# Front matter

{% subtitle %}
Your pages metadata, YAML formatted.

{% endsubtitle %}

## What's a front matter block

A *front matter* block must be the first thing in a page and must take the form of valid YAML set between triple-dashed lines.

Here is a basic example:

```yaml
---
layout: post
title: Blogging Like a Hacker
---
```

Between these triple-dashed lines, you can specify predefined properties (see below for a reference) or even create custom ones of your own. These properties will then be available to you in the `page.metadata` object.

## Front matter predefined properties

Here is the list of predefined front-matter properties.

| Name | Type | Description |
| ---- | ----------- | ------- |
| `createdAt` | `Date` <small>(ISO&nbsp;string)</small> | The date at which the content was created. This is auto-populated when using [`create page`](usage/cli.md#create-page) command, otherwise it is guessed from git data. |
| `description` | `string` | Description of the document used in the HTML `description` meta-tag. |
| `draft` | `boolean` | If `true`, the content will not be rendered unless the *--buildDrafts* flag is used. |
| `createdAt` | `Date` <small>(ISO&nbsp;string)</small> | The date at which the content was created. This is auto-populated when using [`create page`](usage/cli.md#create-page) command, otherwise it is guessed from git data. |
| `expiredAt` | `Date` <small>(ISO&nbsp;string)</small> | The datetime at which the content should no longer be published. |
| `keywords` | `string` or `string[]` | The meta keywords for the content. Either a comma-separated string or an array of keywords. Used in the HTML *keywords* meta-tag. |
| `layout` | `string` | Layout used when rendering the content, defaults to `default`. |
| `title` | `string` | Title of the document, typically used in html head (`<title>`). If not defined, Limedocs will use the first `<h1>` heading as a title if one exists. |
| `updatedAt` | `Date` <small>(ISO&nbsp;string)</small> | The datetime at which the content was last updated. This is auto-populated when using the [`create page`](usage/cli.md#create-page) command, otherwise it is guessed from git data. |
| `weight` | `number` | Used for ordering your pages and sections. |