sphinx-rtd-theme

What it is and what it does

sphinx-rtd-theme is a Sphinx theme that applies the visual design and layout used by Read the Docs, a popular documentation hosting platform. It replaces Sphinx's default HTML output with a modern, responsive interface designed to work well on phones, tablets, and desktops. The theme integrates with your existing Sphinx project by setting a single configuration option in conf.py.

You install it as a Python package, and it becomes available as a theme choice for any Sphinx documentation build. It depends on sphinx itself, docutils (Sphinx's underlying text processor), and sphinxcontrib-jquery (a Sphinx extension that bundles jQuery). The theme is highly configurable, allowing you to adjust colors, fonts, layout, and behavior through Sphinx configuration options without forking or modifying the theme code directly.

Use it for:

• Style a Sphinx documentation project to match the familiar Read the Docs appearance without hosting on Read the Docs itself
• Build mobile-friendly API or software documentation that renders well on phones and tablets
• Apply a professional, production-ready theme to open-source project documentation
• Customize documentation appearance globally across a large project using Sphinx configuration alone
• Migrate from default Sphinx HTML output to a modern, responsive design with minimal setup

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

A Sphinx theme that renders documentation with a responsive, mobile-friendly design optimized for reading on both desktop and mobile devices.

Yes. This is a stable, widely-used theme (14.8M monthly downloads, top 5000 PyPI packages) with no known security vulnerabilities, permissive licensing, and low install friction. It solves a concrete problem—making Sphinx documentation look professional and work on mobile—with a single configuration line. The aging maintenance status reflects maturity rather than neglect; the repository is active and the code is well-established. Install it if you use Sphinx and want a responsive, polished appearance without building a theme from scratch.

Install

sphinx-rtd-theme on PyPI

pip install sphinx-rtd-theme

uv add sphinx-rtd-theme

poetry add sphinx-rtd-theme

Installing sphinx-rtd-theme

Before you install

Low install friction; the package is a pure Python wheel with three runtime dependencies (sphinx, docutils, sphinxcontrib-jquery). Maintenance status is aging—last release was 214 days ago—but the repository remains active and well-starred (5074 stars), suggesting stable, established code rather than abandoned.

License in practice

MIT license (permissive) means you can use, modify, and distribute this theme freely in both open-source and commercial projects with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart

pip install sphinx-rtd-theme

Then in your Sphinx conf.py:

html_theme = "sphinx_rtd_theme"

Verify before relying

• Exact browser and operating system compatibility matrix beyond 'supported and tested combinations'
• Performance characteristics or rendering speed on large documentation projects
• Customization depth and ease for non-standard layouts or branding

Package facts

Evidence: sphinx_rtd_theme-3.1.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl

Tags

More Documentation packages