# Possible to fork theme and than use forked theme as new remote theme?

**URL:** <https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/possible-to-fork-theme-and-than-use-forked-theme-as-new-remote-theme/4303>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [April 27, 2020, 3:10pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/possible-to-fork-theme-and-than-use-forked-theme-as-new-remote-theme/4303 "2020-04-27T15:10:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![aronsommer](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/aronsommer/32/2415_2.png) [@aronsommer](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/aronsommer)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2020, 3:10pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/possible-to-fork-theme-and-than-use-forked-theme-as-new-remote-theme/4303/1 "2020-04-27T15:10:02Z")

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I use “[https://github.com/pmarsceill/just-the-docs](https://github.com/pmarsceill/just-the-docs)” as a remote theme for my project:

> **[aronsommer/lbt](https://github.com/aronsommer/lbt)**
>
> Website with Just the Docs as a remote theme. Contribute to aronsommer/lbt development by creating an account on GitHub.

Is it possible to fork “[https://github.com/pmarsceill/just-the-docs](https://github.com/pmarsceill/just-the-docs)” and than use the forked theme as my new remote theme?

remote\_theme: pmarsceill/just-the-docs \> remote\_theme: aronsommer/just-the-docs

I am wondering because I would like to modify stuff in the remote theme.

For example css which is in “[https://github.com/pmarsceill/just-the-docs/blob/master/\_sass/base.scss](https://github.com/pmarsceill/just-the-docs/blob/master/_sass/base.scss)”.

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**Author:** ![MichaelCurrin](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/michaelcurrin/32/2340_2.png) [@MichaelCurrin](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/MichaelCurrin)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 1:34pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/possible-to-fork-theme-and-than-use-forked-theme-as-new-remote-theme/4303/2 "2020-04-28T13:34:00Z")

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Yes that will work on the remote theme field. According to the docs it just needs to be in that format for public repos.

> <https://github.com/benbalter/jekyll-remote-theme/blob/master/README.md#declaring-your-theme>

If you run locally, it takes more effort as you will need to add a Gemfile line which points to the gem which must have a unique name on the ruby gems site. I believe you can use a github URL instead. You’ll have to look into publishing your repo on github. I am guessing it’s easier than on rubygems and might work nicer if you don’t intend to share the gem publically yet.

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**Author:** ![MichaelCurrin](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/michaelcurrin/32/2340_2.png) [@MichaelCurrin](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/MichaelCurrin)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 1:37pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/possible-to-fork-theme-and-than-use-forked-theme-as-new-remote-theme/4303/3 "2020-04-28T13:37:45Z")

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Also, forking a theme may not be the right approach because of that overhead…

Forking a theme makes sense if you want to use your forked theme for _two_ or more of your own repos, or you want to share your fork publically.

If that’s not the case, then go with the more common flow. Load the original theme as your remote theme and gem. And then in your own project where you content is, you can override `_layouts`, `_includes` etc. folders in your project root. Your Jekyll build will look there first and then look in the installed theme’s folders.

This means you can add custom CSS to a head.html includes file or default.html layout page, or you can add SCSS folder and use that approach. You can override a file in the theme by using the same name. Or you can create a new one