Single Page Templates

Single Page Template Lookup Order

You can specify a content’s type and layout in a single content file’s front matter. However, you cannot specify section because this is determined based on file location (see content section).

Hugo assumes your content section and content type are the same unless you tell Hugo otherwise by providing a type directly in the front matter of a content file. This is why #1 and #3 come before #2 and #4, respectively, in the following lookup order. Values in angle brackets (<>) are variable.

1. /layouts/<TYPE>/<LAYOUT>.html
2. /layouts/<SECTION>/<LAYOUT>.html
3. /layouts/<TYPE>/single.html
4. /layouts/<SECTION>/single.html
5. /layouts/_default/single.html
6. /themes/<THEME>/layouts/<TYPE>/<LAYOUT>.html
7. /themes/<THEME>/layouts/<SECTION>/<LAYOUT>.html
8. /themes/<THEME>/layouts/<TYPE>/single.html
9. /themes/<THEME>/layouts/<SECTION>/single.html
10. /themes/<THEME>/layouts/_default/single.html

Example Single Page Templates

Content pages are of the type page and will therefore have all the page variables and site variables available to use in their templates.

post/single.html

This single page template makes use of Hugo base templates, the .Format function for dates, the .WordCount page variable, and ranges through the single content’s specific taxonomies. with is also used to check whether the taxonomies are set in the front matter.

{{ define "main" }}
<section id="main">
  <h1 id="title">{{ .Title }}</h1>
  <div>
        <article id="content">
           {{ .Content }}
        </article>
  </div>
</section>
<aside id="meta">
    <div>
    <section>
      <h4 id="date"> {{ .Date.Format "Mon Jan 2, 2006" }} </h4>
      <h5 id="wordcount"> {{ .WordCount }} Words </h5>
    </section>
    {{ with .Params.topics }}
    <ul id="topics">
      {{ range . }}
        <li><a href="{{ "topics" | absURL}}{{ . | urlize }}">{{ . }}</a> </li>
      {{ end }}
    </ul>
    {{ end }}
    {{ with .Params.tags }}
    <ul id="tags">
      {{ range . }}
        <li> <a href="{{ "tags" | absURL }}{{ . | urlize }}">{{ . }}</a> </li>
      {{ end }}
    </ul>
    {{ end }}
    </div>
    <div>
        {{ with .PrevInSection }}
          <a class="previous" href="{{.Permalink}}"> {{.Title}}</a>
        {{ end }}
        {{ with .NextInSection }}
          <a class="next" href="{{.Permalink}}"> {{.Title}}</a>
        {{ end }}
    </div>
</aside>
{{ end }}

To easily generate new instances of a content type (e.g., new .md files in a section like project/) with preconfigured front matter, use content archetypes.