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Front Matter Reference

Crier reads YAML front matter from your markdown files.

Basic Format

---
title: "Your Post Title"
description: "A brief description for SEO and previews"
tags: [python, automation, cli]
canonical_url: https://yourblog.com/your-post
published: true
---

Your content here...

Fields

Field Type Required Description
title string Yes* Post title. Falls back to filename if not set.
description string No Short description for SEO and social previews.
tags list or string No Tags/hashtags. Can be YAML list or comma-separated.
canonical_url string No URL of the original post (for cross-posts).
published boolean No Whether to publish immediately (default: true).

Tags Format

Tags can be specified in multiple formats:

# YAML list (recommended)
tags: [python, cli, automation]

# YAML list (multi-line)
tags:
  - python
  - cli
  - automation

# Comma-separated string
tags: python, cli, automation

Platform-Specific Behavior

Blog Platforms

  • Title: Used as article title
  • Description: Used as excerpt/subtitle
  • Tags: Applied as platform tags (may be limited, e.g., dev.to max 4)
  • Canonical URL: Set as canonical link
  • Body: Published as full article

Social Platforms

  • Title: Included in post text
  • Description: Included in post text (if space allows)
  • Tags: Converted to hashtags
  • Canonical URL: Appended as link
  • Body: Not used (post is a link announcement)

Example: Blog Post

---
title: "Building a CLI Tool with Click"
description: "A practical guide to creating command-line interfaces in Python"
tags: [python, cli, click, tutorial]
canonical_url: https://myblog.com/click-cli-tutorial
published: true
---

# Introduction

Click is a Python package for creating beautiful command-line interfaces...

Example: Announcement

For social platforms, only front matter matters:

---
title: "New Blog Post: Building a CLI Tool with Click"
description: "Learn how to create professional CLIs in Python"
tags: [python, cli]
canonical_url: https://myblog.com/click-cli-tutorial
---

This body text is ignored for social platforms.

Draft Mode

Set published: false or use --draft flag:

---
title: "Work in Progress"
published: false
---

# Or via CLI
crier publish post.md --to devto --draft