Book Options

All available options for book projects are documented below. See Creating a Book for an in-depth guide to creating books with Quarto.

Project

Options that define the type, render targets, and output of a project. Project options are specified under the project key. For example:

---
project:
  type: book
  output-dir: _book
---

`type`	Project type (`default`, `website`, or `book`)
`render`	Files to render (defaults to all files)
`execute-dir`	Control the working directory for computations. `file`: Use the directory of the file that is currently executing. `project`: Use the root directory of the project.
`output-dir`	Output directory
`lib-dir`	HTML library (JS/CSS/etc.) directory
`resources`	Additional file resources to be copied to output directory
`preview`	Options for `quarto preview` (see Preview)

Preview

Specify options that control the behavior of quarto preview within the preview key. For example:

---
project:
  type: book
  output-dir: _book
  preview:
    port: 4200
    browser: false
---

Available preview options include:

`port`	Port to listen on (defaults to random value between 3000 and 8000)
`host`	Hostname to bind to (defaults to 127.0.0.1)
`browser`	Open a web browser to view the preview (defaults to true)
`watch-inputs`	Re-render input files when they change (defaults to true)
`navigate`	Navigate the browser automatically when outputs are updated (defaults to true)
`timeout`	Time (in seconds) after which to exit if there are no active clients

Book

Options that affect book output. Book options are specified under the book key. For example:

---
book:
  title: "My Book"
  image: opengraph.png
  page-navigation: true
---

`title`	Book title
`subtitle`	Book subtitle
`author`	Author or authors of the book
`date`	Book publication date
`abstract`	Book abstract
`description`	Description metadata for HTML version of book
`references`	Book references file
`output-file`	Base name for single-file output (e.g. PDF, ePub)
`cover-image`	Cover image (used in HTML and ePub formats)
`sharing`	Sharing buttons to include on navbar or sidebar (one or more of `twitter`, `facebook`, `linkedin`)
`downloads`	Download buttons for other formats to include on navbar or sidebar (one or more of `pdf`, `epub`, and `docx`)
`tools`	Custom tools for navbar or sidebar
`description`	Website description
`favicon`	The path to the favicon for this website
`site-url`	Base URL for published website
`site-path`	Path to site (defaults to `/`). Not required if you specify `site-url`.
`repo-url`	Base URL for website source code repository
`repo-subdir`	Subdirectory of repository containing website
`repo-branch`	Branch of website source code (defaults to `main`)
`repo-actions`	Links to source repository actions (`none` or one or more of `edit`, `source`, `issue`)
`google-analytics`	The Google tracking Id or measurement Id of this website.
`cookie-consent`	The type of consent that should be requested, using one of these two values: `implied` (default): This will notify the user that the site uses cookies and permit them to change preferences, but not block cookies unless the user changes their preferences. `express`: This will block cookies until the user expressly agrees to allow them (or continue blocking them if the user doesn’t agree).
`search`	Site search (`true` or `false` to enable/disable, or provide custom Search Options
`navbar`	Navbar options (see Navbar)
`sidebar`	Sidebar options (see Sidebar)
`body-header`	Markdown to insert at the beginning of each page’s body (below the title and author block).
`body-footer`	Markdown to insert below each page’s body.
`margin-header`	Markdown to place above margin content (text or file path)
`margin-footer`	Markdown to place below margin content (text or file path)
`page-navigation`	Provide next and previous article links in footer
`page-footer`	Page footer. Text content or page footer definition.
`image`	Default site thumbnail image for `twitter` /`open-graph`
`comments`
`open-graph`	Generate Open Graph metadata (see Open Graph options)
`twitter-card`	Generate Twitter Card metadata (see Twitter Card options)

Navbar

Options that define the top navigation bar for a book For example:

---
book:
  navbar:
    search: true
---

`title`	The navbar title. Uses the project title if none is specified.
`logo`	Path to a logo image that will be displayed to the left of the title.
`background`	The navbar’s background color (named or hex color).
`foreground`	The navbar’s foreground color (named or hex color).
`search`	Include a search box in the navbar.
`pinned`	Always show the navbar (keeping it pinned).
`collapse`	Collapse the navbar into a menu when the display becomes narrow.
`collapse-below`	The responsive breakpoint below which the navbar will collapse into a menu (`sm`, `md`, `lg` (default), `xl`, `xxl`).
`left`	List of items for the left side of the navbar (see Nav Items)
`right`	List of items for the left side of the navbar (see Nav Items)

Nav Items

Nav items appear in the left or right key of navbar definitions. For example:

---
book:
  navbar:
    right:
      - icon: github
        href: https://github.com/
        aria-label: GitHub
---

`href`	Link to file contained with the project or external URL
`text`	Text to display for navigation item (defaults to the document title if not provided)
`icon`	Name of bootstrap icon (e.g. `github`, `twitter`, `share`) See https://icons.getbootstrap.com/ for a list of available icons
`aria-label`	Accessible label for the navigation item.
`menu`	Submenu of navigation items

Note that the icon option is available for items in the Navbar, however items in the Sidebar do not support the icon option.

Sidebar

Options that define the side navigation area for a book. For example:

---
book:
  sidebar:
    search: true
---

`id`	The identifier for this sidebar.
`title`	The sidebar title. Uses the project title if none is specified.
`subtitle`	The subtitle for this sidebar.
`logo`	Path to a logo image that will be displayed in the sidebar.
`search`	Include a search control in the sidebar.
`tools`	List of sidebar tools (see Sidebar Tools)
`contents`	List of navigation items to appear in the sidebar. Can also include `section` entries which in turn contain sub-lists of navigation items.
`style`	The style of sidebar (`docked` or `floating`).
`background`	The sidebar’s background color (named or hex color).
`foreground`	The sidebar’s foreground color (named or hex color).
`border`	Whether to show a border on the sidebar (defaults to true for ‘docked’ sidebars)
`alignment`	Alignment of the items within the sidebar (`left`, `right`, or `center`)
`collapse-level`	The depth at which the sidebar contents should be collapsed by default.
`pinned`	When collapsed, pin the collapsed sidebar to the top of the page.
`header`	Markdown to place above sidebar content (text or file path)
`footer`	Markdown to place below sidebar content (text or file path)

Sidebar Tools

Action buttons that appear on the sidebar. For example:

---
book:
  sidebar:
    tools:
      - icon: github
        href: https://github.com/
---

`icon`	Name of bootstrap icon (e.g. `github`, `twitter`, `share`) See https://icons.getbootstrap.com/ for a list of available icons
`href`	Link to file contained with the project or external URL
`menu`	Submenu of navigation items

Footer

Book page footer definition. For example:

---
book:
  page-footer:
    center: 
      - text: "About"
        href: about.qmd
      - text: "License"
        href: license.qmd
      - text: "Trademark"
        href: trademark.qmd
---

`left`	String, or list of navigation items to appear in the left region of the footer
`right`	String, or list of navigation items to appear in the right region of the footer
`center`	String, or list of navigation items to appear in the center region of the footer
`border`	Footer border (`true`, `false`, or a border color)
`background`	Footer background color
`foreground`	Footer foreground color

Search

Search options are specified under the search key of book. For example:

book:
  search:
    location: navbar
    type: overlay
---

`location`	Location for search widget (`navbar` or `sidebar`)
`type`	Type of search UI (`overlay` or `textbox`)
`limit`	Number of matches to display (defaults to 20)
`collapse-after`	Matches after which to collapse additional results
`copy-button`	Provide button for copying search link
`algolia`	Use an Algolia index for site search (see Algolia Options)

Algolia Options

You can use an Algolia index as the back end of book search. Specify Algolia options using the algolia sub-key of search, for example:

---
book:
  search:
    algolia:
      index-name: <my-index-name>
      application-id: <my-application-id>
      search-only-api-key: <my-search-only-api-key>
---

`index-name`	The name of the index to use when performing a search
`application-id`	The unique ID used by Algolia to identify your application
`search-only-api-key`	The Search-Only API key to use to connect to Algolia
`analytics-events`	Enable tracking of Algolia analytics events
`show-logo`	Enable the display of the Algolia logo in the search results footer.
`index-fields`	Fields to target for searches (see below for details)
`params`	Additional parameters to pass when executing a search

The index-fields option provides sub-fields within the Algolia index to target for searches:

`href`	Field that contains the URL of index entries
`title`	Field that contains the title of index entries
`text`	Field that contains the text of index entries
`section`	Field that contains the section of index entries

Social

Social metadata is provided as a subkey of book options. You can specify true to generate social metadata using a set of default option, or specify one or more Twitter or Open Graph specific options as enumerated below. For example:

---
book:
  open-graph: true
  twitter-card: 
    site: "@sitehandle"
---

Twitter Card

`title`	The title of the page. Note that by default Quarto will automatically use the title metadata from the page. Specify this field if you’d like to override the title for this provider.
`description`	A short description of the content. Note that by default Quarto will automatically use the description metadata from the page. Specify this field if you’d like to override the description for this provider.
`image`	The path to a preview image for the content. By default, Quarto will use the `image` value from the format metadata. If you provide an image, you may also optionally provide an `image-width` and `image-height`.
`image-alt`	The alt text for the preview image. By default, Quarto will use the `image-alt` value from the format metadata. If you provide an image, you may also optionally provide an `image-width` and `image-height`.
`image-width`	Image width (pixels)
`image-height`	Image height (pixels)
`card-style`	Card style (`summary` or `summary_large_image`). If this is not provided, the best style will automatically selected based upon other metadata. You can learn more about Twitter Card styles here.
`creator`	`@username` of the content creator (must be a quoted string)
`site`	`@username` of the website (must be a quoted string)

Open Graph

`title`	The title of the page. Note that by default Quarto will automatically use the title metadata from the page. Specify this field if you’d like to override the title for this provider.
`description`	A short description of the content. Note that by default Quarto will automatically use the description metadata from the page. Specify this field if you’d like to override the description for this provider.
`image`	The path to a preview image for the content. By default, Quarto will use the `image` value from the format metadata. If you provide an image, you may also optionally provide an `image-width` and `image-height`.
`image-alt`	The alt text for the preview image. By default, Quarto will use the `image-alt` value from the format metadata. If you provide an image, you may also optionally provide an `image-width` and `image-height`.
`image-width`	Image width (pixels)
`image-height`	Image height (pixels)
`locale`	Locale of open graph metadata
`site-name`	Name that should be displayed for the overall site. If not explicitly provided in the `open-graph` metadata, Quarto will use the website or book `title` by default.

Comments

You can add commenting to your book using either Hypothesis or Utterances.

Hypothesis

Enable and configure Hypothesis commenting via comments key. For example:

---
website:
  comments: 
    hypothesis:
      theme: clean
      openSidebar: false
---

`openSidebar`	Controls whether the sidebar opens automatically on startup.
`showHighlights`	Controls whether the in-document highlights are shown by default (`always` or `never`)
`theme`	Controls the overall look of the sidebar (`classic` or `clean`)
`enableExperimentalNewNoteButton`	Controls whether the experimental New Note button should be shown in the notes tab in the sidebar.
`usernameUrl`	Specify a URL to direct a user to, in a new tab. when they click on the annotation author link in the header of an annotation.
`services`	Array of service definitions
`branding`	Custom branding/colors to apply to UI
`externalContainerSelector`	A CSS selector specifying the containing element into which the sidebar iframe will be placed.
`focus`	User focused filter set for the available annotations on a page
`requestConfigFromFrame`	Speicfy a host iframe to request configuration from
`assetRoot`	The root URL from which assets are loaded.
`sidebarAppUrl`	The URL for the sidebar application which displays annotations.

For additional documentation on the Hypothesis options enumerated above, see the Hypothesis Publisher Config documentation.

Utterances

Enable and configure Utterances commenting via the comments key. For example:

---
website:
  comments: 
    utterances:
      repo: quarto-dev/quarto-web
---

`repo`	The Github repo that will be used to store comments.
`label`	The label that will be assigned to issues created by Utterances.
`theme`	The Github theme that should be used for Utterances (`github-light`, `github-dark`, `github-dark-orange`, `icy-dark`, `dark-blue`, `photon-dark`, `body-light`, or `gruvbox-dark`)
`issue-term`	How posts should be mapped to Github issues (`pathname`, `url`, `title` or `og:title`)

Giscus

Enable and configure usage of the Giscus app via the comments key. For example:

---
website:
  comments:
    giscus:
      repo: quarto-dev/quarto-web
---

`repo`	The Github repo that will be used to store comments. In order to work correctly, the repo must be public, with the giscus app installed, and the discussions feature must be enabled.
`repo-id`	The Github repository identifier. You can quickly find this by using the configuration tool at https://giscus.app. If this is not provided, Quarto will attempt to discover it at render time.
`category`	The discussion category where new discussions will be created. It is recommended to use a category with the Announcements type so that new discussions can only be created by maintainers and giscus.
`category-id`	The Github category identifier. You can quickly find this by using the configuration tool at https://giscus.app. If this is not provided, Quarto will attempt to discover it at render time.
`mapping`	The mapping between the page and the embedded discussion. `pathname`: The discussion title contains the page path `url`: The discussion title contains the page url `title`: The discussion title contains the page title `og:title`: The discussion title contains the `og:title` metadata value any other string or number: Any other strings will be passed through verbatim and a discussion title containing that value will be used. Numbers will be treated as a discussion number and automatic discussion creation is not supported.
`reactions-enabled`	Display reactions for the discussion’s main post before the comments.
`input-position`	Place the comment input box above or below the comments.
`theme`	The giscus theme to use when displaying comments.
`language`	The language that should be used when displaying the commenting interface.

Listings

Listings enable you to automatically generate the contents of a page (or region of a page) from a list of Quarto documents or other custom data. You can enable listings on a page using the listing option in the document front matter, for example:

---
title: "Listing Example"
listing: default
---

`id`	The id of this listing. When the listing is rendered, it will place the contents into a `div` with this id. If no such `div` is defined on the page, a `div` with this id will be created and appended to the end of the page. In no `id` is provided for a listing, Quarto will synthesize one when rendering the page.
`type`	The type of listing to create. Choose one of: `default`: A blog style list of items `table`: A table of items `grid`: A grid of item cards
`contents`	The files or path globs of Quarto documents or YAML files that should be included in the listing.
`sort`	Sort items in the listing by these fields. The sort key is made up of a field name followed by a direction `asc` or `desc`. For example: `date asc`
`max-items`	The maximum number of items to include in this listing.
`page-size`	The number of items to display on a page.
`sort-ui`	Shows or hides the sorting control for the listing. To control the fields that will be displayed in the sorting control, provide a list of field names.
`filter-ui`	Shows or hides the filtering control for the listing. To control the fields that will be used to filter the listing, provide a list of field names. By default all fields of the listing will be used when filtering.
`categories`	Display item categories from this listing in the margin of the page. `numbered`: Category list with number of items `unnumbered`: Category list `cloud`: Word cloud style categories
`feed`	Create an RSS feed for this page using the items in this listing (see Feed).
`date-format`	The date format to use when displaying dates (e.g. d-M-yyy). Learn more about supported date formatting values here.
`max-description-length`	The maximum length (in characters) of the description displayed in the listing. Defaults to 175.
`image-placeholder`	The default image to use if an item in the listing doesn’t have an image.
`image-align`	In `default` type listings, whether to place the image on the right or left side of the post content (`left` or `right`).
`image-height`	The height of the image being displayed (a CSS height string). The width is automatically determined and the image will fill the rectangle without scaling (cropped to fill).
`grid-columns`	In grid type listings, the number of columns in the grid display. Defaults to 3.
`grid-item-border`	In grid type listings, whether to display a border around the item card. Defaults to `true`.
`grid-item-align`	In grid type listings, the alignment of the content within the card (`left` (default), `right`, or `center`).
`table-striped`	In table type listings, display the table rows with alternating background colors. Defaults to `false`.
`table-hover`	In table type listings, highlight rows of the table when the user hovers the mouse over them. Defaults to false.
`template`	The path to a custom listing template.
`fields`	The list of fields to include in this listing.
`field-display-names`	A mapping that provides display names for specific fields. For example, to display the title column as ‘Report’ in a table listing you would write: `listing: field-display-names: title: "Report"`
`field-types`	Provides the date type for the field of a listing item. Unknown fields are treated as strings unless a type is provided. Valid types are `date`, `number`.
`field-links`	The list of fields to display as hyperlinks to the source document when the listing type is a table. By default, only the `title` or `filename` is displayed as a link.
`field-required`	Fields that items in this listing must have populated. If a listing is rendered and one more items in this listing is missing a required field, an error will occur and the render will.

Feed

Enable an RSS feed for your listing by including the feed option.

`items`	The number of items to include in your feed. Defaults to 20.
`type`	Whether to include full or partial content in the feed. `full` (default): Include the complete content of the document in the feed. `partial`: Include only the first paragraph of the document in the feed.
`title`	The title for this feed. Defaults to the site title provided the Quarto project.
`image`	The path to an image for this feed. If not specified, the image for the page the listing appears on will be used, otherwise an image will be used if specified for the site in the Quarto project.
`description`	The description of this feed. If not specified, the description for the page the listing appears on will be used, otherwise the description of the site will be used if specified in the Quarto project.
`language`	The language of the feed. Omitted if not specified. See https://www.rssboard.org/rss-language-codes for a list of valid language codes.
`categories`	A list of categories for which to create separate RSS feeds containing only posts with that category.

About

Layout a simple about page for an individual or organization. For more, see the About Pages documentation.

`id`	The target id of this about page. When the about page is rendered, it will place read the contents of a `div` with this id into the about template that you have selected (and replace the contents with the rendered about content). If no such `div` is defined on the page, a `div` with this id will be created and appended to the end of the page.
`template`	The template to use to layout this about page. Choose from: `jolla` `trestles` `solana` `marquee` `broadside`
`image`	The path to the main image on the about page. If not specified, the `image` provided for the document itself will be used.
`image-width`	A valid CSS width for the about page image.
`image-shape`	The shape of the image on the about page. `rectangle` `round` `rounded`
`links`	Links (as navigation items) to display on the about page.