Content Sections

A Section is a collection of pages that gets defined based on the organization structure under the content/ directory.

By default, all the first-level directories under content/ form their own sections (root sections) provided they constitute Branch Bundles. Directories which are just Leaf Bundles do not form their own sections, despite being first-level directories.

If a user needs to define a section foo at a deeper level, they need to create a directory named foo with an _index.md file (see Branch Bundles for more information).

Nested Sections

The sections can be nested as deeply as you need.

content
└── blog        <-- Section, because first-level dir under content/
    ├── funny-cats
    │   ├── mypost.md
    │   └── kittens         <-- Section, because contains _index.md
    │       └── _index.md
    └── tech                <-- Section, because contains _index.md
        └── _index.md

The important part to understand is, that to make the section tree fully navigational, at least the lower-most section needs a content file. (e.g. _index.md).

Example: Breadcrumb Navigation

With the available section variables and methods you can build powerful navigation. One common example would be a partial to show Breadcrumb navigation:

<ol  class="nav navbar-nav">
  {{ template "breadcrumbnav" (dict "p1" . "p2" .) }}
</ol>
{{ define "breadcrumbnav" }}
{{ if .p1.Parent }}
{{ template "breadcrumbnav" (dict "p1" .p1.Parent "p2" .p2 )  }}
{{ else if not .p1.IsHome }}
{{ template "breadcrumbnav" (dict "p1" .p1.Site.Home "p2" .p2 )  }}
{{ end }}
<li{{ if eq .p1 .p2 }} class="active" aria-current="page" {{ end }}>
  <a href="{{ .p1.Permalink }}">{{ .p1.Title }}</a>
</li>
{{ end }}

Section Page Variables and Methods

Also see Page Variables.

.CurrentSection

The page’s current section. The value can be the page itself if it is a section or the homepage.

.FirstSection

The page’s first section below root, e.g. /docs, /blog etc.

.InSection $anotherPage

Whether the given page is in the current section.

.IsAncestor $anotherPage

Whether the current page is an ancestor of the given page.

.IsDescendant $anotherPage

Whether the current page is a descendant of the given page.

.Parent

A section’s parent section or a page’s section.

.Section

The section this content belongs to. Note: For nested sections, this is the first path element in the directory, for example, /blog/funny/mypost/ => blog.

.Sections

The sections below this content.

Content Section Lists

Hugo will automatically create a page for each root section that lists all the content in that section. See the documentation on section templates for details on customizing the way these pages are rendered.

Content Section vs Content Type

By default, everything created within a section will use the content type that matches the root section name. For example, Hugo will assume that posts/post-1.md has a posts content type. If you are using an archetype for your posts section, Hugo will generate front matter according to what it finds in archetypes/posts.md.