Replace Hugo, Mkdocs w/ Zensical
As part of our discovery and evaluation work in Q1 2026 we have identified Zensical as project SMUNZ would like to use and potentially support... Support in that we will become users of the product, knowledgeable in it's use, using it for our own internal documentation and public website, and recommending it's use to others.
Zensical was born out of the popular Python "MKdocs" project, and in our research we tend to side with the developers and favour the way it's organising itself over the way the Mkdocs project other fork "Proper Docs" is going, though we wish all three projects that have resulted from this Open Source drama well.
Similar to how the uv project has revolutionised the way Python developers work, Zensical is also embracing Rust as the core technology here and it's already beyond the MVP stage, we are using for our internal docs and will soon by replacing our public sites, one of which is using Mkdocs and the other Hugo, for startmeup.nz, will soon be replaced by Zensical.
This is a decision we have made, but currently lack the time and resources to advance. We may update and revise this issue as we make progress on it.
The OpsDev.nz website is currently using Mkdocs, it will take very little effort to convert it to Zensical.
The StartMeUp.nz Hugo site will take more effort to change, and will involve changes to the first version of the reporting process we have set up, which we may also work on in #8 (closed)
So in that sense these two work items are linked and it may make sense to start on that issue first.