---
id: readthedocs-sphinx-ext
version: "2.2.5"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: abandoned
---

# readthedocs-sphinx-ext — Sphinx extension for Read the Docs overrides

License: permissive · Maintenance: abandoned · Downloads: 112.6K/mo

## What it is and what it does

This package provides Sphinx extensions designed to make documentation builds work better with Read the Docs infrastructure. It ships with an extension for building docs in the Read the Docs style and a template-meta extension that lets you specify per-page template overrides. The package depends on requests, Jinja2, and packaging to handle HTTP requests, template rendering, and version parsing.

The package is no longer maintained—the repository was archived and has not received updates since 2023-12-19. While it carries no known security vulnerabilities and uses a permissive MIT license, its abandonment means it will not adapt to changes in Sphinx, Read the Docs, or its dependencies. It may still work for existing projects, but should be considered a legacy tool rather than an active choice for new documentation setups.

Use it for:

- Integrating Sphinx documentation builds with Read the Docs hosting to apply platform-specific styling and features.
- Enabling per-page template customization in Sphinx docs via the template-meta extension.
- Maintaining existing documentation projects that already depend on this extension and do not require updates.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Provides Sphinx extensions that integrate documentation builds with Read the Docs features, including template overrides and build customizations.

No, not for new projects. The package is abandoned and will not receive maintenance or security updates. While it carries no current vulnerabilities and has low install friction, its lack of active development makes it unsuitable for new documentation setups. Consider it only if you are maintaining an existing project that already uses it and requires no updates.

## Install

pip install readthedocs-sphinx-ext
uv add readthedocs-sphinx-ext
poetry add readthedocs-sphinx-ext

## Installing readthedocs-sphinx-ext

Before you install: Low install friction with three common runtime dependencies (requests, Jinja2, packaging). However, the package is archived and abandoned as of 2023-12-19, with no maintenance activity since then, so it will not receive updates or security patches.

License in practice: MIT license is permissive, allowing use in most projects with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart:

pip install readthedocs-sphinx-ext

# In conf.py:
extensions = ['readthedocs_sphinx_ext.readthedocs']

Requires Sphinx to be installed and configured; intended for use in Sphinx documentation projects.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the extension remains compatible with current Sphinx versions despite being unmaintained.
- Whether Read the Docs still actively uses or recommends this extension in its current documentation builds.
- What specific template-meta functionality is available and how it differs from native Sphinx features.

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: abandoned
- Downloads: 112.6K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

sphinx read the docs integration, sphinx extension documentation, read the docs sphinx plugin, sphinx template overrides, documentation build tools, sphinx build customization, sphinx-extension, read-the-docs, abandoned

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