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Frontmatter reference

The blog collection’s schema is defined in src/content.config.ts (or src/content/config.ts in older themes). This page mirrors that schema and explains each field.

Default schema

Section titled “Default schema”
src/content.config.ts
const blog = defineCollection({
  type: 'content',
  schema: z.object({
    title:       z.string(),
    description: z.string(),
    date:        z.date(),
    author:      z.string(),
    category:    z.string(),
    image:       z.string().optional(),
    draft:       z.boolean().default(false),
  }),
});

Field reference

Section titled “Field reference”

title (required)

Section titled “title (required)”
title: "Getting Started with Aurora"
  • Type: string
  • Required: yes
  • Used as: post <h1>, blog index card title, <title> tag, OG / Twitter share title.

Keep under ~60 characters for clean display in search results.

description (required)

Section titled “description (required)”
description: "A 5-minute walk through Aurora's core concepts."
  • Type: string
  • Required: yes
  • Used as: card subtitle on the blog index, <meta name="description">, OG / Twitter share description.

~150 characters is the sweet spot. Beyond that, Google truncates with an ellipsis.

date (required)

Section titled “date (required)”
date: 2026-01-15
# or with time:
date: 2026-01-15T14:30:00.000Z
  • Type: YAML date (parsed as JS Date)
  • Required: yes
  • Used as: card date, post byline date, <time datetime="..."> for SEO, sort order on the blog index.

ISO format is safest. Astro’s content layer parses both YYYY-MM-DD and full ISO strings; bare strings like "Jan 15, 2026" will fail the schema.

author (required)

Section titled “author (required)”
author: "Alex Rivera"
  • Type: string
  • Required: yes
  • Used as: byline on the post and the card.

For multi-author posts, comma-separate ("Alex Rivera, Sarah Kim") or convert to an array — see Extending the schema.

category (required)

Section titled “category (required)”
category: "Engineering"
  • Type: string
  • Required: yes
  • Used as: the tag chip on cards, the filter facet on the blog index.

To enforce a fixed set, use a z.enum() — see Extending the schema.

image (optional)

Section titled “image (optional)”
image: "/blog/getting-started.jpg"
  • Type: string path (relative to public/)
  • Required: no
  • Used as: hero image on the post, card thumbnail, OG image for that specific post.

Recommended size: 1200×630 PNG or JPG so it doubles as the OG share card. If omitted, the card uses a placeholder color and the OG image falls back to siteConfig.seo.ogImage.

draft (optional)

Section titled “draft (optional)”
draft: true
  • Type: boolean
  • Default: false
  • Used as: build filter.
    • true — visible in dev (npm run dev), excluded from npm run build.
    • false — published.

Optional fields you can add

Section titled “Optional fields you can add”

The fields below aren’t in the default schema, but they’re commonly useful. Add them by extending src/content.config.ts.

tags

Section titled “tags”

For multi-label posts (different from a single category):

tags: z.array(z.string()).optional(),
tags: ["typescript", "performance", "deploy"]
Section titled “featured”

For pinning to the top of the blog index:

featured: z.boolean().default(false),
featured: true

Then in src/pages/blog/index.astro, sort featured posts first:

const posts = (await getCollection("blog"))
  .sort((a, b) => Number(b.data.featured ?? 0) - Number(a.data.featured ?? 0)
                || b.data.date.getTime() - a.data.date.getTime());

updated

Section titled “updated”

For posts you revise:

updated: z.date().optional(),
date:    2026-01-15
updated: 2026-03-08

excerpt

Section titled “excerpt”

For a longer card description that differs from the SEO meta:

excerpt: z.string().optional(),
excerpt: "We rebuilt Aurora's onboarding from scratch. Here's what we learned about UX research, prototyping, and shipping with confidence."

Extending the schema

Section titled “Extending the schema”

Open src/content.config.ts and add fields to the Zod schema:

src/content.config.ts
import { defineCollection, z } from "astro:content";


const blog = defineCollection({
  type: "content",
  schema: z.object({
    title:       z.string(),
    description: z.string(),
    date:        z.date(),
    author:      z.string(),
    category:    z.enum(["Tutorial", "Engineering", "Design", "Product"]),
    image:       z.string().optional(),
    tags:        z.array(z.string()).default([]),
    featured:    z.boolean().default(false),
    updated:     z.date().optional(),
    draft:       z.boolean().default(false),
  }),
});

Type-safe everywhere — Astro errors at build time if a post is missing a required field or uses an invalid value.

Common gotchas

Section titled “Common gotchas”

What’s next

Section titled “What’s next”