Front Matter

Guest Author

December 7, 2025

3 min read

All theme parameters can be overridden per-page using front matter. This allows fine-grained control over how each page is displayed.

Basic Parameters #

Parameter	Type	Description
`title`	string	Page title (used in browser tab and headings)
`date`	date	Publish date
`lastmod`	date	Last modified date
`draft`	boolean	Mark as draft (hidden in production)
`description`	string	Page description (meta tag and social cards)
`summary`	string	Custom summary for article cards
`tags`	array	Page tags
`categories`	array	Page categories
`keywords`	array	SEO keywords
`weight`	integer	Sort order for list pages

Layout Parameters #

Parameter	Type	Description
`layout`	string	Override layout template
`type`	string	Content type (determines lookup path)

Available Layouts #

single - Default article layout with optional TOC sidebar
list - Archive/list page with article cards
about - About page layout

Display Overrides #

Override any params.article setting per-page:

---
title: "My Article"
showTableOfContents: false
showReadingTime: false
showDate: false
showAuthorHeader: false
showAuthorFooter: false
showWordCount: true
showTaxonomies: true
showPagination: false
showHeadingAnchors: false
showDraftLabel: true
showDateUpdated: true
---

Featured Images #

Add featured images that appear on article cards:

---
title: "My Article"
featureImage: "image.jpg"
featureImageAlt: "Description of image"
---

Place the image in the same directory as your content file (page bundle) or reference a path in static/.

Table of Contents #

The TOC appears automatically for articles over 400 words when showTableOfContents: true (the default). The TOC displays as a sticky sidebar on larger screens and is hidden on mobile.

To disable for a specific page:

---
showTableOfContents: false
---

Draft Posts #

Draft posts are hidden in production but visible during development:

---
draft: true
---

Build with drafts using:

hugo --buildDrafts
hugo server --buildDrafts

When displayed, draft posts show a “Draft” badge (controlled by showDraftLabel).

Author Override #

Override the site-wide author for a specific page:

---
author:
  name: "Guest Author"
  headline: "Guest Writer"
  image: "guest-avatar.jpg"
---

SEO Parameters #

Parameter	Type	Description
`description`	string	Meta description
`keywords`	array	Meta keywords
`robots`	string	Robots meta directive

---
description: "A detailed guide to configuring Shiloh"
keywords: ["hugo", "theme", "configuration"]
robots: "noindex, nofollow"
---

Open Graph Overrides #

Parameter	Type	Description
`images`	array	Open Graph images (up to 6)

---
images:
  - "og-image.jpg"
  - "og-image-2.jpg"
---

Section Index Pages #

For _index.md files, additional options control section listing behavior:

---
title: "Blog Posts"
description: "All articles and tutorials"
cascade:
  showReadingTime: true
  showDate: true
---

The cascade option applies settings to all pages in the section.

Complete Example #

---
title: "Getting Started with Shiloh"
date: 2024-01-15
lastmod: 2024-01-20
draft: false
description: "Learn how to set up and customize the Shiloh Hugo theme"
summary: "A beginner's guide to the Shiloh theme"
tags: ["tutorial", "hugo", "themes"]
categories: ["Documentation"]
keywords: ["hugo theme", "shiloh", "getting started"]
featureImage: "cover.jpg"
featureImageAlt: "Shiloh theme screenshot"
showTableOfContents: true
showReadingTime: true
showWordCount: true
showTaxonomies: true
showAuthorHeader: true
showAuthorFooter: true
showDate: true
showDateUpdated: true
---

Author

Guest Author - Guest Writer