Authoring

Front matter

Every front-matter key the theme reads, with examples and defaults.

The theme respects all of Hugo’s standard front-matter keys plus a handful of theme-specific ones. Here’s the complete list.

Standard Hugo keys #

+++
title       = "Your First Search"          # rendered as the H1
linkTitle   = "Your First Search"          # used in sidebar and pager (default: title)
description = "Ingest sample data..."      # rendered under the H1 as the lead paragraph
date        = "2026-01-15"                 # publication date
weight      = 30                           # controls order in lists and pager
draft       = false                        # exclude from production builds
tags        = ["spl", "search"]            # added to /tags/ taxonomy
layout      = "chapter"                    # use a non-default layout
+++

weight is the most important — it controls everything about ordering: the sidebar, the pager, card grids, the children listing. Use multiples of 10 (10, 20, 30, …) so you can insert pages later without renumbering.

Theme-specific keys #

+++
time        = "20 min"               # shown in workshop-meta + cards
duration    = "20 min"               # alias of time (legacy)
difficulty  = "beginner"             # shown in workshop-meta + cards
authors     = ["Pieter Hagen",
               "Robert Castley"]     # shown in workshop-meta (plural array, preferred)
author      = "Pieter Hagen"         # alias of authors[0] (legacy singular)
lastmod     = "2026-04-28"           # optional override; otherwise from git
hidden      = false                  # exclude from sidebar, TOC, search, prev/next
nopager     = false                  # render the page but suppress prev/next
showToc     = true                   # override site-wide `showToc` per page
subtitle    = "Chapter · Foo"        # eyebrow text on chapter pages
tagline     = "01 · Foundation"      # extra text in the chapter sidebar
+++

time / duration #

Free-form text shown in the workshop meta row at the top of the page and in workshop cards. Conventionally something like "20 min" or "1 hour". time is the preferred (relearn-compatible) key; duration works as a fallback so legacy front matter keeps rendering.

authors / author #

authors is a list, rendered as Name1 & Name2 & … next to a user icon in the workshop meta row. author (singular string) is honoured when only one name is set or when migrating legacy content. Use authors for new content.

authors: ["Robert Castley", "Pieter Hagen"]

lastmod #

Optional explicit override for the page’s last-modified date, shown in the small chip above the pager. When omitted, the theme reads the date from the most recent git commit that touched the page (requires enableGitInfo = true in hugo.toml, which is the default).

difficulty #

Free-form text. Common values: beginner, intermediate, advanced. Renders in workshop meta and cards. Pair with the difficulty shortcode if you want a numeric 1–5 dot indicator.

hidden #

When true:

• Page is excluded from sidebar listings
• Page is excluded from the prev/next pager
• Page is excluded from search index
• Page is excluded from children shortcodes and card grids on parent sections
• Page still renders at its URL (people who have the link can read it)

Use hidden: true for draft pages, internal references, or “Easter egg” content you want accessible but not advertised.

nopager #

When true, suppresses the prev/next pager on this specific page. Useful for:

• Index/landing pages where prev/next is meaningless
• Q&A or FAQ pages where the linear flow doesn’t apply
• Special pages (404, search results, glossary)

The page still appears in the sidebar and search; only the pager block is hidden.

showToc #

Per-page override of the site-wide showToc param. When false, the right-rail “On this page” TOC is hidden on this page and the content column expands into the freed space. When true, the TOC is shown even if disabled site-wide. When omitted, the site param wins.

Useful for dashboard pages, very wide diagrams, or landing-style indexes where the TOC adds little but takes width.

+++
title   = "Dashboard"
showToc = false
+++

Cascading to a whole section. Plain showToc = false in a section’s _index.md only affects that one index page — Hugo’s .Params are per-page. To hide the TOC across a whole subtree, use Hugo’s built-in [cascade] block:

# in some-section/_index.md
[cascade]
  showToc = false

Every descendant inherits unless it sets its own showToc. The same mechanism works for any other front-matter key.

Home page hero #

The hero block on the site root (rendered from content/_index.md) is fully driven by front matter — no template editing required:

+++
title       = "Learn by *building*."
eyebrow     = "Workshops · Hands-on, opinionated"
description = "..."

[[cta]]
label = "Browse workshops"
href  = "/workshops/"
style = "primary"

[[cta]]
label = "View on GitHub"
href  = "https://github.com/you/your-repo"
style = "ghost"
+++

• title is markdownified — wrap a word in *asterisks* to render it as <em> (the brand-gradient italic).
• eyebrow is the kicker line above the title. Falls back to params.brandTagline if unset.
• description is the lead paragraph. Falls back to params.description if unset.
• cta is a list of buttons. style is primary (filled, with arrow) or ghost (outline). Internal hrefs like /workshops/ are auto-prefixed for project-pages baseURLs; external (http*) hrefs get target="_blank" automatically.
• Any markdown body below the front matter renders below the hero.

Workshop meta row #

The block at the top of a workshop page showing time, difficulty, authors, and tags is composed from these front-matter keys. If you don’t set any, the row is suppressed.

+++
title       = "Your First Search"
description = "Ingest sample data..."
time        = "20 min"
difficulty  = "beginner"
authors     = ["Pieter Hagen", "Robert Castley"]
tags        = ["spl", "search"]
+++

Renders the meta row with a clock icon (time), a chart icon (difficulty), a user icon (authors), and a series of tag pills.

Defaults set via cascade #

Hugo’s cascade ↗ lets a section set front-matter defaults for all its descendants. Useful for inheriting authors or difficulty:

# content/workshops/getting-started/_index.md
+++
title  = "Getting Started"
weight = 1
[cascade]
  authors    = ["Splunk Workshop Team"]
  difficulty = "beginner"
+++

Now every page under getting-started/ inherits authors and difficulty unless it overrides them.