devlab-theme

A Zola-native theme for documentation, release updates and developer sites.

Author: RiPetitor

This theme requires Zola version 0.23.1 and above

License: MIT

Homepage: https://codeberg.org/RiPetitor/devlab-theme

Live Demo: https://ripetitor.codeberg.page/devlab-theme/

Tags:

Last updated: 2026-08-06T10:30:42+05:00

DevLab Theme

DevLab is a Zola-native theme for documentation, release updates and software projects. One content tree drives the Docs sidebar, mobile navigation, breadcrumbs and previous/next links, while Blog and Downloads provide optional release-facing layouts.

DevLab Theme documentation

Live demo · Documentation · Updates

The live Demo follows the development branch. Install a tagged release when the site must remain reproducible.

Features

Recursive Docs navigation with remembered groups, breadcrumbs, nested page TOC and server-rendered previous/next links
Paginated Blog/Updates with published, updated and release metadata
Generic pages and sections, a wide landing page and an optional Downloads layout
Search, one responsive mobile drawer, skip navigation, Copy feedback and reduced-motion support
Light, dark and system color modes with update-safe CSS tokens
Namespaced Tera 2 content components, structured configuration and template hooks without Node.js or a frontend build step

Install

For a standalone theme checkout, clone the latest stable release into an existing Zola site:

git clone --branch v0.4.0 --depth 1 https://codeberg.org/RiPetitor/devlab-theme themes/devlab-theme

Pinning the release tag keeps site builds reproducible. Change v0.4.0 only when you intentionally upgrade the theme.

If the site itself is stored in Git, use a submodule or a vendored copy instead of committing an embedded repository. See Install and update for every installation method and the tagged upgrade workflow.

Enable it in zola.toml:

base_url = "https://example.com"
title = "My project"
theme = "devlab-theme"

compile_sass = true
build_search_index = true

[search]
include_title = true
include_description = true
include_content = true

[extra.devlab.appearance]
default_mode = "system"
show_toggle = true

Create content/_index.md:

+++
title = "My project"
description = "Documentation and release updates."
+++

Project overview.

Then run:

zola serve

Docs, Blog, Downloads and richer homepage sections are opt-in. Continue with Getting started, the Configuration reference and Customization.

Tera 2 components

DevLab v0.4.0 targets Zola 0.23.1 and uses global, namespaced Tera 2 components in Markdown. No import is required:

{%/* <devlab.callout type="tip" title="Native component"> */%}
The body supports **Markdown**.
{%/* </devlab.callout> */%}

This release does not support Zola 0.22 or the removed shortcode syntax. Sites upgrading from v0.3.1 must migrate authored shortcode calls and any Tera 1 template overrides; see the v0.4.0 migration notes and component reference.

Compatibility

Zola 0.23.1 or newer (Tera 2)
No Node.js, npm or external frontend runtime required

Development

This repository contains both the reusable theme and its Demo/Docs site. The Blog is the human-readable release history.

zola check
zola build

License

MIT