Configuration #

Configuration is an optional feature. Add an .eleventy.js file to root directory of your project to override these configuration options with your own preferences.

module.exports = {
  dir: {
    input: "views",
    output: "dist"
  }
};

Using the Configuration API #

If you expose your config as a function instead of an object literal, we’ll pass in a config argument that you can use!

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  // Add a filter using the Config API
  eleventyConfig.addFilter( "myFilter", function() {});

  // You can return your Config object (optional).
  return {
    dir: {
      input: "views"
    }
  };
};

This allows you further customization options using Eleventy’s provided helper methods.

• Add Filters.
• Add Shortcodes.
• Add Custom Tags.
• Add JavaScript Functions New in v0.7.0
• Add custom Collections and use Advanced Collection Filtering and Sorting.
• Add some Plugins.

Configuration Options #

Jump to: #

• Input Directory
• Directory for Includes
• Directory for Layouts (Optional)
• Directory for Global Data Files
• Output Directory
• Default Template Engine for Global Data Files
• Default Template Engine for Markdown Files
• Default Template Engine for HTML Files
• Template Formats
• Deploy to a Subdirectory with a Path Prefix
• Copy Files to Output using Passthrough File Copy
• Change Exception Case Suffix for HTML Files
• Change File Suffix for Template and Directory Data Files
• Transforms
• Linters
• Data Deep Merge
• Watch JavaScript Dependencies
• Override Browsersync Server Options
• Customize Front Matter Parsing Options

Input Directory #

Controls the top level directory/file/glob that we’ll use to look for templates.

Glob support is New in v0.6.0.

Examples #

Command Line

# The current directory
eleventy --input=.

# A single file
eleventy --input=README.md

# A glob of files (New in v0.6.0)
eleventy --input=*.md

# A subdirectory
eleventy --input=views

Configuration

module.exports = {
    dir: {
        input: "views"
    }
};

Directory for Includes #

The includes directory is meant for Eleventy layouts, include files, extends files, partials, or macros. These files will not be processed as full template files, but can be consumed by other templates.

Example #

module.exports = {
    dir: {
        // ⚠️ This value is relative to your input directory.
        includes: "my_includes"
    }
};

Directory for Layouts (Optional) New in v0.8.0 #

This configuration option is optional but useful if you want your Eleventy layouts to live outside of the Includes directory. Just like the Includes directory, these files will not be processed as full template files, but can be consumed by other templates.

Example #

module.exports = {
    dir: {
        // ⚠️ These values are both relative to your input directory.
        includes: "_includes",
        layouts: "_layouts"
    }
};

Directory for Global Data Files #

Controls the directory inside which the global data template files, available to all templates, can be found. Read more about Global Data Files.

Example #

module.exports = {
    dir: {
        // ⚠️ This value is relative to your input directory.
        data: "lore"
    }
};

Output Directory #

Controls the directory inside which the finished templates will be written to.

Example #

module.exports = {
    dir: {
        output: "dist"
    }
};

Default template engine for global data files #

The data.dir global data files run through this template engine before transforming to JSON. Read more about Global Data Files.

Example #

module.exports = {
    "dataTemplateEngine": "njk"
};

Default template engine for Markdown files #

Markdown files run through this template engine before transforming to HTML.

Example #

module.exports = {
    markdownTemplateEngine: "njk"
};

Default template engine for HTML files #

HTML templates run through this template engine before transforming to (better) HTML.

Example #

module.exports = {
    htmlTemplateEngine: "njk"
};

Template Formats #

Specify which types of templates should be transformed.

Examples #

module.exports = {
    templateFormats: ["html", "liquid", "njk"]
};

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
    eleventyConfig.setTemplateFormats("html,liquid,njk");

    // Or:
    // eleventyConfig.setTemplateFormats([ "html", "liquid", "njk" ]);
};

eleventy --formats=html,liquid,njk

Deploy to a subdirectory with a Path Prefix #

If your site lives in a different subdirectory (particularly useful with GitHub pages), use pathPrefix to specify this. It’s used by the url filter and inserted at the beginning of all absolute url href links. It does not affect your file structure. Leading or trailing slashes are all normalized away, so don’t worry about it.

Example #

module.exports = {
    pathPrefix: "/eleventy-base-blog/"
};

Deploy to https://11ty.github.io/eleventy-base-blog/ on GitHub pages without modifying your config. This allows you to use the same code-base to deploy to either GitHub pages or Netlify, like the eleventy-base-blog project does.

eleventy --pathprefix=eleventy-base-blog

Copy Files to Output using Passthrough File Copy #

Files found (that don’t have a valid template engine) from white-listed file extensions (in templateFormats) will passthrough to the output directory. Read more about Passthrough Copy.

Example #

module.exports = {
    passthroughFileCopy: false
};

Change exception case suffix for HTML files #

If an HTML template has matching input and output directories, index.html files will have this suffix added to their output filename to prevent overwriting the template. Read more at the HTML template docs.

Example #

module.exports = {
    htmlOutputSuffix: "-o"
};

Change File Suffix for Template and Directory Data Files New in v0.5.3 #

When using Template and Directory Specific Data Files, to prevent file name conflicts with non-Eleventy files in the project directory, we scope these files with a unique-to-Eleventy suffix. This key is customizable using jsDataFileSuffix. For example, using .11tydata for this value will search for *.11tydata.js and *.11tydata.json data files. Read more about Template and Directory Specific Data Files.

Example #

module.exports = {
    jsDataFileSuffix: ".11tydata"
};

Transforms #

These used to be called Filters but were renamed to Transforms to avoid confusion with Template Language Filters.

Transforms can modify a template’s output. For example, use a transform to format/prettify an HTML file with proper whitespace.

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  eleventyConfig.addTransform("transform-name", function(content, outputPath) {});

  // Support for async transforms was added in 0.7.0
  eleventyConfig.addTransform("async-transform-name", async function(content, outputPath) {});
};

Transforms Example: Minify HTML Output #

const htmlmin = require("html-minifier");

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  eleventyConfig.addTransform("htmlmin", function(content, outputPath) {
    if( outputPath.endsWith(".html") ) {
      let minified = htmlmin.minify(content, {
        useShortDoctype: true,
        removeComments: true,
        collapseWhitespace: true
      });
      return minified;
    }

    return content;
  });
};

Linters #

Similar to Transforms, Linters are provided to analyze a template’s output without modifying it.

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  eleventyConfig.addLinter("linter-name", function(content, inputPath, outputPath) {});
  eleventyConfig.addLinter("async-linter-name", async function(content, inputPath, outputPath) {});
};

Linters Example: Use Inclusive Language #

Inspired by the CSS Tricks post Words to Avoid in Educational Writing, this linter will log a warning to the console when it finds a trigger word in a markdown file.

This example has been packaged as a plugin in eleventy-plugin-inclusive-language.

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  eleventyConfig.addLinter("inclusive-language", function(content, inputPath, outputPath) {
    let words = "simply,obviously,basically,of course,clearly,just,everyone knows,however,easy".split(",");
    if( inputPath.endsWith(".md") ) {
      for( let word of words) {
        let regexp = new RegExp("\\b(" + word + ")\\b", "gi");
        if(content.match(regexp)) {
          console.warn(chalk.yellow(`Inclusive Language Linter (${inputPath}) Found: ${word}`));
        }
      }
    }
  });
};

Data Deep Merge New in v0.6.0 #

Opts in to a full deep merge when combining the Data Cascade. This will use something like lodash.mergewith to combine Arrays and deep merge Objects, rather than a simple top-level merge using Object.assign. Read more at Issue #147. This will likely become the default in an upcoming major version.

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  eleventyConfig.setDataDeepMerge(true);
};

Note that all data stored in the pagination variable is exempted from this behavior (we don’t want pagination.items to be merged together).

Using the override: prefix #

Use the override: prefix on any data key to opt-out of this merge behavior for specific values or nested values.

{
  "tags": ["posts"]
}

---
override:tags: []
---

Even though normally the posts/firstpost.md file would inherit the posts tag from the directory data file (per normal data cascade rules), we can override the tags value to be an empty array to opt-out of this behavior.

Watch JavaScript Dependencies New in v0.7.0 #

When in --watch mode, Eleventy will spider the dependencies of your JavaScript Templates (.11ty.js), JavaScript Data Files (.11tydata.js or _data/**/*.js), or Configuration File (usually .eleventy.js) to watch those files too. Files in node_modules directories are ignored. This feature is enabled by default.

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  // Enabled by default
  eleventyConfig.setWatchJavaScriptDependencies(false);
};

Override Browsersync Server Options New in v0.7.0 #

Useful if you want to change or override the default Browsersync configuration. Find the Eleventy defaults in EleventyServe.js. Take special note that Eleventy does not use Browsersync’s watch options and trigger reloads manually after our own internal watch methods are complete. See full options list on the Browsersync documentation.

(Read more at Issue #123)

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  eleventyConfig.setBrowserSyncConfig({
    notify: true
  });
};

Customize Front Matter Parsing Options New in v0.9.0 #

• Documented at Front Matter Data.