Page context

A normalised per-page object: one cached snapshot of the values Baseline's modules need, built once during the data cascade and read again at transform-time without re-deriving from raw cascade data.

You access it as _pageContext in templates. Internally, the head module reads it through a registry lookup so the same object is available after the cascade has closed.

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Why it exists

Eleventy's HTML transformer hook (where head injection runs) only sees page metadata. The data cascade is not available there. The page-context registry caches the cascade-time view so transform-time consumers can read it back by page.url. That trick is the difference between Baseline's head module being able to compose <title> from cascade data and it having to re-walk the cascade per request.

Where it surfaces

• In templates: as _pageContext (computed via eleventyComputed).
• In _snapshot: every built page-context lives under _snapshot.pageContext, keyed by URL. See Globals.
• At transform-time: read by the head module via the registry's getByKey(page.url) lookup.

The Page Context shape

Seven top-level keys. Each one is built by a small pure function from cascade data; the field itself is what the consumer sees.

Key	What it carries	Built from
site	title, tagline, url, noindex. Per-language title/tagline if the page has a lang and settings.languages.<lang> overrides.	settings, data.settings, page.lang
page	Eleventy's page snapshot, scoped to the keys baseline reads (url, inputPath, fileSlug, lang, locale, date, …).	data.page
entry	Front-matter values: title, description, head. Page-level overrides for site defaults.	data.title, data.description, data.head
query	Cheap derived flags. Today: isHome (true when page.url === '/').	entry, page
meta	Composed <title>, default description, canonical, robots, noindex. Title composition uses head.titleSeparator.	data, site, page, query
render	Render-environment values. Today: generator (Eleventy's version string, when present).	data.eleventy.generator
head	Merged + deduplicated link, script, style, meta arrays from settings.head and page front matter. Dedupe keys: href, src, href, name.	settings.head, data.head

Opt out: _internal: true

Templates that set _internal: true in their data are skipped by the registry. Pages with a non-HTML output extension are also skipped automatically.

This is for synthetic templates that should not get a page context: sitemap XML, the navigator debug page, any virtual template you write yourself that does not represent a real page. Set _internal: true in the template's data and the registry leaves it alone.

// In a virtual template's data
eleventyConfig.addTemplate('navigator-core.html', virtualTemplateContent, {
	// ... other template settings,
	permalink: '/feed.xml',
	_internal: true
});

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See also

• Globals - _pageContext and _snapshot.pageContext.
• Internals - the registry primitive that backs the cache.
• Head module - the consumer side; reads _pageContext at transform-time.
• Site settings - the inputs site and head are built from.