Frontmatter reference

Complete specification for TOML frontmatter in Zorto content files. Frontmatter is enclosed in +++ delimiters at the top of every .md file.

+++
title = "My page"
date = "2026-01-15"
+++

If no +++ block is present, Zorto uses default values for all fields.

Page frontmatter #

Used in regular .md files (anything that is not _index.md).

Field	Type	Default	Description
title	string	""	Page title, used in templates and feeds
date	string or datetime	none	Publication date (YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS). Pages without dates sort last in date-ordered sections
author	string	none	Author name
description	string	none	Short summary for SEO, feeds, and llms.txt
draft	bool	false	If true, excluded from production builds
slug	string	filename	Override the URL slug. By default, derived from the filename (e.g. my-post.md becomes my-post)
template	string	"page.html"	Custom template for this page
weight	int	none	Sort weight for ordering within a section (lower values first). Used with sort_by = "weight"
aliases	array of strings	[]	Additional URL paths that redirect to this page
[extra]	table	{}	Arbitrary key-value data, accessible in templates as page.extra
taxonomy fields	array of strings	[]	Top-level arrays are interpreted as taxonomy values (e.g. tags = ["rust"])

Computed fields #

These fields are not set in frontmatter but are available in templates:

Field	Type	Description
page.path	string	URL path relative to site root (e.g. "/posts/hello/")
page.permalink	string	Full URL including base_url
page.content	string	Rendered HTML content
page.summary	string or null	HTML content before <!-- more --> marker
page.raw_content	string	Raw markdown after frontmatter extraction
page.taxonomies	object	Taxonomy values keyed by name (e.g. {"tags": ["rust", "web"]})
page.word_count	int	Approximate word count
page.reading_time	int	Estimated reading time in minutes (word_count / 200, minimum 1)
page.relative_path	string	Source file path relative to content directory

Section frontmatter #

Used in _index.md files that define sections (directories).

Field	Type	Default	Description
title	string	""	Section title
description	string	none	Section description
sort_by	string	none	Sort pages: "date" (reverse chronological), "title" (alphabetical), or "weight" (ascending by weight, filename tiebreak)
paginate_by	int	none	Pages per pagination page. Omit or set to 0 to disable pagination
render_pages	bool	true	When false, child pages are not rendered as individual HTML files. Their content is still available in section.pages for use in templates. Used for presentations
template	string	"section.html"	Custom template for this section
[extra]	table	{}	Arbitrary key-value data, accessible in templates as section.extra

Computed fields #

Field	Type	Description
section.path	string	URL path relative to site root (e.g. "/posts/")
section.permalink	string	Full URL including base_url
section.content	string	Rendered HTML from the _index.md body
section.raw_content	string	Raw markdown after frontmatter extraction
section.pages	array	Pages belonging to this section, sorted per sort_by
section.relative_path	string	Source file path relative to content directory

Taxonomy values #

Taxonomy values are defined as top-level arrays in page frontmatter. Any top-level key whose value is an array of strings is treated as a taxonomy assignment:

+++
title = "Building a web app"
tags = ["rust", "web", "tutorial"]
categories = ["engineering"]
+++

The taxonomy names must match those defined in config.toml under [[taxonomies]]. See taxonomies in depth for the full workflow.

Slug derivation #

The URL slug determines the page’s URL path. Zorto derives it in this order:

1. Explicit slug field in frontmatter, if set
2. Directory name for co-located content (posts/my-post/index.md uses slug my-post)
3. Filename for regular files (my-post.md uses slug my-post)

Slugs are always lowercased and URL-safe (spaces become hyphens, special characters are removed).

Co-located content #

Pages can use directory-based organization for co-located assets:

The index.md file becomes the page content, and sibling files are copied as assets. Reference them with relative paths in your markdown.

Date formats #

The date field accepts:

• Date string: "2026-01-15"
• Datetime string: "2026-01-15T10:30:00"
• TOML datetime: 2026-01-15T10:30:00 (unquoted)

All formats are normalized to a string for template rendering.

Examples #

Minimal page #

+++
title = "About"
+++

Full page #

+++
title = "Building a static site generator"
date = "2026-03-15"
author = "Cody"
description = "How and why I built Zorto."
draft = false
slug = "building-zorto"
template = "post.html"
aliases = ["/blog/old-url/"]
tags = ["rust", "ssg"]
categories = ["engineering"]

[extra]
featured = true
hero_image = "/images/zorto-hero.png"
+++

Section with pagination #

+++
title = "Blog"
description = "Posts about engineering and design."
sort_by = "date"
paginate_by = 10
template = "blog.html"

[extra]
show_sidebar = true
+++

Further reading #

• Content model — sections, pages, and internal links
• Configuration reference — site-level settings
• Templates — how frontmatter fields are used in templates
• Taxonomies in depth — defining and assigning taxonomy terms