Site & Column Config · Garden Handbook

Global site copy and appearance settings live in site.config.yaml at the repository root, while series definitions live in content/columns.yaml. Run npx garden sync (or make dev) after editing to apply changes.

1.Full `site.config.yaml` Structure

Below are the default site.config.yaml fields generated for an English site (npx hd-garden init --locale en_US):

name: Garden
tagline: Writing · Notes · Staying curious
description: Posts, short notes, and columns.
locale: en_US
# Public address of the site. Full URLs pointing here inside posts render as internal links.
# url: https://blog.example.com
# Site icons; falls back to Garden's built-in icons when omitted.
# brand:
#   logo: brand/logo.svg
#   favicon: /favicon.svg
#   appleTouchIcon: /apple-touch-icon.png

author:
  name: Your Name
  github: your-github-id
  githubBio: A short bio.
  githubPinned: []

pages:
  home:
    title: |-
      Notes on what I am building,
      and questions worth thinking through.
    subtitle: Software, reading notes, and occasional work logs.
  blog:
    title: Posts
    subtitle: Finished long-form essays.
  thoughts:
    title: Thoughts
    subtitle: Short notes, images, and links.
    # How many items to show per screen; the next screen loads automatically as you scroll. Default: 10.
    # pageSize: 10
  columns:
    title: Columns
    subtitle: Series of posts meant to be read in order.
  about:
    title: Hi, I am Your Name.
    subtitle: Essays and notes live here.
    heading: About
    paragraphs:
      - A software engineer writing code and keeping notes on things figured out along the way.
      - This site holds long-form posts, short thoughts, and columns.
    quote: ""
    focus:
      - Software
      - Notes
      - Daily
    cta:
      href: /blog
      label: Browse posts
  garden:
    title: "Write in Markdown.\nPush to update the site."
    subtitle: ""

footer: Keep writing.

Top-level and Author Fields

Field	Description
`name`	Site name shown in the top-left header, browser title suffix, and RSS feed title
`tagline`	Site tagline
`description`	Site summary used for the home page SEO description and RSS channel description
`locale`	Language and region tag (`zh_CN` by default; setting `en_US` switches all framework-rendered UI strings—navigation, home page, post list, post metadata and permalink label, Giscus prompts, tags, columns, About page, 404 page, pagination, RSS/sitemap, and meta/og—to English at build time)
`url`	Public root URL of the site (such as `https://blog.example.com`). Full URLs pointing to this address inside posts are treated as internal links
`author.name`	Author name displayed in article metadata, the About page, and the footer
`author.github`	GitHub username (without the full URL), used to link your GitHub profile and fetch public activity for the About page
`author.githubBio`	Fallback bio used when the build environment has no `GITHUB_TOKEN`
`author.githubPinned`	Fallback list of pinned repositories when `GITHUB_TOKEN` is not set locally
`footer`	Short signature text in the footer

Note

Trailing slashes on internal URLs are not configured in site.config.yaml: static exports (STATIC_EXPORT=1) always enable trailing slashes, and server builds can enable them with TRAILING_SLASH=1.

`pages` Top-level Page Headings

Each key under pages sets the header copy for a top-level route:

pages.home, pages.blog, pages.thoughts, pages.columns, pages.garden: Each accepts title and subtitle. On /garden/, the Chinese overview page reads pages.garden.title (splitting into two lines on |) and pages.garden.subtitle.
pages.about: Alongside title and subtitle, supports heading (section heading), paragraphs (array of paragraphs), quote (pull quote), focus (array of topic tags), and cta ({ href, label } button).

`brand` Custom Icons and Redirects

brand.logo: SVG mark placed to the left of the site name in the header. Resolved relative to the site root (for example brand/logo.svg), sanitized and inlined at build time so it inherits currentColor. Set to false to hide the header mark.
brand.favicon and brand.appleTouchIcon: Paths served from public/ (such as /favicon.svg and /apple-touch-icon.png); set appleTouchIcon to false to omit the tag.
redirects: Top-level map in site.config.yaml for moved posts (for example "/2024/01/20/old-post/": "/blog/new-post/"). The build emits redirect pages at the old paths and rewrites matching internal links inside post bodies to the new destination.

2.Configuring Columns (`content/columns.yaml`)

Columns group multiple posts from content/posts/ into an ordered reading series. Edit content/columns.yaml:

columns:
  - slug: building-in-public
    title: Building in Public
    status: ongoing
    description: Notes from initial prototype to production release.
    cover: windowsill-herbs.svg
    posts:
      - building-in-public/smallest-closed-loop
      - building-in-public/ship-with-evidence

Field	Required	Description
`slug`	Yes	Column identifier (lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens only), generating routes at `/columns/<slug>/<post>`
`title`	Yes	Column title (also shown beside member posts on `/blog`)
`description`	Yes	Column summary shown on `/columns` cards
`status`	No	Status value: `default` (or omitted, shown as "Active"), `ongoing` ("Ongoing"), or `completed` ("Completed"). Legacy Chinese values are still accepted, and any other text is shown verbatim
`cover`	No	Cover image path relative to `content/covers/`
`posts`	Yes	Ordered array of post paths relative to `content/posts/`, without the `.md` extension

1.Full site.config.yaml Structure

Top-level and Author Fields

pages Top-level Page Headings

brand Custom Icons and Redirects

2.Configuring Columns (content/columns.yaml)

1.Full `site.config.yaml` Structure

`pages` Top-level Page Headings

`brand` Custom Icons and Redirects

2.Configuring Columns (`content/columns.yaml`)