Shortcodes

What a shortcode is

Hugo loves Markdown because of its simple content format, but there are times when Markdown falls short. Often, content authors are forced to add raw HTML (e.g., video <iframe>’s) to Markdown content. We think this contradicts the beautiful simplicity of Markdown’s syntax.

Hugo created shortcodes to circumvent these limitations.

A shortcode is a simple snippet inside a content file that Hugo will render using a predefined template. Note that shortcodes will not work in template files. If you need the type of drop-in functionality that shortcodes provide but in a template, you most likely want a partial template instead.

In addition to cleaner Markdown, shortcodes can be updated any time to reflect new classes, techniques, or standards. At the point of site generation, Hugo shortcodes will easily merge in your changes. You avoid a possibly complicated search and replace operation.

Use shortcodes

In your content files, a shortcode can be called by calling {{% shortcodename parameters %}}. Shortcode parameters are space delimited, and parameters with internal spaces can be quoted.

The first word in the shortcode declaration is always the name of the shortcode. Parameters follow the name. Depending upon how the shortcode is defined, the parameters may be named, positional, or both, although you can’t mix parameter types in a single call. The format for named parameters models that of HTML with the format name="value".

Some shortcodes use or require closing shortcodes. Again like HTML, the opening and closing shortcodes match (name only) with the closing declaration, which is prepended with a slash.

Here are two examples of paired shortcodes:

{{% mdshortcode %}}Stuff to `process` in the *center*.{{% /mdshortcode %}}

{{< highlight go >}} A bunch of code here {{< /highlight >}}

The examples above use two different delimiters, the difference being the % character in the first and the <> characters in the second.

Shortcodes with raw string parameters

You can pass multiple lines as parameters to a shortcode by using raw string literals:

{{<  myshortcode `This is some <b>HTML</b>,
and a new line with a "quoted string".` >}}

Shortcodes with Markdown

Shortcodes using the % as the outer-most delimiter will be fully rendered when sent to the content renderer. This means that the rendered output from a shortcode can be part of the page’s table of contents, footnotes, etc.

Shortcodes without Markdown

The < character indicates that the shortcode’s inner content does not need further rendering. Often shortcodes without Markdown include internal HTML:

{{< myshortcode >}}<p>Hello <strong>World!</strong></p>{{< /myshortcode >}}

Nested shortcodes

You can call shortcodes within other shortcodes by creating your own templates that leverage the .Parent variable. .Parent allows you to check the context in which the shortcode is being called. See Shortcode templates.

Embedded shortcodes

Use these embedded shortcodes as needed.

figure

The figure shortcode can use the following named parameters:

src

URL of the image to be displayed.

link

If the image needs to be hyperlinked, URL of the destination.

target

Optional target attribute for the URL if link parameter is set.

rel

Optional rel attribute for the URL if link parameter is set.

alt

Alternate text for the image if the image cannot be displayed.

title

Image title.

caption

Image caption. Markdown within the value of caption will be rendered.

class

class attribute of the HTML figure tag.

height

height attribute of the image.

width

width attribute of the image.

loading

loading attribute of the image.

attr

Image attribution text. Markdown within the value of attr will be rendered.

attrlink

If the attribution text needs to be hyperlinked, URL of the destination.

Example usage:

{{< figure src="elephant.jpg" title="An elephant at sunset" >}}

Rendered:

<figure>
  <img src="elephant.jpg">
  <figcaption><h4>An elephant at sunset</h4></figcaption>
</figure>

gist

To display a GitHub gist with this URL:

https://gist.github.com/user/50a7482715eac222e230d1e64dd9a89b

Include this in your Markdown:

{{< gist user 50a7482715eac222e230d1e64dd9a89b >}}

This will display all files in the gist alphabetically by file name.

To display a specific file within the gist:

{{< gist user 23932424365401ffa5e9d9810102a477 list.html >}}

Rendered:

highlight

To display a highlighted code sample:

{{< highlight go-html-template >}}
{{ range .Pages }}
  <h2><a href="{{ .RelPermalink }}">{{ .LinkTitle }}</a></h2>
{{ end }}
{{< /highlight >}}

Rendered:

{{ range .Pages }}
  <h2><a href="{{ .RelPermalink }}">{{ .LinkTitle }}</a></h2>
{{ end }}

To specify one or more highlighting options, include a quotation-encapsulated, comma-separated list:

{{< highlight go-html-template "lineNos=inline, lineNoStart=42" >}}
{{ range .Pages }}
  <h2><a href="{{ .RelPermalink }}">{{ .LinkTitle }}</a></h2>
{{ end }}
{{< /highlight >}}

Rendered:

42{{ range .Pages }}
43  <h2><a href="{{ .RelPermalink }}">{{ .LinkTitle }}</a></h2>
44{{ end }}

instagram

To display an Instagram post with this URL:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CxOWiQNP2MO/

Include this in your Markdown:

{{< instagram CxOWiQNP2MO >}}

Rendered:

param

The param shortcode renders a parameter from the page’s front matter, falling back to a site parameter of the same name. The shortcode throws an error if the parameter does not exist.

Example usage:

{{< param testparam >}}

Access nested values by chaining the identifiers:

{{< param my.nested.param >}}

ref

The ref shortcode returns the permalink of the given page reference.

Example usage:

[Post 1]({{% ref "/posts/post-1" %}})
[Post 1]({{% ref "/posts/post-1.md" %}})
[Post 1]({{% ref "/posts/post-1#foo" %}})
[Post 1]({{% ref "/posts/post-1.md#foo" %}})

Rendered:

<a href="http://example.org/posts/post-1/">Post 1</a>
<a href="http://example.org/posts/post-1/">Post 1</a>
<a href="http://example.org/posts/post-1/#foo">Post 1</a>
<a href="http://example.org/posts/post-1/#foo">Post 1</a>

relref

The relref shortcode returns the permalink of the given page reference.

Example usage:

[Post 1]({{% relref "/posts/post-1" %}})
[Post 1]({{% relref "/posts/post-1.md" %}})
[Post 1]({{% relref "/posts/post-1#foo" %}})
[Post 1]({{% relref "/posts/post-1.md#foo" %}})

Rendered:

<a href="/posts/post-1/">Post 1</a>
<a href="/posts/post-1/">Post 1</a>
<a href="/posts/post-1/#foo">Post 1</a>
<a href="/posts/post-1/#foo">Post 1</a>

twitter

To display a Twitter post with this URL:

https://twitter.com/SanDiegoZoo/status/1453110110599868418

Include this in your Markdown:

{{< twitter user="SanDiegoZoo" id="1453110110599868418" >}}

Rendered:

Owl bet you'll lose this staring contest 🦉 pic.twitter.com/eJh4f2zncC

— San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (@sandiegozoo) October 26, 2021

vimeo

To display a Vimeo video with this URL:

https://vimeo.com/channels/staffpicks/55073825

Include this in your Markdown:

{{< vimeo 55073825 >}}

Rendered:

youtube

The youtube shortcode embeds a responsive video player for YouTube videos. Only the ID of the video is required, e.g.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7Ft2ymGmfc

Example youtube input

Copy the YouTube video ID that follows v= in the video’s URL and pass it to the youtube shortcode:

{{< youtube w7Ft2ymGmfc >}}

Furthermore, you can automatically start playback of the embedded video by setting the autoplay parameter to true. Remember that you can’t mix named and unnamed parameters, so you’ll need to assign the yet unnamed video ID to the parameter id:

{{< youtube id="w7Ft2ymGmfc" autoplay="true" >}}

For accessibility reasons, it’s best to provide a title for your YouTube video. You can do this using the shortcode by providing a title parameter. If no title is provided, a default of “YouTube Video” will be used.

{{< youtube id="w7Ft2ymGmfc" title="A New Hugo Site in Under Two Minutes" >}}

Example youtube output

Using the preceding youtube example, the following HTML will be added to your rendered website’s markup:

<div style="position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden;">
  <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w7Ft2ymGmfc?autoplay=1" style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; border:0;" allowfullscreen title="YouTube Video"></iframe>
</div>

Example youtube display

Using the preceding youtube example (without autoplay="true"), the following simulates the displayed experience for visitors to your website. Naturally, the final display will be contingent on your style sheets and surrounding markup. The video is also include in the Quick Start of the Hugo documentation.

Privacy configuration

To learn how to configure your Hugo site to meet the new EU privacy regulation, see Hugo and the GDPR.

Create custom shortcodes

To learn more about creating custom shortcodes, see the shortcode template documentation.