, as Insiders provides
    several built-in plugins.

  [pip]: #with-pip
  [docker]: #with-docker
  [git]: #with-git
  [become an eligible sponsor]: index.md#how-to-become-a-sponsor

## Requirements

After you've been added to the list of collaborators and accepted the
invitation, the Insiders repository programmatically (from the command
line or GitHub Actions workflows), you need to create a [personal access 
token]:

1.  Go to https://github.com/settings/tokens
2.  Click on [Generate a new token]
3.  Enter a name and select the [`repo`][scopes] scope
4.  Generate the token and store it in a safe place

  [personal access token]: https://docs.github.com/en/github/authenticating-to-github/creating-a-personal-access-token
  [Generate a new token]: https://github.com/settings/tokens/new
  [scopes]: https://docs.github.com/en/developers/apps/scopes-for-oauth-apps#available-scopes

## Installation

### with pip

Material for MkDocs Insiders can be installed with `pip`:

``` sh
pip install git+https://${GH_TOKEN}@github.com/squidfunk/mkdocs-material-insiders.git
```

The `GH_TOKEN` environment variable must be set to the value of the personal
access token you generated in the previous step. Note that the personal access
token must be kept secret at all times, as it allows the owner to access your
private repositories.

### with docker

In case you want to use Material for MkDocs Insiders from within Docker, some
additional steps are necessary. While we cannot provide a hosted Docker image
for Insiders[^2], [GitHub Container Registry] allows for simple and
comfortable self-hosting:

1.  [Fork the Insiders repository]
2.  Enable [GitHub Actions] on your fork[^3]
3.  Create a new personal access token[^4]
    1.  Go to https://github.com/settings/tokens
    2.  Click on [Generate a new token]
    3.  Enter a name and select the [`write:packages`][scopes] scope
    4.  Generate the token and store it in a safe place
4.  Add a [GitHub Actions secret] on your fork
    1.  Set the name to `GHCR_TOKEN`
    2.  Set the value to the personal access token created in the previous step
5.  [Create a new release] to build and publish the Docker image
6.  Install [Pull App] on your fork to stay in-sync with upstream

The [`publish`][publish] workflow[^5] is automatically run when a new tag
(release) is created. When a new Insiders version is released on the upstream 
repository, the [Pull App] will create a pull request with the changes and
pull in the new tag, which is picked up by the [`publish`][publish] workflow
that builds and publishes the Docker image automatically to your private
registry.

Now, you should be able to pull the Docker image from your private registry:

```
docker login -u ${GH_USERNAME} -p ${GHCR_TOKEN} ghcr.io
docker pull ghcr.io/${GH_USERNAME}/mkdocs-material-insiders
```

  [^2]:
    Earlier, Insiders provided a dedicated Docker image which was available to
    all sponsors. On March 21, 2021, the image was deprecated for the reasons
    outlined and discussed in #2442. It was removed on June 1, 2021.

  [^3]:
    When forking a repository, GitHub will disables all workflows. While this
    is a reasonable default setting, you need to enable GitHub Actions to be
    able to automatically build and publish a Docker image on
    [GitHub Container Registry].

  [^4]:
    While you could just add the `write:packages` scope to the personal access
    token created to access the Insiders repository, it's safer to create a
    dedicated token which you'll only use for publishing the Docker image.

  [^5]:
    The Insiders repository contains three GitHub Actions workflows:

    - `build.yml` – Build and lint the project (disabled on forks)
    - `documentation.yml` – Build and deploy the documentation (disabled on forks)
    - `publish.yml` – Build and publish the Docker image

### with git

Of course, you can use Material for MkDocs Insiders directly from `git`:

```
git clone git@github.com:squidfunk/mkdocs-material-insiders.git mkdocs-material
```

The theme will reside in the folder `mkdocs-material/material`. When cloning
from `git`, the theme must be installed, so MkDocs can find the built-in
plugins:

```
pip install -e mkdocs-material
```

  [GitHub Container Registry]: https://docs.github.com/en/packages/guides/about-github-container-registry
  [Fork the Insiders repository]: https://github.com/squidfunk/mkdocs-material-insiders/fork
  [GitHub Actions]: https://docs.github.com/en/github/administering-a-repository/disabling-or-limiting-github-actions-for-a-repository
  [packages scope]: https://docs.github.com/en/developers/apps/scopes-for-oauth-apps#available-scopes
  [GitHub Actions secret]: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/encrypted-secrets#creating-encrypted-secrets-for-a-repository
  [Create a new release]: https://docs.github.com/en/github/administering-a-repository/managing-releases-in-a-repository#creating-a-release
  [Pull App]: https://github.com/apps/pull
  [publish]: https://github.com/squidfunk/mkdocs-material-insiders/blob/master/.github/workflows/publish.yml

## Caveats