diff --git a/docs/sphinx/_templates/globaltoc.html b/docs/sphinx/_templates/globaltoc.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e284138a2aae410ba28fd93d0d4180d2d053b2b9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/sphinx/_templates/globaltoc.html
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+{#
+    basic/globaltoc.html
+    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+    Sphinx sidebar template: global table of contents.
+
+    :copyright: Copyright 2007-2021 by the Sphinx team, see AUTHORS.
+    :license: BSD, see LICENSE for details.
+#}
+
+
+<h2>Maestro Core</h2>
+
+A data transport and inspection library for scientific workflows
+
+<h2>Contents</h2>
+{{ toctree(includehidden=theme_globaltoc_includehidden, collapse=theme_globaltoc_collapse, maxdepth=theme_globaltoc_maxdepth) }}
diff --git a/docs/sphinx/_templates/layout.html b/docs/sphinx/_templates/layout.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..2cedc8ecee8b529119a1e93e95effd1995922f5b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/sphinx/_templates/layout.html
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+{% extends "!layout.html" %}
+
+{% block sidebarlogo %}
+    <a href="../_build/index.html">
+      <img src="../img/maestro-logo.png" alt="Maestro logo">
+    </a>
+{% endblock %}
+
+
diff --git a/docs/sphinx/_templates/searchbox.html b/docs/sphinx/_templates/searchbox.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..cdb37031e27c09cbcbe8233493cac59657113a1d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/sphinx/_templates/searchbox.html
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+{#
+    basic/searchbox.html
+    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+    Sphinx sidebar template: quick search box.
+
+    :copyright: Copyright 2007-2021 by the Sphinx team, see AUTHORS.
+    :license: BSD, see LICENSE for details.
+#}
+{%- if pagename != "search" and builder != "singlehtml" %}
+
+<br>
+<div id="searchbox" style="display: none" role="search">
+    <div class="searchformwrapper">
+    <form class="search" action="{{ pathto('search') }}" method="get">
+      <input type="text" placeholder="Search the docs" name="q" aria-labelledby="searchlabel" autocomplete="off" autocorrect="off" autocapitalize="off" spellcheck="false"/>
+    </form>
+    </div>
+</div>
+<script>$('#searchbox').show(0);</script>
+{%- endif %}
diff --git a/docs/sphinx/conf.py b/docs/sphinx/conf.py
index 42ab9cc26dd3dff7f155c27ff731b0d63cad39ca..da21ce912874ef2da0423934d13485e9c7c7dbd2 100644
--- a/docs/sphinx/conf.py
+++ b/docs/sphinx/conf.py
@@ -72,6 +72,8 @@ html_theme = 'alabaster'
 # so a file named "default.css" will overwrite the builtin "default.css".
 html_static_path = ['_static']
 
-
+html_sidebars = {
+   '**': ['globaltoc.html', 'searchbox.html'],
+}
 
 
diff --git a/docs/sphinx/img/maestro-logo.png b/docs/sphinx/img/maestro-logo.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c5a4e696178be76582d57af2ef7cb9cc56e35251
Binary files /dev/null and b/docs/sphinx/img/maestro-logo.png differ
diff --git a/docs/sphinx/index.rst b/docs/sphinx/index.rst
index 27b0cdb46db49567f25d150342cfabd5d5baa61f..3c6df3f7017d0840286a09cbac4537ec1fca0ac6 100644
--- a/docs/sphinx/index.rst
+++ b/docs/sphinx/index.rst
@@ -3,8 +3,8 @@
    You can adapt this file completely to your liking, but it should at least
    contain the root `toctree` directive.
 
-Welcome to Maestro Core's documentation!
-========================================
+Maestro Core documentation
+==========================
 
 Maestro Core is a C library that does multi-threaded cross-application data
 transfer and inspection over high-speed interconnect, using lightweight data
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ That's it for the introduction.
 
 .. toctree::
    :maxdepth: 2
+
    showroom 
    started
    essentials