Mastering Layout: Sections, Categories, and Templates

Luna SSG is driven by metadata (Frontmatter). By changing a few lines at the top of your Markdown file, you can completely change how and where your content appears.

This guide covers the core logic of the engine as of v1.6.

1. Sections vs. Categories

In Luna SSG, these two fields serve different purposes:

section (Structural)

The section field determines which block on the Homepage your post will appear in.

• How to use: The value must match an id in the sections list within your _config.yml.
• Example: section: blog or section: tech.
• Behavior: To keep the homepage clean, the blog section is limited to the latest 10 posts. Other sections (like "Projects" or "Events") display all entries.

category (Semantic)

The category field is used for grouping posts on the Archive page.

• Availability: Currently, categories are only processed for posts where section: blog.
• Default: If not specified, it defaults to "Random".
• Behavior: Clicking a category in the post metadata will take you to the specific section in /archive.html.

2. Templates

You can choose between two built-in layouts:

1. template: post (Default):
   • Displays the date and location.
   • Shows the "Posted in..." metadata.
   • Appears in the chronological blog list.
2. template: page:
   • Hides the date and metadata.
   • Used for static content like "About Me", "Contact", or "404".

3. Linklog (External Links)

Luna SSG supports "Daring Fireball" style link posts. If you add a link field, the post title on the homepage and archive will point directly to that URL.

title: "Check this cool site"
link: "https://example.com"

A small arrow (→) is automatically added to the title to indicate an external destination.

4. Intelligent URLs

By default, the engine creates a URL based on your title (e.g., Hello World -> hello-world.html). However, you can override this:

• Custom Slug: Use slug: my-custom-url to set a specific filename.
• Unpublished: Set published: false to hide the post from all lists (useful for drafts), though the HTML file will still be generated if you want to preview it via a direct link.

Example Frontmatter

Here is a complete example of a well-configured post:

---
title: "My New Project"
date: 2026-02-10
section: blog
category: Projects
location: "Ozersk, Russia"
slug: cool-project-2026
published: true
template: post
---

Happy blogging with Luna SSG!