` (`Page title – Site title`) and by the navigator template. - **tagline** (`string`) - short site-wide line. Used as the home page's title suffix and as the default `<meta name="description">` when a page has no description of its own. - **url** (`string`) - absolute site URL, including protocol. Used to resolve canonical URLs, sitemap entries, and absolute image URLs in the image shortcode. Baseline warns at startup if this is missing. - **noindex** (`boolean`, default `false`) - when `true`, every page renders `<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">` and the sitemap is not emitted. Useful for staging environments. Pages can also opt out individually via `noindex: true` in front matter. - **defaultLocale** (`string`) - BCP 47 default locale (e.g. `'en-US'`). Preferred. Sets the site's default language and the fallback `page.locale` for pages whose language has no `locale` of its own. Either this or `defaultLanguage` is required for multilingual activation. - **defaultLanguage** (`string`) - Short language code (e.g. `'en'`). A writer-side alias for `defaultLocale`: set it when you do not need a region, and Baseline derives the locale from it. The default-language permalinks are unprefixed; other languages live under `/<lang>/`. - **languages** (`object | string[]`) - language map. Object form `{ en: {}, fr: {} }` or array shorthand `['en', 'fr']` (arrays are normalised to objects with empty entries; invalid entries are dropped, logged when `verbose: true`). Required for multilingual activation. Per-language overrides are supported for `title`, `tagline`, and `locale` (the BCP 47 tag, e.g. `'en-US'`, that becomes `page.locale` for pages in that language): ```js export default { languages: { en: { title: 'Your site', tagline: 'A short line.', locale: 'en-US' }, fr: { title: 'Votre site', tagline: 'Une ligne courte.', locale: 'fr-FR' } } }; ``` - **head** (`object`) - additive `<head>` extras injected on every page. Four arrays, one per element type. Each entry is an object whose keys become attributes on the rendered tag. ```js export default { head: { link: [ { rel: 'stylesheet', href: '/assets/css/index.css' }, { rel: 'icon', href: '/favicon.svg' } ], script: [{ src: '/assets/js/index.js', defer: true }], meta: [{ name: 'theme-color', content: '#0a0a0a' }], style: [] } }; ``` Pages can add their own entries through the same shape in front matter; Baseline merges and deduplicates. See the [[head | head module]] for the merge rules. {% alertBlock %} This is also where you wire the asset pipeline into your pages. Baseline compiles `assets/css/index.css` and `assets/js/index.js` to `/assets/css/index.css` and `/assets/js/index.js` at the site root, but it does not auto-inject them. Declare a `link` and a `script` entry as above. The default docs site does exactly this. {% endalertBlock %} Output filenames are unhashed today. Cache-busting via hashed filenames is on the roadmap, and the entrypoint declaration shape may change to accommodate it. In practice `link`, `script`, and `meta` carry almost everything you need. `style` is supported for parity but rarely used; inline `<style>` blocks usually belong in your CSS pipeline rather than the head extras list. - **seo** (`object`) - site-wide SEO defaults. They feed the resolved `seo` namespace and the SEO payload the head module emits (canonical, Open Graph, Twitter Card, JSON-LD). All optional. ```js export default { seo: { // keep the query string on canonical URLs (default: strip it) preserveQueryParams: false, // default share card; the url must be absolute (it lands in the JSON-LD graph) ogImage: { url: 'https://www.example.com/og.jpg', width: 1200, height: 630, alt: '' }, // default Open Graph and Twitter values, overridable per page openGraph: {}, twitter: {} } }; ``` The share image default lives here, in `settings.seo`, because it is page presentation: the same shelf as `og:type` and `twitter:card`. Identity images, an organisation logo or a person's photo, live in the `schema` cascade key instead, because they are properties of the entity. All three end up as graph `ImageObject` nodes, so the split is about where the value is authored, not what it becomes. {% endstepsBlock %} --- ## SEO front matter Beyond `settings.seo`, a page carries its own SEO through front-matter keys. Baseline reads them into the resolved SEO values and the JSON-LD graph the head module emits. Each is optional; a page with none still gets a complete, valid graph from the site defaults. {% tableBlock true %} | Key | Type | What it does | | --------------------- | -------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `ogImage` | `string` or `object` | Per-page share card. Overrides `settings.seo.ogImage`. Object form `{ url, width, height, alt }` lets the graph emit a sized `ImageObject`; a bare string emits a url-only `og:image`. | | `canonical` | `string` | Explicit canonical URL. Without it the canonical is the page's own absolute URL. | | `preserveQueryParams` | `boolean` | Keep the query string on this page's canonical. Overrides the site default. The fragment is always stripped. | | `pageType` | `string` | Overrides the WebPage node's schema.org `@type` (e.g. `AboutPage`, `CollectionPage`). | | `articleType` | `string` | Overrides the Article node's `@type` (e.g. `BlogPosting`). Takes effect only when the page is an article (`type: article`). | | `topics` | `string` or `string[]` | Keyword classification. Emitted as schema.org `keywords` on the WebPage and Article nodes, and as `og:article:tag` on article pages. Separate from Eleventy's native `tags`, which Baseline leaves alone. Bring your own taxonomy: if you want topic-listing pages, build a collection from `topics` yourself. | | `datePublished` | `string` | Publish date for the structured data. Defaults to the page's `date`. Sets `datePublished` on the WebPage and Article nodes. | | `dateModified` | `string` | Last-modified date for the structured data. Resolves front matter first, then the git last-commit date, then the publish date. Sets `dateModified`. | {% endtableBlock %} Identity authoring, your organisation and author profile plus any extra schema.org nodes, lives in the `schema` cascade key rather than per-page front matter. --- ## Multilingual activation Three things must be set together: `options.multilingual: true`, `settings.defaultLocale` or `settings.defaultLanguage`, and a non-empty `settings.languages`. Nothing is inferred. If any of the three is missing, the multilang module skips activation and logs why. See the [[multilang | multilang module]] for what activation enables (per-language collections, hreflang, i18n filters). --- ## Where settings surface | Surface | Reads | | ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `_pageContext.site` | `title`, `tagline`, `url`, `noindex` (per-language `title`/`tagline` if present) | | `_pageContext.meta` | composed `<title>`, default description from `tagline`, robots from `noindex` | | Head module | `head.{link, script, meta, style}` extras | | `seo` namespace | `seo` defaults: canonical policy, share image, Open Graph and Twitter values | | Sitemap module | `noindex` (skip when `true`); `defaultLanguage` and `languages` for per-lang sitemaps | | Multilang module | `defaultLanguage`, `languages` | | Image shortcode | `url` for absolute image URLs | --- ## See also - [[plugin-entrypoint | Plugin entrypoint]] - the `options` argument and what Baseline registers. - [[page-context | Page context]] - how settings are normalised per page. - [[head | Head module]] - head extras merge rules. - [[multilang | Multilang module]]

--- title: 'Site settings' description: 'The settings argument to baseline(): site identity, languages, and head extras.' slug: 'site-settings' type: 'article' date: 2026-04-28T00:00:00.000Z lang: 'en' url: 'https://www.eleventy-baseline.dev/docs/core-reference/site-settings/' --- `settings` is the first argument to `baseline()`. It carries site identity: title, tagline, canonical URL, indexability, languages, and any extra `` items you want injected on every page. Settings flow through `state.settings` and surface in templates as `_pageContext.site` (and as `settings` in the data cascade when you keep them in `_data/settings.js`). --- ## The settings shape ```js export default { title: 'Your site', tagline: 'A short site-wide line.', url: 'https://www.example.com', noindex: false, defaultLanguage: 'en', languages: { en: {}, fr: {} }, head: { link: [], script: [], meta: [], style: [] }, seo: { preserveQueryParams: false, ogImage: null, openGraph: {}, twitter: {} } }; await eleventyConfig.addPlugin(baseline(settings)); ``` Every key is optional. Baseline logs a warning if `settings.url` is missing: canonicals are then omitted, and other absolute URLs (sitemap entries, social images) fall back to relative paths. --- ## Keys {% stepsBlock "compact" %} - **title** (`string`) - site title. Used by the head module to compose `` (`Page title – Site title`) and by the navigator template. - **tagline** (`string`) - short site-wide line. Used as the home page's title suffix and as the default `<meta name="description">` when a page has no description of its own. - **url** (`string`) - absolute site URL, including protocol. Used to resolve canonical URLs, sitemap entries, and absolute image URLs in the image shortcode. Baseline warns at startup if this is missing. - **noindex** (`boolean`, default `false`) - when `true`, every page renders `<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">` and the sitemap is not emitted. Useful for staging environments. Pages can also opt out individually via `noindex: true` in front matter. - **defaultLocale** (`string`) - BCP 47 default locale (e.g. `'en-US'`). Preferred. Sets the site's default language and the fallback `page.locale` for pages whose language has no `locale` of its own. Either this or `defaultLanguage` is required for multilingual activation. - **defaultLanguage** (`string`) - Short language code (e.g. `'en'`). A writer-side alias for `defaultLocale`: set it when you do not need a region, and Baseline derives the locale from it. The default-language permalinks are unprefixed; other languages live under `/<lang>/`. - **languages** (`object | string[]`) - language map. Object form `{ en: {}, fr: {} }` or array shorthand `['en', 'fr']` (arrays are normalised to objects with empty entries; invalid entries are dropped, logged when `verbose: true`). Required for multilingual activation. Per-language overrides are supported for `title`, `tagline`, and `locale` (the BCP 47 tag, e.g. `'en-US'`, that becomes `page.locale` for pages in that language): ```js export default { languages: { en: { title: 'Your site', tagline: 'A short line.', locale: 'en-US' }, fr: { title: 'Votre site', tagline: 'Une ligne courte.', locale: 'fr-FR' } } }; ``` - **head** (`object`) - additive `<head>` extras injected on every page. Four arrays, one per element type. Each entry is an object whose keys become attributes on the rendered tag. ```js export default { head: { link: [ { rel: 'stylesheet', href: '/assets/css/index.css' }, { rel: 'icon', href: '/favicon.svg' } ], script: [{ src: '/assets/js/index.js', defer: true }], meta: [{ name: 'theme-color', content: '#0a0a0a' }], style: [] } }; ``` Pages can add their own entries through the same shape in front matter; Baseline merges and deduplicates. See the [[head | head module]] for the merge rules. {% alertBlock %} This is also where you wire the asset pipeline into your pages. Baseline compiles `assets/css/index.css` and `assets/js/index.js` to `/assets/css/index.css` and `/assets/js/index.js` at the site root, but it does not auto-inject them. Declare a `link` and a `script` entry as above. The default docs site does exactly this. {% endalertBlock %} Output filenames are unhashed today. Cache-busting via hashed filenames is on the roadmap, and the entrypoint declaration shape may change to accommodate it. In practice `link`, `script`, and `meta` carry almost everything you need. `style` is supported for parity but rarely used; inline `<style>` blocks usually belong in your CSS pipeline rather than the head extras list. - **seo** (`object`) - site-wide SEO defaults. They feed the resolved `seo` namespace and the SEO payload the head module emits (canonical, Open Graph, Twitter Card, JSON-LD). All optional. ```js export default { seo: { // keep the query string on canonical URLs (default: strip it) preserveQueryParams: false, // default share card; the url must be absolute (it lands in the JSON-LD graph) ogImage: { url: 'https://www.example.com/og.jpg', width: 1200, height: 630, alt: '' }, // default Open Graph and Twitter values, overridable per page openGraph: {}, twitter: {} } }; ``` The share image default lives here, in `settings.seo`, because it is page presentation: the same shelf as `og:type` and `twitter:card`. Identity images, an organisation logo or a person's photo, live in the `schema` cascade key instead, because they are properties of the entity. All three end up as graph `ImageObject` nodes, so the split is about where the value is authored, not what it becomes. {% endstepsBlock %} --- ## SEO front matter Beyond `settings.seo`, a page carries its own SEO through front-matter keys. Baseline reads them into the resolved SEO values and the JSON-LD graph the head module emits. Each is optional; a page with none still gets a complete, valid graph from the site defaults. {% tableBlock true %} | Key | Type | What it does | | --------------------- | -------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `ogImage` | `string` or `object` | Per-page share card. Overrides `settings.seo.ogImage`. Object form `{ url, width, height, alt }` lets the graph emit a sized `ImageObject`; a bare string emits a url-only `og:image`. | | `canonical` | `string` | Explicit canonical URL. Without it the canonical is the page's own absolute URL. | | `preserveQueryParams` | `boolean` | Keep the query string on this page's canonical. Overrides the site default. The fragment is always stripped. | | `pageType` | `string` | Overrides the WebPage node's schema.org `@type` (e.g. `AboutPage`, `CollectionPage`). | | `articleType` | `string` | Overrides the Article node's `@type` (e.g. `BlogPosting`). Takes effect only when the page is an article (`type: article`). | | `topics` | `string` or `string[]` | Keyword classification. Emitted as schema.org `keywords` on the WebPage and Article nodes, and as `og:article:tag` on article pages. Separate from Eleventy's native `tags`, which Baseline leaves alone. Bring your own taxonomy: if you want topic-listing pages, build a collection from `topics` yourself. | | `datePublished` | `string` | Publish date for the structured data. Defaults to the page's `date`. Sets `datePublished` on the WebPage and Article nodes. | | `dateModified` | `string` | Last-modified date for the structured data. Resolves front matter first, then the git last-commit date, then the publish date. Sets `dateModified`. | {% endtableBlock %} Identity authoring, your organisation and author profile plus any extra schema.org nodes, lives in the `schema` cascade key rather than per-page front matter. --- ## Multilingual activation Three things must be set together: `options.multilingual: true`, `settings.defaultLocale` or `settings.defaultLanguage`, and a non-empty `settings.languages`. Nothing is inferred. If any of the three is missing, the multilang module skips activation and logs why. See the [[multilang | multilang module]] for what activation enables (per-language collections, hreflang, i18n filters). --- ## Where settings surface | Surface | Reads | | ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `_pageContext.site` | `title`, `tagline`, `url`, `noindex` (per-language `title`/`tagline` if present) | | `_pageContext.meta` | composed `<title>`, default description from `tagline`, robots from `noindex` | | Head module | `head.{link, script, meta, style}` extras | | `seo` namespace | `seo` defaults: canonical policy, share image, Open Graph and Twitter values | | Sitemap module | `noindex` (skip when `true`); `defaultLanguage` and `languages` for per-lang sitemaps | | Multilang module | `defaultLanguage`, `languages` | | Image shortcode | `url` for absolute image URLs | --- ## See also - [[plugin-entrypoint | Plugin entrypoint]] - the `options` argument and what Baseline registers. - [[page-context | Page context]] - how settings are normalised per page. - [[head | Head module]] - head extras merge rules. - [[multilang | Multilang module]] - activation and per-language behaviour.