# Pages

Starlight generates your site’s HTML pages based on your content, with flexible options provided via Markdown frontmatter.
In addition, Starlight projects have full access to [Astro’s powerful page generation tools](https://docs.astro.build/en/basics/astro-pages/).
This guide shows how page generation works in Starlight.

## Content pages

### File formats

Starlight supports authoring content in Markdown and MDX with no configuration required.
You can add support for Markdoc by following the [“Markdoc” guide](/guides/guides-authoring-content#markdoc).

### Add pages

Add new pages to your site by creating `.md` or `.mdx` files in `src/content/docs/`.
Use sub-folders to organize your files and to create multiple path segments.

For example, the following file structure will generate pages at `example.com/hello-world` and `example.com/reference/faq`:

- src/
  - content/
    - docs/
      - hello-world.md
      - reference/
        - faq.md

### Type-safe frontmatter

All Starlight pages share a customizable [common set of frontmatter properties](/guides/reference-frontmatter) to control how the page appears:

```md
---
title: Hello, World!
description: This is a page in my Starlight-powered site
---
```

If you forget anything important, Starlight will let you know.

## Custom pages

For advanced use cases, you can add custom pages by creating a `src/pages/` directory.
The `src/pages/` directory uses [Astro's file-based routing](https://docs.astro.build/en/basics/astro-pages/#file-based-routing) and includes support for `.astro` files amongst other page formats.
This is helpful if you need to build pages with a completely custom layout or generate a page from an alternative data source.

For example, this project mixes Markdown content in `src/content/docs/` with Astro and HTML routes in `src/pages/`:

- src/
  - content/
    - docs/
      - hello-world.md
  - pages/
    - custom.astro
    - archived.html

Read more in the [“Pages” guide in the Astro docs](https://docs.astro.build/en/basics/astro-pages/).

### Using Starlight’s design in custom pages

To use the Starlight layout in custom pages, wrap your page content with the [`<StarlightPage>` component](#starlightpage-component).
This can be helpful if you are generating content dynamically but still want to use Starlight’s design.

To add anchor links to headings that match Starlight’s Markdown anchor link styles, you can use the [`<AnchorHeading>` component](#anchorheading-component) in your custom pages.

```astro
---
// src/pages/custom-page/example.astro
import StarlightPage from '@astrojs/starlight/components/StarlightPage.astro';
import AnchorHeading from '@astrojs/starlight/components/AnchorHeading.astro';
import CustomComponent from './CustomComponent.astro';
---

<StarlightPage frontmatter={{ title: 'My custom page' }}>
	<p>This is a custom page with a custom component:</p>
	<CustomComponent />

	<AnchorHeading level="2" id="learn-more">Learn more</AnchorHeading>
	<p>
		<a href="https://starlight.astro.build/">Read more in the Starlight docs</a>
	</p>
</StarlightPage>
```

#### `<StarlightPage>` component

The `<StarlightPage />` component renders a full page of content using Starlight’s layout and styles.

```astro
---
import StarlightPage from '@astrojs/starlight/components/StarlightPage.astro';
---

<StarlightPage frontmatter={{ title: 'My custom page' }}>
	<!-- Custom page content -->
</StarlightPage>
```

The `<StarlightPage />` component accepts the following props.

##### `frontmatter`

**required**\
**type:** `StarlightPageFrontmatter`

Set the [frontmatter properties](/guides/reference-frontmatter) for this page, similar to frontmatter in Markdown pages.
The [`title`](/guides/reference-frontmatter#title-required) property is required and all other properties are optional.

The following properties differ from Markdown frontmatter:

- The [`slug`](/guides/reference-frontmatter#slug) property is not supported and is automatically set based on the custom page’s URL.
- The [`editUrl`](/guides/reference-frontmatter#editurl) option requires a URL to display an edit link.
- The [`sidebar`](/guides/reference-frontmatter#sidebar) frontmatter property for customizing how the page appears in [autogenerated link groups](/guides/reference-configuration#sidebar) is not available. Pages using the `<StarlightPage />` component are not part of a collection and cannot be added to an autogenerated sidebar group.
- The [`draft`](/guides/reference-frontmatter#draft) option only displays a [notice](/guides/reference-overrides#draftcontentnotice) that the page is a draft but does not automatically exclude it from production builds.

##### `sidebar`

**type:** [`SidebarItem[]`](/guides/reference-configuration#sidebaritem)\
**default:** the sidebar generated based on the [global `sidebar` config](/guides/reference-configuration#sidebar)

Provide a custom site navigation sidebar for this page.
If not set, the page will use the default global sidebar.

For example, the following page overrides the default sidebar with a link to the homepage and a group of links to various other custom pages.

```astro {3-13}
<StarlightPage
	frontmatter={{ title: 'Orion' }}
	sidebar={[
		{ label: 'Home', link: '/' },
		{
			label: 'Constellations',
			items: [
				{ label: 'Andromeda', link: '/andromeda/' },
				{ label: 'Orion', link: '/orion/' },
				{ label: 'Ursa Minor', link: '/ursa-minor/', badge: 'Stub' },
			],
		},
	]}
>
	Example content.
</StarlightPage>
```

See the [“Sidebar Navigation”](/guides/guides-sidebar) guide to learn more about the available options for customizing the sidebar.

##### `hasSidebar`

**type:** `boolean`\
**default:** `false` if [`frontmatter.template`](/guides/reference-frontmatter#template) is `'splash'`, otherwise `true`

Control whether or not the sidebar should be displayed on this page.

##### `headings`

**type:** `{ depth: number; slug: string; text: string }[]`\
**default:** `[]`

Provide an array of all the headings on this page.
Starlight will generate the page table of contents from these headings if provided.

##### `dir`

**type:** `'ltr' | 'rtl'`\
**default:** the writing direction for the current locale

Set the writing direction for this page’s content.

##### `lang`

**type:** `string`\
**default:** the language of the current locale

Set the BCP-47 language tag for this page’s content, e.g. `en`, `zh-CN`, or `pt-BR`.

##### `isFallback`

**type:** `boolean`\
**default:** `false`

Indicate if this page is using [fallback content](/guides/guides-i18n#fallback-content) because there is no translation for the current language.

#### `<AnchorHeading>` component

The `<AnchorHeading />` component renders an HTML heading element with a clickable anchor link that matches Starlight’s Markdown styles.

```astro
---
import AnchorHeading from '@astrojs/starlight/components/AnchorHeading.astro';
---

<AnchorHeading level="2" id="sub-heading">Sub heading</AnchorHeading>
```

It accepts the following props as well as any other valid [global HTML attributes](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Global_attributes).

##### `level`

**required**\
**type:** `1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6`

The heading level to render.
For example, `level="1"` would render an `<h1>` element.

##### `id`

**required**\
**type:** `string`

The unique ID for this heading.
This will be used as the `id` attribute of the rendered heading and the anchor icon will link to it.

## Related pages

- [Starlight](../index.md)
- [Using Components](./components-using-components.md)
- [Not found](./more-404.md)
- [Configuration Reference](./reference-configuration.md)
- [Plugins and Integrations](./resources-plugins.md)
- [Start Here](./start-here-index.md)
- [Getting Started](./start-here-getting-started.md)
- [Cards](./components-cards.md)
- [Guides](./guides-index.md)
- [Authoring Content in Markdown](./guides-authoring-content.md)

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