Writing

Frontmatter

Frontmatter is metadata written in YAML format at the beginning of markdown files, enclosed between triple dashes (---). It allows you to configure various aspects of your pages without affecting the visible content.

In Zudoku, frontmatter enables you to customize page titles, descriptions, navigation settings, and other document properties. Here are all the supported properties:

Properties

title

Sets the page title that appears in the browser tab and as the document title.

MarkdownCode
--- title: My Page Title ---

description

Provides a description for the page, which can be used for SEO and content summaries.

MarkdownCode
--- description: This page explains how to use Zudoku's markdown features. ---

seo

Overrides the browser title (the HTML <title>) and meta description without changing the page heading or sidebar label. Use it when the visible title is short but search results need more context. Both properties are optional and fall back to title and description.

MarkdownCode
--- title: Location Key seo: title: Daily Forecasts by Location Key description: Get daily weather forecasts for a location key, up to 15 days ahead. ---

The site-wide metadata.title template still applies to seo.title. To do the same for an API tag page, use the x-zudoku-seo extension.

category

Assigns the page to a specific category for organizational purposes. This will be shown above the main heading of the document.

MarkdownCode
--- category: Getting Started ---

Sets a custom label for the page in the sidebar navigation, allowing you to use a shorter or different title than the main page title.

MarkdownCode
--- title: My Very Long Documentation Page Title sidebar_label: Short Title ---

The legacy name navigation_label is also supported but sidebar_label is preferred.

Specifies a Lucide icon to display next to the page in the sidebar navigation.

MarkdownCode
--- sidebar_icon: compass ---

The legacy name navigation_icon is also supported but sidebar_icon is preferred.

Specifies the display property of the navigation item. See the Navigation guide

MarkdownCode
--- navigation_display: auth ---

toc

Controls whether the table of contents is displayed for the page. Set to false to hide the table of contents.

MarkdownCode
--- toc: false ---

fullWidth

Removes the table of contents sidebar and lets the page content span the full available width. When enabled, the table of contents is still accessible via an "On this page" toggle in the page header (unless toc: false is also set, in which case it is hidden entirely).

MarkdownCode
--- fullWidth: true ---
fullWidthtocResult
falsetrueTOC shown in the sidebar (default).
falsefalseTOC hidden; content keeps its standard width.
truetrueContent spans full width; TOC is available via a toggle button.
truefalseContent spans full width; TOC is not available at all.

disable_pager

Controls whether the previous/next page navigation is displayed at the bottom of the page. Set to true to disable it.

MarkdownCode
--- disable_pager: true ---

showLastModified

Controls whether the last modified date is displayed for this page. Can be used to override the default option.

MarkdownCode
--- showLastModified: false ---

draft

Marks a document as a draft. Draft documents are only visible when running in development mode and are excluded from production builds. This is useful for working on content that isn't ready to be published.

MarkdownCode
--- draft: true ---

When draft: true is set:

  • The document will be visible when running zudoku dev
  • The document will be excluded from builds created with zudoku build
  • The document won't appear in the navigation or be accessible via URL in production

lastModifiedTime

The last modified timestamp for the page. This property is automatically set by Dev Portal during the build process based on the Git commit history. You generally should not set this manually.

If you need to override the automatically detected date, you can set it explicitly:

MarkdownCode
--- lastModifiedTime: 2025-11-20T10:30:00.000Z ---

Complete Example

Here's an example showing multiple frontmatter properties used together:

Markdowndocumentation.md
--- title: Advanced Configuration Guide description: Learn how to configure advanced features in Dev Portal category: Configuration sidebar_label: Advanced Config sidebar_icon: settings toc: true disable_pager: false draft: false --- This page content follows the frontmatter...
Last modified on