Virtual Environments for Docs

Virtual environments are self-contained workspaces for projects.

Working with documentation in a docs-as-code environment usually involves Static Site Generators such as [[MkDocs] or Sphinx. These tools transform plain text files into documentation websites. They usually also come with dependencies - and that’s where virtual environments come in.

Without Virtual Environments

Installing documentation tools globally on your machine (e.g., pip install mkdocs or npm install -g docusaurus), can lead to the following problems:

• Version Conflicts: Different documentation projects may need different versions of the same tool. For example, Project A might use MkDocs 1.5, while Project B needs MkDocs 1.6 with a plugin that doesn’t exist in 1.5.
• Cluttering Mess: The system’s Python or Node environment gets cluttered with packages only needed for one project.
• Reproducibility Issues: If a teammate or CI pipeline installs slightly different versions, your docs may render differently—or break entirely.
• Harder Debugging: When something fails, it’s harder to know whether it’s the project setup or your global environment causing the problem.

With Virtual Environments

In a virtual environment your project’s dependencies are self-contained . Each documentation project can have its own environment with exactly the right versions of Python packages, Node modules, or other tools.

Benefits:

• ✅ Isolation: Dependencies for one project don’t affect another.
• ✅ Consistency: Everyone working on the project can install the same versions via requirements.txt or package.json.
• ✅ Reproducibility: Your CI/CD pipeline can recreate the environment exactly, avoiding “works on my machine” issues.
• ✅ Clean System: Your computer stays free of unnecessary global installations.

Practical Examples

• MkDocs (Python):

  python -m venv .venv # creates the virtual environment
  .venv\Scripts\activate # activates the virtual environment
  pip install -r requirements.txt # installs all Python packages (and their versions) your documentation project depends on
  mkdocs serve 
  # activate the virtual environment every time you run a local preview of your documentation

• Docusaurus (Node.js)

  npm install # installs dependencies into node_modules for this project
  npm run start

Note

Docusaurus and other Node-based static site generators don’t use Python-style virtual environments. Instead, they isolate dependencies using package.json + node_modules/, sometimes paired with a lockfile (package-lock.json or yarn.lock).