SlenderSite reference

This document applies to version 1.0, as of 20 April 2026.

Command-line usage

Synopsis:

slender [ -h | -v | -o DIR | --init ] [ <source-dir> ]

Arguments:

<source-dir>
directory with text, config and templates (default: _site)

Options:

-h, --help
show brief usage instructions and exit
-v, --version
show the current version number and exit
-o DIR, --output DIR
set output directory (default: current)
--init
write default files to source directory

Config file settings

For the SITE section:

Setting Meaning Default
name site name My site
files pattern for source files *.md
markup executable to process source files markdown
template1 default template for pages page
template2 default template for posts page

For page sections:

Setting Meaning Default
title page title from file name
desc meta description (empty)
keywords meta keywords (empty)
template template to use see above

Template variables

Name Meaning Notes
{site_name} see above same for all pages
{title} page title
{desc} see above
{keywords} see above
{date} post date empty for pages
{generator} meta generator set by SlenderSite
{menu} navigation links taken from config
{recent} latest posts autogenerated
{archive} all blog posts autogenerated
{content} rendered page