Teatime

Front Matter

Front matter is the small block of settings at the top of a Markdown file, wrapped in a pair of --- lines. It tells Teatime how to treat the page. Every field is optional unless noted, and sensible defaults fill in whatever you leave out.

Here is a post that leans on most of them at once:

content/posts/example.md
md
---
title: A Complete Example
date: 2026-07-16
updated: 2026-07-20
tags: [meta, writing]
summary: A short line for cards, feeds, and social previews.
cover: /assets/example.webp {.wide}
author: murdock
slug: a-complete-example
draft: false
---

Your writing begins here.

The essentials ​

Two fields carry most of the weight. Everything else is a refinement.

Field What it does
title The page heading and the browser tab text
description Sets the meta description and social preview text. It is not shown on the page, and when a post leaves it out, the summary steps in

Posts ​

These shape how a post appears in your listings, feed, and archive.

Field What it does
date The primary sort key, so newer posts rise to the top of the home page and feed
updated A later revision date, shown as a "Last updated" note when it is newer than date
tags A list like [meta, writing] that drives the tag pages and the tag index
summary The excerpt on cards. It also stands in for the description on feeds and social previews, and falls back to the first paragraph when unset
cover A feature image. It accepts the same width attributes as inline images, so cover: /assets/hero.webp {.full} gives you a full width hero. Two height attributes tune how tall it sits: {.short} crops it to a slim band, {.tall} gives it more room, and they combine with a width as in {.wide .short}. A hex code like cover: #3a5f4a paints a flat colour block instead, no image needed
author An id pointing at a file in content/authors/. When no match is found, the value is shown as written, and otherwise it falls back to the site author
slug A friendlier URL, replacing the file name in the address
draft Set to true to hold a post out of listings, feeds, and the sitemap. Drafts stay visible while you run locally
sitemap Set to false to drop the post from sitemap.xml only. Unlike draft, it stays in listings, feeds, and search

Pages ​

Standalone pages under content/pages/ understand a few extras of their own.

Field What it does
redirect Sends visitors on to another URL instead of rendering the page
page-next Adds a "Next" link at the foot of the page, resolved to the target page's title
page-prev, page-previous The matching "Previous" link. Either spelling works
pagination Set to false to hide those previous and next links entirely
enabled Set to false on a custom tags, archive, or authors page to turn that surface off
archiveColumns Columns for a custom archive page's {{archive}} rows, rendered in the order you list them. Choose from date, title, author and authorImage, as in [date, title, authorImage]. Left out, you get [date, title]. An avatar carries the author's name as its hover title
sitemap Set to false to drop the page from sitemap.xml. The page stays live and searchable

Authors ​

Files in content/authors/ describe the people behind the posts. A post points at one with its author field.

content/authors/jane.md
md
---
id: jane
name: Jane Doe
image: /assets/jane.webp
hidden: false
---

A short bio, written in Markdown.
Field What it does
id The value posts use in their author field. Defaults to the file name
name The display name shown on bylines and the author page
image A portrait for the byline and author card
hidden Set to true to withdraw an author from the site. They lose their page, and drop out of the index, sitemap, and search. Their posts stay published and still carry their name, as plain text rather than a link

Search and metadata ​

A couple of quieter fields help search and the "Last updated" stamp behave the way you would like.

Field What it does
keywords A list that nudges search weighting and fills the meta keywords
lastUpdated Set to false to hide the "Last updated" stamp on a single page

Unsure about a field? Fill it in and save to see how it works. Teatime applies changes instantly, so you can always undo your work if needed.

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