Frontmatter

Frontmatter is the YAML block at the top of every content file. It controls how a page behaves, where it appears, and how it's rendered.

All fields

Identity

Field	Type	Default	Description
title	string	""	Page title (required for meaningful pages)
nav_title	string	title	Navigation label — used in menus and breadcrumbs instead of title when set
heading	string	title	On-page <h1> — use when the SEO title differs from the desired on-page heading
descriptor	string	—	Short subtitle shown after title in browser tab
slug	string	folder name	Override the URL slug
template	string	filename	Override template selection (.md only)
layout	string | false	"default"	Layout wrapping (.tsx only)

The descriptor field controls the page title shown in the browser tab. When present, the title format is "Title - Descriptor | Site Name". Without it, the format is "Title | Site Name".

title: "Services"
descriptor: "Custom Web Solutions"
# → browser tab: "Services - Custom Web Solutions | My Site"

Publishing

Field	Type	Default	Description
published	boolean	true	If false, page doesn't exist for visitors
status	string	—	Workflow status: draft, in_review, published, archived
date	string	—	Publication date (ISO 8601)
publish_date	string	—	Scheduled publish (ISO 8601 datetime)
unpublish_date	string	—	Scheduled unpublish (ISO 8601 datetime)
visible	boolean	true	If false, accessible but hidden from navigation
routable	boolean	true	If false, page has no URL (modular sections)

The status field is used by the content workflow system for editorial management. It works independently of published — a page with status: draft and published: true is still accessible. Use published: false to actually hide a page from visitors.

Taxonomy

taxonomy:
  category: [tutorials, guides]
  tag: [deno, fresh, cms]
  author: [jane]

Taxonomies are defined in config/site.yaml under taxonomies. Any taxonomy listed there can be used in frontmatter. Values are always arrays.

Metadata

metadata:
  description: "Page description for SEO"
  og:image: cover.jpg
  robots: "noindex"

Key-value pairs for HTML <meta> tags and SEO. Values are strings.

Routes

routes:
  aliases:
    - /old-path
    - /another-old-path
  canonical: /the-real-url

aliases create additional URLs that serve this page. canonical sets the preferred URL for search engines.

Summary

summary:
  size: 300          # characters
  format: short      # "short" or "long"

Controls automatic excerpt generation from the page body.

Cache

cache:
  enable: true
  lifetime: 3600     # seconds

Per-page cache overrides. Takes precedence over system-level cache settings.

Collection

collection:
  items:
    "@self.children": true
  order:
    by: date
    dir: desc
  filter:
    published: true
  limit: 10
  pagination:
    size: 10

Declarative content queries. See the Collections page for full details.

Media

Field	Type	Default	Description
image	string	—	Cover image filename (co-located with the content file)

The image field names a file in the same directory as the content file. It is used in three places:

• RSS & Atom feeds — included as the feed item's cover image (<enclosure> / <media:content>)
• XML Sitemap — generates a <image:image> entry for the page
• Templates — accessible as page.frontmatter.image; use with the image processing API for responsive images

---
title: "My Post"
date: 2026-03-09
image: cover.jpg
---

The image must be a bare filename, not a path or URL. The generated URL follows the pattern /content-media/{content-dir}/{image}.

Custom data

custom:
  featured: true
  rating: 5
  hero_color: "#1a1a2e"

Arbitrary structured data accessible in templates. Use this for any page-specific data that doesn't fit the standard fields.

Minimal frontmatter

The only truly required field is title. Everything else has sensible defaults:

---
title: "My Page"
---

This creates a published, visible, routable page with no taxonomies, default caching, and template selection by filename.