Frontmatter

Last Updated   March 29, 2025

Guide

What is Frontmatter?

Frontmatter is a block of metadata at the top of a Markdown file that provides information about the page. It is used by Starlight to generate the HTML pages and can be used to control various aspects of the page’s behavior and appearance.

What options are available?

The following options are available in the frontmatter for pages:

See Starlight - Frontmatter for more information and additional options.

Field	Description	Required
title	String containing the title of the page	Yes
category	String of the category the page should be included in guide or reference	Yes
layout	relative path to one of the layouts in /src/layouts	Yes
description	String containing the descriptive text to use in HTML meta tags	Recommended
lastUpdated	String in the format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS	Recommended
draft	Boolean value determining whether the page should be hidden from the production site	No
slug	String containing the URL slug for the page	No
tableOfContents	Boolean value determining whether a table of contents should be generated	No
template	doc or splash default is doc. splash is a wider layout without the normal sidebars	No
hero	See Starlight - Frontmatter HeroConfig for more information	No
banner	See Starlight - Frontmatter Banner for more information	No
prev	Boolean value determining whether a previous button should be shown. See Starlight - Frontmatter Prev for more information	No
next	Boolean value determining whether a next button should be shown. See Starlight - Frontmatter Next for more information	No
sidebar	Control how the page is displayed in the sidebar. See Starlight - Frontmatter Sidebar for more information	No

Example Frontmatter

---
title: Getting Started with the API
description: Get started with the Hardcover GraphQL API.
category: guide
lastUpdated: 2025-02-01 17:03:00
layout: ../../layouts/documentation.astro
---