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#549: Great Docs

May 26, 2026 · 1 h 7 min

Show notes

Your documentation has two audiences now - humans reading the rendered HTML, and AI agents trying to make sense of your library. Rich Iannone and Michael Chow from Posit are back on Talk Python with a brand new Python documentation tool called Great Docs that takes both seriously. Rich is the creator of Great Tables, and before that the R package GT, the man has a serious eye for design, and he's pointed that energy at the Python docs ecosystem. We'll talk about how Great Docs spins up a polished site in three commands, why every page ships as Markdown for your favorite LLM, how it leans on Quarto for executable code blocks and tabbed install sections, and where it lands against Sphinx, MkDocs, and Zensical. Plus, you'll meet Tablin. Here we go.

Episode sponsors

Sentry Error Monitoring, Code talkpython26
Temporal
Talk Python Courses

Links from the show Guests
Michael Chow: github.com
Rich lannone: github.com

Python Web Security with OWASP Top 10 and Agentic AI Course: talkpython.fm

Great Docs: posit-dev.github.io/great-docs
Great Tables: posit-dev.github.io
GT Episode: talkpython.fm
Sphinx: www.sphinx-doc.org
mkdocs: www.mkdocs.org
Zensical: zensical.org
Hugo: gohugo.io
Ghost: ghost.org
Rs pkgdown: pkgdown.r-lib.org
Quarto: quarto.org
quickstart: posit-dev.github.io
llms.txt file: llmstxt.org
llms.txt: talkpython.fm
mcp: talkpython.fm
cli: talkpython.fm

Watch this episode on YouTube: youtube.com
Episode #549 deep-dive: talkpython.fm/549
Episode transcripts: talkpython.fm

Theme Song: Developer Rap
🥁 Served in a Flask 🎸: talkpython.fm/flasksong

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Mastodon: @[email protected]
X.com: @talkpython

Michael on Bluesky: @mkennedy.codes
Michael on Mastodon: @[email protected]
Michael on X.com: @mkennedy

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