Configuration

You can modify site settings in _config.yml or in an alternate config file.

Site

Setting	Description
`title`	The title of your website
`subtitle`	The subtitle of your website
`description`	The description of your website
`keywords`	The keywords of your website. Supports multiple values.
`author`	Your name
`language`	The language of your website. Use a 2-letter ISO-639-1 code or optionally its variant. Default is `en`.
`timezone`	The timezone of your website. Hexo uses the setting on your computer by default. You can find the list of available timezones here. Some examples are `America/New_York`, `Japan`, and `UTC`.

URL

Setting	Description	Default
`url`	The URL of your website, must start with `http://` or `https://`
`root`	The root directory of your website	`url's pathname`
`permalink`	The permalink format of articles	`:year/:month/:day/:title/`
`permalink_defaults`	Default values of each segment in permalink
`pretty_urls`	Rewrite the `permalink` variables to pretty URLs
`pretty_urls.trailing_index`	Trailing `index.html`, set to `false` to remove it	`true`
`pretty_urls.trailing_html`	Trailing `.html`, set to `false` to remove it (does not apply to trailing `index.html`)	`true`

Website in subdirectory
If your website is in a subdirectory (such as http://example.org/blog) set url to http://example.org/blog and set root to /blog/.

Examples:

# e.g. page.permalink is http://example.com/foo/bar/index.html
pretty_urls:
  trailing_index: false
# becomes http://example.com/foo/bar/

Setting	Description	Default
`source_dir`	Source folder. Where your content is stored	`source`
`public_dir`	Public folder. Where the static site will be generated	`public`
`tag_dir`	Tag directory	`tags`
`archive_dir`	Archive directory	`archives`
`category_dir`	Category directory	`categories`
`code_dir`	Include code directory (subdirectory of `source_dir`)	`downloads/code`
`i18n_dir`	i18n directory	`:lang`
`skip_render`	Paths that will be copied to `public` raw, without being rendered. You can use glob expressions for path matching.

Writing

Setting	Description	Default
`new_post_name`	The filename format for new posts	`:title.md`
`default_layout`	Default layout	`post`
`titlecase`	Transform titles into title case?	`false`
`external_link`	Open external links in a new tab?
`external_link.enable`	Open external links in a new tab?	`true`
`external_link.field`	Applies to the whole `site` or `post` only	`site`
`external_link.exclude`	Exclude hostname. Specify subdomain when applicable, including `www`	`[]`
`filename_case`	Transform filenames to `1` lower case; `2` upper case	`0`
`render_drafts`	Display drafts?	`false`
`post_asset_folder`	Enable the Asset Folder?	`false`
`relative_link`	Make links relative to the root folder?	`false`
`future`	Display future posts?	`true`
`syntax_highlighter`	Code block syntax highlight settings, see Syntax Highlight section for usage guide	`highlight.js`
`highlight`	Code block syntax highlight settings, see Highlight.js section for usage guide
`prismjs`	Code block syntax highlight settings, see PrismJS section for usage guide

Home page setting

Setting	Description	Default
`index_generator`	Generate an archive of posts, powered by hexo-generator-index
`index_generator.path`	Root path for your blog’s index page	`''`
`index_generator.per_page`	Posts displayed per page.	`10`
`index_generator.order_by`	Posts order. Order by descending date (new to old) by default.	`-date`
`index_generator.pagination_dir`	URL format, see Pagination setting below	`page`

Category & Tag

Setting	Description	Default
`default_category`	Default category	`uncategorized`
`category_map`	Override category slugs
`tag_map`	Override tag slugs

Examples:

category_map:
  "yesterday's thoughts": yesterdays-thoughts
  "C++": c-plus-plus

Date / Time format

Hexo uses Moment.js to process dates.

Setting	Description	Default
`date_format`	Date format	`YYYY-MM-DD`
`time_format`	Time format	`HH:mm:ss`
`updated_option`	The `updated` value to used when not provided in the front-matter	`mtime`

updated_option
updated_option controls the updated value when not provided in the front-matter:

mtime: Use file modification date as updated. It has been the default behaviour of Hexo since 3.0.0

date: Use date as updated. Typically used with Git workflow when file modification date could be different.

empty: Simply drop updated when not provided. May not be compatible with most themes and plugins.

use_date_for_updated is removed in v7.0.0+. Please use updated_option: 'date' instead.

Setting	Description	Default
`per_page`	Number of posts displayed on each page. `0` disables pagination	`10`
`pagination_dir`	URL format	`page`

Examples:

pagination_dir: 'page'
# http://example.com/page/2

pagination_dir: 'awesome-page'
# http://example.com/awesome-page/2

Extensions

Setting	Description
`theme`	Theme name. `false` disables theming
`theme_config`	Theme configuration. Include any custom theme settings under this key to override theme defaults.
`deploy`	Deployment settings
`meta_generator`	Meta generator tag. `false` disables injection of the tag.

Include/Exclude Files or Folders

Use the following options to explicitly process or ignore certain files/folders. Support glob expressions for path matching.

include and exclude options only apply to the source/ folder, whereas ignore option applies to all folders.

Setting	Description
`include`	Include hidden files (including files/folders with a name that starts with an underscore, with an exception*)
`exclude`	Exclude files/folders
`ignore`	Ignore files/folders

Examples:

# Include/Exclude Files/Folders
include:
  - ".nojekyll"
  # Include 'source/css/_typing.css'.
  - "css/_typing.css"
  # Include any file in 'source/_css/'.
  - "_css/*"
  # Include any file and subfolder in 'source/_css/'.
  - "_css/**/*"

exclude:
  # Exclude 'source/js/test.js'.
  - "js/test.js"
  # Exclude any file in 'source/js/'.
  - "js/*"
  # Exclude any file and subfolder in 'source/js/'.
  - "js/**/*"
  # Exclude any file with filename that starts with 'test' in 'source/js/'.
  - "js/test*"
  # Exclude any file with filename that starts with 'test' in 'source/js/' and its subfolders.
  - "js/**/test*"
  # Do not use this to exclude posts in the 'source/_posts/'.
  # Use skip_render for that. Or prepend an underscore to the filename.
  # - "_posts/hello-world.md" # Does not work.

ignore:
  # Ignore any folder named 'foo'.
  - "**/foo"
  # Ignore 'foo' folder in 'themes/' only.
  - "**/themes/*/foo"
  # Same as above, but applies to every subfolders of 'themes/'.
  - "**/themes/**/foo"

Each value in the list must be enclosed with single/double quotes.

include: and exclude: do not apply to the themes/ folder. Either use ignore: or alternatively, prepend an underscore to the file/folder name to exclude.

* Notable exception is the source/_posts folder, but any file or folder with a name that starts with an underscore under that folder would still be ignored. Using include: rule in that folder is not recommended.

Using an Alternate Config

A custom config file path can be specified by adding the --config flag to your hexo commands with a path to an alternate YAML or JSON config file, or a comma-separated list (no spaces) of multiple YAML or JSON files.

# use 'custom.yml' in place of '_config.yml'
$ hexo server --config custom.yml

# use 'custom.yml' & 'custom2.json', prioritizing 'custom2.json'
$ hexo server --config custom.yml,custom2.json

Using multiple files combines all the config files and saves the merged settings to _multiconfig.yml. The later values take precedence. It works with any number of JSON and YAML files with arbitrarily deep objects. Note that no spaces are allowed in the list.

For instance, in the above example if foo: bar is in custom.yml, but "foo": "dinosaur" is in custom2.json, _multiconfig.yml will contain foo: dinosaur.

Alternate Theme Config

Hexo themes are independent projects, with separate _config.yml files.

Instead of forking a theme, and maintaining a custom version with your settings, you can configure it from somewhere else:

from theme_config in site’s primary configuration file

Supported since Hexo 2.8.2

# _config.yml
theme: "my-theme"
theme_config:
  bio: "My awesome bio"
  foo:
    bar: "a"

# themes/my-theme/_config.yml
bio: "Some generic bio"
logo: "a-cool-image.png"
  foo:
    baz: 'b'

Resulting in theme configuration:

{
  "bio": "My awesome bio",
  "logo": "a-cool-image.png",
  "foo": {
    "bar": "a",
    "baz": "b"
  }
}

from a dedicated _config.[theme].yml file

Supported since Hexo 5.0.0

The file should be placed in your site folder, both yml and json are supported. theme inside _config.yml must be configured for Hexo to read _config.[theme].yml

# _config.yml
theme: "my-theme"

# _config.my-theme.yml
bio: "My awesome bio"
foo:
  bar: "a"

# themes/my-theme/_config.yml
bio: "Some generic bio"
logo: "a-cool-image.png"
  foo:
    baz: 'b'

Resulting in theme configuration:

{
  "bio": "My awesome bio",
  "logo": "a-cool-image.png",
  "foo": {
    "bar": "a",
    "baz": "b"
  }
}

We strongly recommend that you store your theme configuration in one place. But in case you have to store your theme configuration separately, you need to know the priority of those configurations: The theme_config inside site’s primary configuration file has the highest priority during merging, then the dedicated theme configuration file.
The _config.yml file under the theme directory has the lowest priority.

Site

URL

Directory

Writing

Home page setting

Category & Tag

Date / Time format

Pagination

Extensions

Include/Exclude Files or Folders

Using an Alternate Config

Alternate Theme Config