Organize content

Use Hugo’s native content tree. Directories are storage; branch and leaf bundles express actual documents. Sidera adds browsing policies without a parallel page-ID or collection registry.

content/
  _index.md                 # optional home introduction
  about.md                  # standalone page
  journal/
    _index.md               # collection root, optionally preset: blog
    first-post/
      index.md              # article leaf bundle
      photo.jpg             # public resource
  handbook/
    _index.md               # optionally preset: docs
    basics/
      _index.md             # body-bearing parent
      install.md            # child document

index.md is a leaf: adjacent Markdown may be content resources, not independent child pages. _index.md is a branch and can have a body plus children. For an ordered document tree, author every intended intermediate branch explicitly. Native title, description, date, lastmod, draft, type, URL and taxonomy assignments stay at top level; theme presentation belongs under params.

#Browsing scope is independent

Top-level sections automatically form browsing roots. A nested section normally shares its nearest root. Give a nested _index.md local params.scope_root: true only when it needs independent search/navigation/lists. Do not cascade this marker. An outer collection excludes the independent root’s articles from its own lists. A scope boundary does not block actual native cascade inheritance.

Collections may share a preset but have separate names and logos:

---
title: Notes on observing the night sky
description: Measurements, reading and experiments.
preset: notes
params:
  name: Sky notes
  logo: images/observatory.svg
---

name is a concise context label, not a route or ID. title stays the full heading and card/search title. description supplies summary copy. Logo/name are local root fields, not site defaults or descendant metadata. Missing logo means a text-only card; collection cards show latest owned article activity rather than root edit time.

#Choose the right organizing tool

• Presets and inheritance: optional blog, notes or docs defaults.
• Taxonomies, authors and series: shared identities and contextual views.
• Ordered document trees: body-bearing branches and reading order.

For generic engine concepts see Hugo’s content organization and page bundles.

#Dates and maintenance

For maintained documentation, keep explicit native timestamps:

date: 2026-01-01T09:00:00+08:00
lastmod: 2026-01-03T14:30:00+08:00

Keep date as the original creation date; update lastmod when the page receives a meaningful content or configuration change. Include a timezone offset. Do not bump every page on each build, deploy or unrelated edit. These are page-local fields, not dates to cascade over a whole collection. The docs preset emphasizes updates and uses these timestamps for its recent-document lists; missing dates are not invented by the theme. A consuming site still owns its native date-resolution policy.