Content Guide

Everything you need to know about creating content in Jackdaw.

Content Files

Content is written in Markdown in site/src/.

File Naming Convention

[date-]name.type.md

Examples:

Content Types

The .type. part determines template and behavior:

Title Extraction

Jackdaw extracts titles from:
category: Tutorial
featured: true
image: /images/hero.jpg
—


Access in templates:
```erb
<% if featured %>
  <span class="badge">Featured</span>
<% end %>

Writing Markdown

Jackdaw uses GitHub-flavored Markdown via Kramdown.

Headings

# Heading 1
## Heading 2
### Heading 3

Text Formatting

**bold** or __bold__
*italic* or _italic_
~~strikethrough~~
`code`

[Link text](https://example.com)
[Relative link](/about.html)
[Link with title](https://example.com "Title")

Images

![Alt text](/images/photo.jpg)
![With title](/images/photo.jpg "Photo title")

Lists

- Unordered item
- Another item
  - Nested item

1. Ordered item
2. Another item
   1. Nested ordered

Code Blocks

With syntax highlighting:

```ruby
def hello
  puts "Hello, world!"
end
```

Supported languages: Ruby, JavaScript, Python, HTML, CSS, Shell, and 200+ more.

Blockquotes

> This is a quote
> spanning multiple lines

Tables

| Header 1 | Header 2 |
|----------|----------|
| Cell 1   | Cell 2   |
| Cell 3   | Cell 4   |

Horizontal Rules

---

HTML

You can include HTML:

<div class="custom">
  Regular markdown **works** here too.
</div>

Automatic Excerpt

The first paragraph becomes the excerpt:


This paragraph is automatically used as the excerpt.

This is regular content.

Nested Content

Organize with directories:

site/src/
├── index.page.md
├── about.page.md
├── blog/
│   ├── 2026-01-01-first.blog.md
│   └── 2026-01-02-second.blog.md
└── docs/
    ├── getting-started.page.md
    └── api.page.md

URLs match structure:

Dates

Automatic Date Extraction

Jackdaw extracts dates from filenames:

2026-01-06-post-name.blog.md
^         ^
Date      │
          Title

Formats:

No Date

For pages that don’t need dates:

about.page.md  # No date in filename

Title Extraction

Jackdaw extracts titles from:

  1. First H1 in content (highest priority): 
    # This Becomes the Title
  2. Filename (fallback): 
    my-awesome-post.blog.md
→ "My Awesome Post"

Content Organization Patterns

Blog

site/src/
├── index.page.md                    # Blog homepage
└── blog/
    ├── 2026-01-01-hello.blog.md
    ├── 2026-01-02-second.blog.md
    └── 2026-01-03-third.blog.md

Documentation Site

site/src/
├── index.page.md                    # Docs homepage
├── getting-started.page.md
├── installation.page.md
└── guides/
    ├── basics.page.md
    ├── advanced.page.md
    └── api.page.md

Marketing Site

site/src/
├── index.page.md                    # Homepage
├── about.page.md
├── pricing.page.md
├── contact.page.md
└── blog/
    └── 2026-01-01-announcement.blog.md

RSS/Atom Feeds

Feeds are automatically generated for blog content:

Includes:

Sitemap

public/sitemap.xml is automatically generated with:

Best Practices

  1. Use descriptive filenames - They become URLs
  2. Add excerpts - First paragraph is used as excerpt
  3. Organize with directories - Keep related content together
  4. Include dates for time-sensitive content
  5. Write semantic Markdown - Use proper headings hierarchy
  6. Add alt text to images - For accessibility

Tips