Frontmatter
Every Docsio page begins with a YAML frontmatter block. It controls the page's title, position in the sidebar, meta description, slug, and optional icon.
Minimum required
---
title: My page title
---
That's it. Title is the only required field; everything else has sensible defaults.
Common fields
---
title: Quickstart
sidebar_position: 1
description: "Get up and running in five minutes."
slug: /quickstart
sidebar_custom_props:
icon: rocket
---
Field reference
title (required)
Used as the page's <h1> and as the sidebar label.
title: API Reference
sidebar_position
Order in the sidebar within its category. Lower numbers come first.
sidebar_position: 2
If omitted, pages sort alphabetically by filename.
description
Used as the page's <meta name="description"> and in social previews. Aim for 140-160 characters.
description: "How to authenticate against the Acme API using API keys, OAuth 2.0, or short-lived JWTs."
If omitted, search engines will use a snippet from the first paragraph.
slug
Override the URL path. Default: derived from the file path.
slug: /api-auth
docs/api/auth.md would normally be /docs/api/auth. Setting slug: /api-auth makes it /api-auth instead. Useful for short, memorable URLs.
sidebar_label
Override the sidebar label without changing the page title.
title: API Reference: Authentication
sidebar_label: Authentication
The page's <h1> is the long form; the sidebar shows the short form.
sidebar_class_name
Add a class to the sidebar item. The most common use:
sidebar_class_name: hidden
Hides the page from the sidebar but keeps it accessible at its URL. Useful for landing pages, deep links, or in-progress drafts.
sidebar_custom_props
Custom properties used by the theme. Most commonly:
sidebar_custom_props:
icon: rocket
The icon shows next to the page in the sidebar. Use any Phosphor icon name (e.g. rocket, book-open, git-branch, lock).
keywords
Custom keywords for SEO meta tags. Comma-separated string or array.
keywords: ["api", "authentication", "oauth"]
image
Custom social preview image for this page. Defaults to your project's logo.
image: /img/api-auth-banner.png
draft
Hides the page from the sidebar AND from search. Useful for in-progress pages.
draft: true
(Different from sidebar_class_name: hidden — that hides only from sidebar but stays searchable. draft: true hides everywhere.)
pagination_prev and pagination_next
Override the prev/next links at the bottom of the page (which default to the previous and next pages in the sidebar).
pagination_prev: getting-started/quickstart
pagination_next: api/auth
Use the file path (without .md) of the target page.
Category metadata
Categories (folders) have their own metadata in _category_.json:
{
"label": "Getting Started",
"position": 1,
"customProps": { "icon": "rocket" },
"link": {
"type": "generated-index",
"description": "Start here. Five minutes to a published docs site."
}
}
Tips
- Keep titles tight. "Get started" is better than "Getting started: a comprehensive guide to onboarding."
- Description matters for SEO. Both Google and the AI chat widget use it.
- Set
sidebar_positionfor any page where ordering matters. Don't rely on alphabetical for important sequences (Quickstart → Configuration → Examples). - Pick icons that match the page's role. Phosphor has 1500+ icons. Browse phosphoricons.com.