---
id: sphinx-tippy
version: "0.4.3"
license: unclear
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# sphinx_tippy — Get rich tool tips in your sphinx documentation!

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 97.6K/mo

## What it is and what it does

sphinx-tippy is a Sphinx extension that integrates Tippy.js into your documentation build to render interactive tooltips. It lets you annotate documentation with rich, styled tips that appear on user interaction, enhancing readability and providing contextual help without cluttering the main text.

The package depends on sphinx as its core framework, beautifulsoup4 for HTML parsing, jinja2 for templating, and requests for HTTP operations. It's designed for developers building Sphinx-based documentation who want to add a layer of interactivity for explaining terms, showing examples, or providing supplementary information inline.

Use it for:

- Add hover tooltips to API documentation explaining parameter types and constraints
- Annotate technical terms in guides with definitions that appear on click
- Provide code examples or warnings as tooltips without interrupting reading flow
- Create interactive glossaries where terms link to expandable tooltip definitions

## Worth the install?

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

Adds interactive tooltips to Sphinx documentation using the Tippy.js library, allowing you to display rich, contextual help text on hover or click.

Yes, if you use Sphinx and want to add interactive tooltips with minimal setup. The package is actively maintained, has low install friction, carries a permissive MIT license, and has no known vulnerabilities. The Beta status is typical for documentation extensions and should not be a blocker for production use.

## Install

pip install sphinx-tippy
uv add sphinx-tippy
poetry add sphinx-tippy

## Installing sphinx_tippy

Before you install: Low friction install with four common runtime dependencies (sphinx, beautifulsoup4, jinja2, requests). Actively maintained as of August 2026 with recent commits, though the project is in Beta status.

License in practice: MIT license permits free use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions, making it safe for both open-source and commercial documentation projects.

Quickstart:

pip install sphinx-tippy

# In conf.py:
extensions = ['sphinx_tippy']

# In .rst file:
:tippy:`hover text` with tooltip content

Requires Sphinx to be installed and a Sphinx project already initialized; Python 3.8 or later.

Verify before relying:

- Whether tooltips work across all Sphinx themes or require theme-specific configuration
- Performance impact when documentation contains many tooltips
- Browser compatibility details beyond what Tippy.js itself supports

## Package facts

- License: not declared (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 97.6K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

sphinx tooltip plugin, interactive documentation tips, sphinx hover help, rich tooltips sphinx, sphinx tippy extension, documentation hover popover, sphinx contextual help, sphinx-extension, documentation-ui, interactive-docs

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/sphinx-tippy) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/sphinx-tippy/)